Review

A teenage couple head out to lover’s lane for some necking action. Lori is the local Reverend’s daughter, and isn’t about to allow this tryst to go all heavy-petting on us. Her boyfriend has other ideas, but isn’t getting any… which is just as well, as we the long suffering audience have been deprived of T&A thus far as well.

Anyways, Lori hears a sound outside the car, in the dark, and in the isolation of a bridge overpass in Iowa. Her boyfriend does the manly thing and heads outside to investigate. Chalk up one dude left hanging upside down over the car in a fairly mutilated fashion. Our unseen assailant also adds Lori’s sorority room mate to the tally before the Winchester bros hit town with some spirit arse-kicking agenda on their mind. Quite a lot of tension and chill scenes ensue. Will this one hook you …?

Episode 7 dials into the mother of all urban myths, the “Hook Man”. Generally, this is said to be an escaped lunatic from a local asylum, who tries for a teenage couple; they escape, and get an unwanted reminder of why not to park in out-of-the-way spots in the US heartland. Director Jackson and writer Shiban are trying for something more with this episode, hence the demise of Lori’s boyfriend. It all hangs together as the plot unfolds, and the Winchester team delve into the mystery.

Actually, Jackson and Shiban reference another myth with the episode’s best shock scene as Lori wakes to find they have had a night visitor to the dorm, and reads “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?” written in blood over her roommate’s remains. Might just be me, but is Jackson lifting the ante on the gore component this episode?

Writer Shiban combines his two urban myths, adds some background details for the audience to discover along with Sam and Dean, and pretty much wraps it tightly in the Supernatural mythology thus far created. If I haven’t mentioned it before, the Bros carry shotguns loaded with rock salt, which won’t actually destroy a spirit but which will certainly slow that mofo down a tad.

A classic revenant tale with a twist nailed, sealed, and delivered

Director Jackson is pretty much on-song with his atmospherics. All about those night-time shots, with just the right lighting so that we can see what’s going down, and a touch of fog to add to the general creepy feeling he has going on. Paul W Anderson, please take note: this is how you construct a dark scene – you actually allow the viewers to see what’s happening during the action yo.

Jane McGregor and Dan Butler pulled off the daughter/father double act to perfection. Dad wants to defend his daughter from the dangers of the world, while Lori is finding her own feet as a woman and as an individual. There’s some tense stuff coming our way with the resulting showdowns, and they ring true.

We are simply inundated with music for this episode. “Merry Go Round” by Split Habbit, “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” by Quiet Riot, “Noise” by Low Five, “At Rest” by APM, and much more. Turn the speakers up would be my suggestion, and if wanting to, don that leather jacket.

Supernatural must be running out of urban myths to cover by now. Guess we can expect more Native American mayhem in future episodes. This episode plays like a mini movie of the teen-lite variety, and has a sinister cloaked dude going “Fisherman” on us. If wondering, the villain put me in mind of the dude from I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Small review for a decent episode, but am trying to avoid spoilers over here.

Hookman thoroughly entertained me for its entire sub-hour running time. The production standards are being kept up, the mystery is intriguing, and we are not sold short by the resolution. This time around Sam is shown as more of a heroic action dude, and not simply as the geek to Dean’s mayhem inducing take downs. Nice touch, and good expansion on the complicated interactions between the brothers.

Supernatural seems to be clocking up a fair few revenant-induced episodes, and I really hope the series doesn’t cop out with this particular plot device. There’s plenty of other horror cards in the pantheon, so let’s hope a few more of them come into play. To a certain extent the series isn’t showing us anything we haven’t seen before, but it’s how the elements are mixed up that make it effective.

Recommended episode which shows some of the bigger name movie directors how to get the atmospherics, storyline, and action right. A good blend which led to a decent cup of coffee for this viewer. Yeah, I was hooked on this one.