The Resurrected (1992)

[Mr_Vindictive]

This one should actually be in the good movies section, surprisingly.  I finally picked it up after having it recommended to me by Andrew a while back.

The Resurrected is Dan O'Bannon's (Return Of The Living Dead, Dead And Buried) modern version of H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Strange Case Of Charles Dexter Ward'.  It is set in modern times and follows a private detective who is caught in a strange story about immortality and the risen dead.

The story starts with Claire Ward hiring a PI named John March to find out what her husband, Charles Dexter Ward (Chris Sarandon) is doing with his time.  He has recently left his wife and moved out to a recently inherited home in the middle of nowhere with a very strange man named Dr. Ash.  March tracks down Ward and is intrigued by the strange and awful smells coming from the house and Ward's extremely strange behavior.  As he delves deeper into what Ward is doing, he finds things so extraordinary and strange that they could only come from Lovecraft. 

I didn't have much hope for the film to begin with.  It starts out slow and the low budget is evident in most of the scenes.  The acting is also so-so, especially by Sarandon.  But, the film seemed to grow on me as the story unfolded.  By the end, I was loving every second of it. 

What struck me as being the best about the film was the fact that it actually feels like a Lovecraft story.  Sure, Stuart Gordon has tried to make modern Lovecraft films but most of them (Dagon excluded) only have a few of the original elements from the stories.  This one kept quite a bit of the original story and expertly made it modern.

There is a portion of the film with the main characters in an underground series of tunnels where they find horrible abominations, and every part of it was spot on.  One scene has the characters in pitch darkness with nothing to go by but a match while deformed creatures are all around them.  It was absolutely breathtaking and frightening.

Overall, this is one to see.  The DVD sadly is full screen and doesn't have any special features but I guess that beggars can't be choosers.  I highly recommend it!



Kind of on a side note, but what the hell ever happened to O'Bannon?  ROTLD, The Resurrected, Dead and Buried, Alien, Screamers, etc.....and then nothing.  I wonder what the guy is up to now.

[Shadow]

That sounds intriguing. I love Lovecraft (say that 5 times fast). It has been added to the Netflix queue (and bumped to the top). Thanks for the recommendation.

[Andrew]

I am glad to hear that you liked it.  Planning on posting a review for this one in June (it is already written) and, funny enough, you and I both noticed some of the same things.  It does a darn fine job of being a Lovecraft-inspired movie and the scenes in the catacombs under the house are very chilling.  You can feel the closeness of the dark and understand the characters' fear of what they discovered.

Definitely one of the best Lovecraft-inspired movies ever made.

[JPickettIII]

I got this movie on VHS a long time ago and still have it.  I love watching it.  I have not read the story that inspired the movie, but I am sure it is good.  I have seen this movie over a hundred times and will continue to watch it.  Now that I know there is a DVD of it, I will have to pick it up.

I loved how the movie draws you in and the creature affects are not to bad, but I have some issues with the movie though.  They are simple and few.  The first is when Detective March, his sidekick and Claire go into the tunnel through the door in the basement floor, they hear a door slam shut upstairs, they look up and then proceed to the tunnel.  I don't know about you, but I would have investigated that first, to make sure it was no Ash or the henchman he hired, let a lone a monster.

Another issue is that they did not explore the catacombs enough.  There were plenty of doors to try.  They might have been lock, by try shooting the lock and open the door.  The could have been so much more for the story I think.

My last issue was the monsters.  I know that it was a low budget film, but I think that they could have done a little more with the monsters in the pit.  The big monster following the trio was cool, but it could have been made a little more life like.  I liked the design of the monster though.  It looked like something that could go wrong when you mess with Mr. Death.

I really enjoy the movie even with those little nip picks, I especially loved the big room where the experiments were done.  I thought the set people did an oustanding job!!!!

I would recommend it to anyone to watch once if not more.

John

[BoyScoutKevin]

O'Bannon has gone from in front of the camera, as an actor, to behind the camera, as a writer, but he was always more of a writer anyway. His latest writing project is AVP2, which makes sense, as he helped to pen AVP. But, if you want to see what he looks like, he can be seen in "Intervention: the Comedy."

[Mofo Rising]

I think I may have had the opposite problem.  After seeing the rave reviews I went in probably expecting more than the movie had to give.  In the end, the inconstancy of the movie did me in.

The story was updated well, and I enjoyed the creature effects.  The acting was quite wooden, however, and the direction could probably have used more pizzas (not a typo).

I think in ROTLD, O'Bannon made all the weaknesses of this movie work for him.  Here there's a more somber tone, which doesn't jibe well.

Not to say I didn't enjoy it, I was just expecting more.  Released in 1992, this is probably one of the best examples of low budget 80's horror.

3 out of 5

Edit: Good to see Jane Sibbett getting work, eh?  When will those big shots down at Fox get off their lazy behinds and release Herman's Head on DVD?

[Shadow]

Tonight I finally got the chance to watch this one even though the disc arrived this past Wednesday. I really enjoyed it. One of the best Lovecraft-inspired films ever.