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.
Review of The Resurrected
