Recap subpages are Spoilers Off per policy. This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned
Directed by
Tobe Hooper and based
In Name Only on a short story by
Ambrose Bierce. In 1981, a peaceful family man in a small Texan town went crazy on the night of his 40th birthday and killed his wife before he was killed himself by an invisible force. Twenty-five years later, his traumatized son Kevin (
Sean Patrick Flanery) is sheriff of the same town and nearing 40 himself when the same unknown force comes back to turn his friends and neighbors against each other.
Tropes:
- The '50s: Kevin's grandfather died and his home town was destroyed in 1959. His parents moved to his current town then.
- The '80s: Kevin's parents died in 1981.
- Alone with the Psycho: Happens to anyone who is less crazy than another while under the influence of the Damned Thing.
- Amicable Exes: Kevin and his ex-wife are in good terms and would probably be still together if he wasn't obsessed with home security.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: The town quickly devolves into this under the influence of the Damned Thing, with people setting fires, killing each other or committing suicide.
- Ate His Gun: Involuntary variant&mdadh;Strauss is forced to eat his gun by Father Tulli.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite Kevin's Heroic Sacrifice, The Damned Thing, rather cheaply, successfully finds and kills his family.
- Bland-Name Product: Strauss is the proud creator of "Nicky the Rat", a singing Mickey Mouse-pastiche.
- Blood from the Mouth: The journalist is bleeding from his mouth (and furious) when he goes to find Kevin at his home.
- Bludgeoned to Death: A DIY version. One of the crazed residents commits suicide by bashing his head with a hammer while doing repairs.
- Blown Across the Room: Kevin's shotgun sends the woman in the basement and the journalist flying backwards after shooting them in the stomach. This doesn't happen when he shoots Tulli however, apparently because he does it from the side.
- Butt-Monkey: Strauss. Nobody takes him or his excitement about Nicky the Rat seriously.
- Body Horror:
- Kevin's father is viciously eviscerated by the Damned Thing, and a teenage girl is cut in half by a car accident.
- Kevin hallucinates (?) his scalp opening up while looking in a reflective surface.
- Christianity is Catholic: Father Tulli is Catholic and seems to be the only priest in town despite it being a white town in Texas.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Everyone starts dropping these when the Damned Thing drives them crazy.
- Confessional: Unable to control the town, Strauss takes refuge in the confessional booth in church where he is murdered by Tulli.
- Cruel Twist Ending: After the Damned Thing kills Kevin, his son and ex-wife flee in a car, but it runs out of gas and the Damned Thing kills them. There is no followup to this as it is the very last scene.
- Died on Their Birthday: The story begins in 1981, where a peaceful family man in a small Texan town goes crazy on the night of his 40th birthday and kills his wife before he is killed, in turn, by an invisible force.
- Driven to Suicide: A number of crazed residents, though mostly offscreen.
- Eldritch Abomination: The titular Damned Thing is intelligent, sometimes invisible and sometimes with the appearance of sentient Ominous Obsidian Ooze, and can materialize anywhere.
- Enraged by Idiocy: Tulli kills Strauss after he tells him that he tried (and failed) to win back his grilfriend with a comic of Nicky the Rat. He literally calls him an idiot afterwards.
- Ghost Town: The fate of Kevin's grandparents town in 1959. It is in the air if this will happen to his own town after the episode (as it didn't happen to it when his parents died in 1981).
- Giftedly Bad: Strauss, which only makes his excitement for Nicky all the more cringy.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Kevin pulls a teenage girl from under a carwreck before realizing that there is nothing left under her waist.
- Hate Plague: The Damned Thing makes people homicidal before physically manifesting and attacking its main target.
- Hereditary Curse: The Damned Thing strikes right before the men of Kevin's family turn 40. It happened to his grandfather, then to his father, then to him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kevin struggles to not harm his family and sends them away before facing the Damned Thing alone and allowing it to kill him.
- A House Divided: Happens to the entire town and Kevin's home in particular after he and a few survivors seek refuge there.
