Amid
all the B-grade Re-Animator-cash-in
Lovecraft movies that were flooding the straight-to-video horror
market at the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, Dan O'Bannon's
The Resurrected
was a breath of fresh air. It is a totally serious adaptation of the
novella “The
Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” and it is faithful not just in story,
but in tone and technique: it really does capture that sense of the
Lovecraftian. The key to the film's success is that O'Bannon does not
approach the material like a typical horror movie at all: The
Resurrected
is a mystery with supernatural and occult undertones, which only
gradually becomes a horror film towards the last act. Until that
point, it really is exactly what the title of the novella implies:
the case of Charles Dexter Ward, a detective's investigation into the
strange behavior and possible occult activities of the titular
scientist (played by Chris Sarandon, of Fright
Night
and The Princess
Bride).
This approach puts the viewer in the same situation as the detective:
we start out in the normal, everyday world, and only gradually become
aware of sinister, unexplainable cosmic forces creeping in all around
us, until we suddenly are in a nightmare altogether outside the
rational world we started in. That
is the Lovecraftian: that journey into madness that makes his stories
so haunting, and that you simply cannot get if a film is already in
blood-soaked horror territory from the opening frame. Lovecraft is
all about suggesting rather than showing; about the build-up of
tension rather than a series of shocks, and O'Bannon's slow-burn
style is a perfect match to that.
With
a compelling central performance by Sarandon and some seriously
impressive art design, O'Bannon is able to largely deliver on the
Lovecraftian in a way that most adaptations not only couldn't, but
barely tried to; most Lovecraft movies of this era were too busy
trying to top Re-Animator
in
terms of splatter effects to really think about how the author's
stories should look on-screen. That The
Resurrected
really captures the look and atmosphere of the horror pioneer's work
is an accomplishment which is worth the price of admission in itself.
It isn't without its flaws, though. O'Bannon clearly had a pretty low
budget to work with, and there are times when his ambition and desire
to do Lovecraft right clearly strain against his funding limitations.
Nowhere is this more apparent than with the movie's cast. Chris
Sarandon is very good as Charles Dexter Ward: he brings an
appropriate, vaguely sinister air of mystery to a character we aren't
supposed to know quite what to make of. The mysterious nature of the
character gives him a bit more to dig into than his more famous roles
as the obviously-evil vampire Jerry Dandridge, or the buffoonish
Prince Humperdink. Aside from him, though, the major cast is pretty
uneven. John Terry is decent, if a bit wooden, as the story's
detective narrator, and Fast
Times at Ridgemont High's
Robert Romanus is good as his comic-relief-providing sidekick, but
Jane Sibbett is very wooden indeed as Ward's wife. A cast as uneven
as this may not be as good as what Lovecraf't story deserves, it's
the cast that the budget could afford. The studio was on the verge of
bankruptcy while The
Resurrected
was production, which not only caused these unfortunate budgetary
constraints, but burdened it with other problems as well. First, in a
misguided attempt to make it a more marketable horror film, the
studio took final edit rights away from O'Bannon, and re-cut it
without him, resulting in some odd and clunky bits of editing.
Secondly, the studio's money dried up before the film's intended
theatrical release, and it wound up going straight-to-video instead,
where it got lost among a sea of crappy horror flicks and never found
the widespread recognition that it really deserves.
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| "Don't expect it to tango, it's just a single organ. |
Despite
these problems, O'Bannon's skill as a director shines through, and
The Resurrected manages to be a really good movie even as the odds
seem against it. The wooden acting and awkward editing are most
problematic in the first few minutes, when a strong opening sequence
unfortunately gives way to a somewhat clunky, exposition-laden set-up
to the plot which I'm sure he would have cut differently. But have a
little patience: it only takes a few minutes for O'Bannon to regain
control of the project, and soon his slow-burn mystery-horror
approach begins to cast its spell and draw the viewer in. While the
actors (Chris Sarandon aside) may be uneven, he makes effective use
of them, and the narrative as a whole becomes strong enough that the
less-than-stellar performances of Terry and Sibbett cease to be a
problem. The great atmosphere goes a long way in this department:
O'bannon created and found some very moody, effective settings
(particularly Ward's laboratory, in an ancient system of catacombs)
which feel right out of Lovecraft's writing, and they aid perfectly
in the mounting tension of the plot. And while it is not a
special-effects-driven film, what effects there are look really good.
It isn't a perfect movie, but it does manage to be a very good one,
and it absolutely does justice to Lovecraft's writing and captures
the style of his storytelling in a way that very few Hollywood movies
have ever even tried to do. Any fan of his stories should definitely
check this out, immediately.
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| "Does it look to you like I have a cavity in that back tooth?" |
Scream Factory's disc contains every bit of special features from
that fantastic German box set, and then some. Ported over from the
German set are an excellent, highly entertaining and informative
commentary by two of the film's producers, screenwriter Brent
Friedman, co-star Robert Romanus, and special effects artist Todd
Masters. They all remember a lot of fascinating, specific details
about the film's production, and particularly about working with the
late Dan O'Bannon, who comes across as a brilliant, meticulous,
creative, but incredibly eccentric and weird guy (Friedman tells, for
instance, about how O'Bannon's house had two-foot thick concrete
walls, and when Friedman asked why, O'Bannon merely replied, “so
they can't get in.”). Also ported over are a series of decently
long interviews with Chris Sarandon, Friedman, Masters, production
designer Brent Thomas, and composer Richard Band, all of which
further give a frankly unexpected level of insight into the
production of a film which has hitherto been totally ignored on home
video; to say that it is a welcome change of pace is an
understatement.
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| "Hmmm, is the poison in this cup, or the other cup?" |
The film may have a small handful of issues, and it may be a shame
that the new blu-ray doesn't try to fix these issues with a restored
version of O'Bannon's director's cut, but regardless, The
Resurrected stands as one of the best Lovecraft adaptations out
there. It certainly is the one that tries the hardest to actually do
justice to the source material, and capture the soul of the author's
work. This has long been a film that I have recommended to horror
fans... with the caveat that they probably couldn't follow my
recommendation by actually watching it unless I loaned them my VHS or
they had a region-free blu-ray player and some money to burn. Now
that Scream Factory has at last given the film its first really good
American release, there is no excuse to not add this to your watch
list this Halloween. In a world full of public-domain cash-ins and
Re-Animator wannabes, this is Lovecraft done right.
-Christopher S. Jordan