3 out of 5

Director: Tobe Hooper

“The Damned Thing” is a relatively solid entry in the MOH series (though the series has only a couple of great episodes and many disappointing ones) with a lot of “star” power – Tobe Hooper directing, Richard Matheson script based on an Ambrose Bierce story – but it amounts to something very 3-starrish, both hampered and helped by the hour long show format. First, let’s toss off the Bierce reference. This is very… VERY loosely based on the story. Now Matheson has turned in great work for many great TV shows, but as we know, a script can be made or broken by the team helming it to the screen. So… Hooper. Besides “Toolbox Murders,” Hooper’s last twenty years of film history has been spotty, with great moments in movies that eventually fall apart. (Although if he hadn’t set the bar so high at the get-go…) Now I haven’t seen his other MOH episode, but the show format seems to be a good thing at first, as it keeps him sort of focused. Besides a questionable bridging voice-over narrative, things are shot semi-patiently and sensibly, with the characters limited to a recognizable few (Brendan Fletcher is becoming a new favorite) and the small town given character. It also builds effectively, with some fun gore and a nice sense of evil toward the end. But that’s where the show limitation becomes “the damned thing” because it has to wrap up a pretty interesting story quickly, with things escalating from creepy to insane too soon, and then there’s a CGI monster. So: good atmosphere, good characters, just not a suspenseful enough execution and a rushed climax. (A bonus point: though it was a cheap way to end it, the last cut is pretty sweet.)