The Resurrected (1991)

Just perfect...

Excellent adaptation.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I love Lovecraft stories. Living in Massachusetts and spending summers in Northern Vermont put my childhood smack dab in the middle of his world. All the creepy elements of his stories invoke moods that I already felt and saw. Like Hitchcock, Lovecraft makes use of the readers imagination instead of blatant descriptions that may or may not let down the reader. One cannot fault one's own imagination for coming up with gore and deep implications Lovecraft puts forth for consideration. Unfortunately, todays movies feel the need to put everything in your face, too weak for some, too strongly for others. I have been searching for a good film adaptation of a Lovecraft story for quite a while. I found the re-animator series cute, but without any serious bite. Likewise for From Beyond. The black and white (and silent) "Cthulhu" came verbatim from the book, and I couldn't even finish it, having reread the story a week before. The new "Cthulhu" was horrible. "Resurrected" captured the mood in many places and follows the original story somewhat, but fails to make the primary connection between Curwins centuries old bid for resurrection (using his great, great, great grandson Charles Ward as a catalyst) and his continued intention of raising an Old One. Marsh makes note of the urns in the laboratory containing the remains of wizards and practitioners of the black arts, but fails to relate that Curwin was resurrecting them for their knowledge and power. The flashback raiding party, instead of being the culmination of the Curwin attempt to bring forth the Great Old One Yog-Sothoth, merely marks the incident from the book. There is no link between how close Curwin got and the fact that his resurrected body in the guise of Charles Ward is currently attempting the same thing. This is a crucial part of the story and makes this movie version a less than complete letdown.

My neighbor came by a few nights ago to return a few of my movies he had borrowed, along with a few of his own for me to watch. One was a film from the "Masters of Horror" series, which I will not mention. The other was "The Resurrected". At first, I made the mistake of putting it aside because of the cover art which looked like the typical straight-to-video horror crap that floods the video store.I didn't check it out 'till the other night when I was watching the original "Halloween" with my girlfriend. We were having a micro-theater presentation of spooky movies on the video projector and I left it up to her to pick out the next feature. Out of "Hostel", "Tourist Trap", "Night of the Living Dead"(Savini), and "The Grudge", she picked this one. She read the back of the case and said it was based on an H.P. Lovecraft story, which isn't saying much due to the quality of adaptations of his work. Then, she said "directed by Dan O'Bannon". Now, that was a name I hadn't heard in a long time. I mean, he is somewhat of a legend.After just watching "Halloween", it was hard to get into the flow of this movie, but then Chris Sarandon was the evil doctor, and then I realized what I'd missed out on in the nineties. I'm now checking out other flicks from that decade. You should, too.

I'm not entirely sure if H.P. Lovecraft would have liked this decade very much. I once read in a biography article that he was a terribly depressed human being and incredibly difficult (impossible, even) to please, so it's probably a good thing he never got to see any of the cinematic efforts that were based on his twisted work. The 90's film-adaptations that were inspired by Lovecraft vary from abominable ("Chtulu Mansion") over poor ("Lurking Fear") and mediocre ("Necronomicon", "Bleeders") to decent-at-best ("Castle Freak" and "The Resurrected"), but none of them resulted in genuine genre masterpieces like they did in the 80's, with "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond". With "The Resurrected", director Dan O'Bannon delivered a stylishly made and overall very atmospheric chiller, but the wholesome sadly is a little overlong and it sometimes lacks the obligatory panache to become an immortal favorite among horror fanatics. The plot neatly follows the structure of H.P's tale "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", the same story Roger Corman used for "The Haunted Palace", and especially the transfer to the present day setting is adequately handled. The movie opens with a truly promising and sinister sequence inside a mental asylum, where panic and fear broke loose following the supposed escape of a dangerous patient named Charles Dexter Ward. Cut back to a period of time earlier, when a certain Mrs. Ward seeks contact with private detective John Marsh because her husbands behaves suspiciously and distant. The detective slowly discovers that Charles is involved in macabre occult experiments, together with the mysterious Doctor Ash, and that he may even has found a method to cheat death. The horribly shocking discoveries continue when Marsh and Mrs. Ward explore Charles' hideout place and laboratories. Although benefiting from a moody & absorbing atmosphere, the first half of "The Resurrected" is too talkative and yet thrifty when it comes to sharing useful information with the viewers. Slow tension building is good, preferably even, but it honestly takes too long before the first gruesome scene makes you jump up from your seat. The second half is much more eventful but occasionally suffers from unnecessary padding footage, like during the heroes' journey through the dark catacombs. The grand finale makes up for a lot, though, as it's inventive and pretty much impossible to predict even if you have seen the other movie-adaptations of the same Lovecraft story. There's a lot less gore and special effect than you'd expect, but the monstrous creations of FX-artist Todd Masters are engaging and effectively repulsive. Set pieces, lighting, camera-work and editing are all formidable, just the music is a little too obviously stolen from Christopher Young's theme for "Hellraiser". The acting performances are all fairly wooden, with the exception of the always-reliable Chris Sarandon whose portrayal of Charles Dexter Ward is stellar and genuinely menacing. Even though Dan O'Bannon only directed two movies, I'm convinced many horror fans (myself included) would be very interested in him making a comeback.

i didn't really like this movie.i found it boring for two thirds.not a lot happens.and then,once things start happening,the movie gets pretty sickening at times.i don't mean that in the "Saw"series kind of way.this is much different than that.to me,it was just too much.you'll have to watch it to see what i mean.i also thought the movie was kind of confusing at times,but that may be just me.i thought the acting was good,especially by Chris Sarandon as the main character/villain in the movie.i don't think the movie was badly done.the makeup effects,i thought were pretty good,just too disgusting.if you have a lot of patience too get through the slow parts,and you have a really strong stomach,you might like this movie.or maybe you won't find it slow or even very disgusting and you might still like it.i can watch most slasher/horror movies with no problem.but like i said this movie is a whole new category of disgust.by the way,i haven't mentioned anything about the general plot line but you can probably use your imagination,based on the title.although i didn't like this movie on the whole,i will give the filmmakers credit for making a movie that comes very close to exceeding my disgust threshold,something i thought would never happen.as a result,i give "The Resurrected" 5/10