- In Name Only: The only thing in common with the short story is a person seeing another being mauled by an invisible force in the beginning. In the story, this is followed by an investigation that rules the case a cougar attack, and then by extracts of the victim's diary hinting that it is an unknown animal with cammouflage that makes it invisible to human eyes. It's been cited as a possible inspiration for Predator. The episode rather is an unofficial remake of The Crazies (1973).
- My Car Hates Me: Kevin's car runs out of gas just as his family tries to escape his parents' home.
- Not Himself: The Damned Thing's influence makes people (the adults at least) sadistic, foul-mouthed psychos.
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: When the Damned Thing does make itself visible, it is as a sentient, black-only substance. It appears first as a short amount dripping from the roof and falling on the hand of its current target's child. The Thing itself was originally underground and unearthed by Kevin's grandfather while doing prospecting work, and the destruction of his hometown was blamed on fumes from an oil well fire.
- Police Are Useless: There are only two law enforcers in town: Strauss, who is vertically challenged and has a childish obsession with a cartoon character he created, and Kevin, who has PTSD since childhood and walks with a limp. Unsurprisingly they fail to keep the peace as soon as a big enough part of the population becomes crazy, even before the Damned Thing affects them directly.
- Posthumous Narration: Zig-Zagged Trope. Kevin narrates the story using the past tense up to the point where he faces the Damned Thing and is killed, but doesn't narrate afterward. There is very little of the episode after this, however.
- Properly Paranoid: Kevin grew up paranoid after seeing his parents die and is ever-improving his house's security.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A very short one by the crazed Tulli to Strauss. "You tried to win back your girlfriend with a comic about a mouse? I'm not surprised she left you. You're an idiot." The second sentence doubles as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, as he shoots Strauss with his own gun before saying the third.
- Regional Riff: The town is introduced in a montage with country music.
- Setting Update: The original was written in 1893, this happens in the modern day. Though there are very few similarities to be fair.
- The Sheriff: Kevin is the sheriff of the town and the one people turn for help when the town starts to go crazy.
- Sinister Minister: In the beginning, Tulli is a nosy priest who creeps behind Kevin and keeps pressuring him to talk to him, using the fact that he is approaching the age when his grandfather and father died as a pressure tool. Once the Damned Thing returns, he becomes as erratically homicidal as everyone else, and his speech is littered with Creepy Catholicism-sounding language.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Tulli (who else?) blames the Damned Thing on Kevin's grandfather awakening it while doing prospecting work.
- Significant Birth Date: The episode begins with Kevin's father 40th birthday and ends with his own.
- Sudden Lack of Signal: Kevin's radio is dead when he comes across a car accident on the road, so he decides to help the injured driver himself. With disastrous results.
- The Unreveal: It is never revealed why the Damned Thing strikes only when its intended target is about to turn 40.
- Warm Place, Warm Lighting: The town's introductory scene has a yellow tinge, though not following scenes.
- Worst Aid: Kevin provides this twice. The first time, he comes across a girl in an overturned car. His radio is dead, so he pulls her out himself, revealing that she's sectioned at the waist and the car was likely the thing keeping her from bleeding out. The second time, a number of scared citizens seek refuge in his home. He leads them into his basement and locks them unde together, even though they are armed, have almost started a fight under his watch, and he knows the Damned Thing is pushing people to act violently against each other. Unsurprisingly, most of them kill each other not long after. A Sole Survivor begs to be let out, but Kevin has by now succumbed to the Thing himself. He keeps the door locked and shoots her through the door.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: Played for Drama. Kevin's father kept a small box locked that he said "contained his dreams". Kevin keeps the box, but doesn't dare open it until the Damned Thing comes back. He finds the box empty except for some newspaper cuts of the destruction of the other town in 1959, and concludes that his father had no dreams because he knew the Damned Thing would kill him early.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Kevin's parents moved to his hometown after their previous one was destroyed by the Damned Thing. His son and ex-wife try to do it again but they fail.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Kevin panickedly tells his ex-wife to leave town because of the Damned Thing, which she doesn't take well as he has a history of paranoia.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The men of Kevin's family die on the night of their 40th birthday.
