October 27, 2006: Tonight's Damned Thing
Robert Englund Gets His Freak On
Tobe Hooper's got some serious shoes to fill with tonight's
Masters of Horror premiere,
The Damned Thing. Season 1's premiere is still very vivid to me, even though it's been a year since I've seen it; that's pretty impressive.
Incident On and Off a Mountain Road literally hit the ground running last season, providing relentless tension, lots of gore, and one of the best twist endings of all season 1 entries. Within one hour, this inaugural episode set the standard: This series is not for lightweights.
Entertainment Weekly's preview of
The Damned Thing graded Mr. Hooper's work with an uncomfortable [red] "D." However, the same review called the
Masters of Horror show open "cliché," which I take issue with [*cough*
Emmy© winner *cough*], so I'm just going to say that "D" is for
Damned Thing.
Tobe Hooper's season 1 episode,
Dance of the Dead, received mixed reviews in the horror community, but it remains one of
my favorites, so I'm hopeful about tonight. As HHH [horror-hound husband] and I talked about
Dance of the Dead last night, I realized why I like it so much. I know this sounds crazy, but
Dance of the Dead reminds me of
Baz Luhrmann's
Romeo + Juliet... with zombies... in a post-apocalyptic setting... and depraved nightclubs... and
Robert Englund [our beloved
"Freddy Krueger"]. Well, okay not really "zombies," LUPs [Living Undead Phenomena], but I'm not going to get technical here.
Much like Luhrmann's
Romeo + Juliet,
Dance of the Dead has that delicious, somewhat doomed love story played by two very attractive leads with screen-leaping chemistry [
Jessica Lowndes as "Peggy" and
Jonathan Tucker as "Jak"]. Add to that, the creative, experimental fast edits, super-imposed shots, vivid colors, and
Billy Corgan's rock-n-roll score, and I think my comparison is rightfully merited.
The most refreshing
Romeo + Juliet /
Dance of the Dead connection for me is the dialogue's rhythm and meter. Much like Shakespearean characters, these people don't talk so much like "real" people, but more like poets that communicate in "that" world's language, not mine. I'm a huge fan of poetry and escapism, so I find myself able to understand the subtext and enjoy the reality disconnect. Now, it isn't full of "thee's," "thou's" and centuries-old linguistics; the writing is simply romantic, yet cynical, and approachable, yet otherworldly.
Peggy: "What are you doing here?"
Jak: "Short circuiting tragedy. The world's got big teeth, eats girls like you for kicks."
Tobe Hooper did not disappoint me last year, so I'm looking forward to
The Damned Thing. My mind is open, and I'm up for whatever he's crafted for tonight's premiere.
