lewis-sands So many movies Such small amounts of pleasure... Or perhaps the pleasure is just too spread out eh? Anywayzz; I really enjoy movies and shows like this one. They don't pretend to be anything more than what they are like a whole lot of flicks these days.(I don't trust trailers anymore, and no, not the kind with wheels). If you want reality i get it i really do, but i don't want reality when i sit down to watch a movie.(just me i guess) I just want to be entertained for a couple of hours, and to sort of remove myself for a bit eh. This flick let me do just that I AM HAPPY TO SAY! I enjoyed the actors and i liked the story which even made me giggle a few times as well!(shhh!) Here here, and jolly good shoooe, and all that! Enjoy your time at the movies!!(I did:-))

BaronBl00d This episode of Masters of Horror has some excellent aspects and some rather dubious ones as well. Now, I am not one of those Hooper haters. I actually think much of his work - mostly early am afraid - is quite good - and some even amazing. He definitely has talent. But this episode's faults are mostly with the script not the direction. Hooper got me interested early and the performances were all very adequate - some a bit over-the-top undoubtedly. The story concerns a man who as a child witnessed some inexplicable force taking over his father and "making" him execute the boy's mother and try to kill the boy. Thirty Years later the force rises again and haunts the boy and the town - as we discover that the force not only had changed the boy's father but also caused the townsfolk to go mad and on a killing spree. Well, things go fairly fluidly until the last fifteen minutes or so where all hell breaks looses both figuratively and literally. I like the way Hooper shot the scenes, but the story dissolves really at the end into one big "What just happened?".Sean Patrick Flannery does a good job in the lead and Sam Raimi's brother Ted gives an overblown yet fun performance as a local priest. Although Hooper shows he still has touches, he needs to find better material to work his craft with.

Scarecrow-88 A young boy watches as his seemingly loving father goes violently berserk shooting his mother point-blank with a shotgun claiming, "The damned thing found me." Running frightened out of his wits, the child climbs up a tree with daddy in hot pursuit blazing his shot-gun in a state of madness. The child watches as some invisible force throws his father up against the truck ripping him apart. Twenty something years down the road, he has grown into a boozing, deeply traumatized man, a sheriff in a nearby town named Cloverdale, hoping that the damned thing will remain in Sturgess, Texas, but deep down(and as the forehead scar certainly reflects)he knows the past will come back to haunt him just like his other two generations of Reddles. Sheriff Kevin Reddle(Sean Patrick Flanery, wearing the traumatized history of his past etched into his troubled, wounded face)has installed video equipment into his home watching for that terror he fears will return, as his estranged wife and young son live in a trailer separate from him. Soon Cloverdale citizens are killing themselves and each other as loud thunder and vicious lightning noises the damned thing's return. We see in one sequence where Kevin's wife Dina(Marisa Coughlan)is taken over by the invisible force almost leading her to the murder of son Mikey(Alex Ferris). It's one example of many where rational, normal people react against type in extreme, unsettling ways displaying cruelty towards those around them. What is the damned thing and can Kevin somehow prevent history from repeating itself? Does this past incident in 1959 where a town slaughtered themselves after the Reddles drilled a certain well dry have something to do with the outbreak of violence taking place in the present? It is mentioned by a newspaper writer that perhaps an evil force was released when the Reddles started drilling for oil, could chaos have actually been unleashed on innocents? In describing the myth from stories in his childhood, Kevin tells us that those who found the townspeople dead in the streets from a past slaughter explained an overwhelming force they felt.Describing the force that is overwhelming people, I guess Dina describes her experience best..that which went through her was like a poison.If you are watching this for an exhilarating experience from the plot, you'll feel rather unsatisfied and perhaps even mystified. But, if you want pure blood and guts, Tobe delivers that in abundance. Expect entering this horror tale, lots of over-the-top violence, there's bloody carnage on display. People being blown away by shotgun blasts, one woman whose upper torso is pulled from a car as shredded flesh and blood splatters where her legs use to be, a man bashes his head with a hammer, Priest Father Tulli(Ted Raimi, how's that for casting against type!)blows a deputy's brains out with his own pistol, etc. Often, Tobe often uses frenetic camera-work, I'm guessing to communicate the panicky situation at hand during the action where characters are running for their lives from threats. The oil monster at the end is something to behold, I'll tell you. The film has narration from Kevin explaining his terrifying past and his fears. We see in one eerie scene where the scar on Kevin's forehead opens to reveal a demented grin..with teeth and tongue emerging!

Paul Andrews Masters of Horror: The Damed Thing starts in the small American town of Cloverdale during 1981 where the evil 'thing' he set free a number of years earlier finds John Reddle (Brent Stait) & makes him kill his wife (Georgia Craig) & try to kill his young son Kevin (Ryan Drescher) before it rips him to pieces... Jump forward 'Twenty-Four Years Later' & Kevin is now the Sheriff of Cloverdale & is still haunted by what he witnessed all those years ago, usually Cloverdale is a quiet place to live but all of a sudden the murder, suicide & general mortality rate has alarmingly gone through the roof as the 'thing' that Kevin's father unleashed has come back to claim him & his family as well as anyone who gets in it's way...This Canadian American co-production was episode 1 from season 2 of the hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, the second episode to be directed by Tobe Hooper after Dance of the Dead from season 1 I liked The Damned Thing & thought it was a hit. The script by Richard Christian Matheson was based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce & while some of it is a bit ambiguous that helps the overall mood & this one certainly delivers in the violence department. Of course it's not perfect, why didn't the damned thing just kill Kevin when it killed his father? Why does the damned thing seem to effect people in different ways & why do some seem immune to it's presence? I also thought there was a bit too much pointless 'personal angst' type stuff in regards to Kevin & what happened to him. These are minor issues though as I found myself enjoying this tale of supernatural forces. I would probably say it's a touch predictable & even at less than 60 minutes in length it seemed like there was some padding here, the character's aren't great but on a pure entertainment level The Damned Thing in my opinion is one of the better Masters of Horror episodes out there.Director Hooper does OK, there's not that many scares here & there's not much tension either but if your looking for gore then this is the one for you as there's plenty of it & it's pretty graphic. There's some bloody shotgun blasting including point blank into someone's stomach, someone is literally ripped open & their guts hang out all over the place, someone has a gun put in their mouth & their brains are blown out, there's a cool bit when Kevin tries to remove a car crash victim & they have been cut in half & someone commits suicide by hitting his own head with a hammer which is accompanied by fountains of spraying blood. There's even a CGI mud monster thing at the end which is wisely used sparingly, I've seen worse CGI computer effects but at the same time I've seen better.Technically this one is well made as usual for Masters of Horror but it's maybe a bit bland & a tad forgettable. The acting is pretty good although the material is a bit silly.The Damned Thing is a good Masters of Horror episode although it's one which seems to divide opinion but I don't care because I liked it & that's all that matters to me, definitely worth a watch for horror fans & a decent way to kick off season 2.