The Resurrected - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Resurrected

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie

The Resurrected is one of the strange few DTV films that really rises above the stereotypes of the films that came after it. Right around the late 1980s and early 90s we had a blossoming market for films that DIDN’T make the theatrical rounds, and studios were getting used to producing a film meant straight for the VHS rental market. A few experiments came out in the 1980s, but The Resurrected is ONE of the first few to really get some good success with the efforts. Well, I can’t say it was COMPLETELY a DTV film, as it did make the rounds in a few of the film festivals and circuit theaters, but it was a 90% effort being that only a few one night showings of the movie ever made it out to the public before hitting VHS and cable. What made it unique was that it was based off of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s short stories, giving it a distinctly spooky and disturbing vibe for a genre that was just coming off of the big slasher trend. It was gory, gruesome, visually disturbing and a great bit of hammy fun back when I was a terrified 11 year old, and it still maintains a goodly portion of that disturbing feeling to this day.

Death has always been the bane of man’s existence. No matter how good you are, successful you are, or much fun you’re having, death comes to us all. Mankind has dabbled and toiled to try and cheat death as much as possible, but it must come sooner or later. Well, supposedly not ALL of us are destined to be mortals, as the horror world loves to fantasize about what would happen to someone who cheated death. Everything from vampires, immortal gods, and mad scientists tantalize the imagination, but none were so prolific as H.P. Lovecraft. He had a knack for making disturbing material that made you sick to your stomach, and he had a fascination with the process of death and cheating the mortal coil in his personal life as well as his stories (some theorize he had a few mental issues).

The Resurrected teases us with exactly that scenario. Charles Dexter Ward (Chris Sarandon), a wealthy scientist, may have found just a way to do that. His wife Claire (Jane Sibbett, most famous for being Ross’s lesbian ex-wife in Friends) is worried about the constant mysterious experiments that he keeps from her, and finally hires private detective John March (John Terry) to find out what her husband is up to. However, John may find out a little more than he expected, and by the time that he is able to come to the truth, it may be too late, as the dead have incredible powers, but also an incredible curse that will stop at nothing to feed and satiate it’s unmitigated hunger.

Director Dan O’Bannon employs the old “open the film with the ending and then backtrack” method of storytelling. Showing us that a horrible murder has taken place in an asylum, only to backtrack to a few weeks earlier when Claire is first coming to John with her suspicions of her husband. The film itself isn’t overly complex, as it was taken from a short story, but it is very creepy and uses a very distinctive Lovecraftian aura around the undertakings. Much of the actual horror is left for the last act of the movie, where it turns into a Fangoria fantasy world, and the flesh and blood start flowing like milk and honey.

Acting wise, this is a horror film, and one using only a single well known actor at the time. Chris Sarandon was famous enough at the time and the big draw of the film, and he hams it up as the stoic and aristocratic scientist easily enough. Jane was pretty much a nobody at that time (friends wouldn’t start till 3 years later), and John Terry was just starting off his career. With that being said, everyone does a great job, and if you didn’t know better, one might assume it was actually a theatrical level film.




Rating:

Rated R for violence and language




Video:

The Resurrected is brought to us via Scream Factory on a single disc with a solid looking 1.85:1 AVC encoded transfer. The notes state that the movie was given a 2K master for this edition, and if my slightly flaky memory serves me correct, is a big step up from the crummy looking DVD. The image is about as clean and clear as it’s going to get for a 1991 DTV horror film that was shot using the cheapest film stock available at the time. Some shots look a bit out of focus, and there are some minor bits of print damage, but the overall clarity is actually pretty good. There’s no signs of aliasing or other compression issues from the previous master, and the colors are pretty warm and robust. Something which I don’t remember from my DVD days. It’s not perfect, but I seriously doubt the old horror flick is going to look any better than it does now.





Audio:

The audio track is a solid 2.0 DTS-HD MA track, and it does a good job at portraying the simple sound design of the film. Being an early era DTV flick, it uses the original 2.0 stereo mix instead of a 5.1 version, and I always feel a good horror movie is enhances by the extra channels. Naturally I’m not calling for the track to be anything it wasn’t originally designed to be, but the audio mix for The Resurrected is a bit thin, and there’s very little baked in LFE to liven up the experience. Vocals are clean and precise, but and the ambient effects, such as the crashing of thunder and roaring of monsters in the catacombs, are more than satisfactory with the low budget design off the mix.




Extras:

• NEW 2K REMASTER from the film's vaulted interpositive film element
• NEW Claire's Conundrum – an interview with actress Jane Sibbett
• NEW The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward – an interview with S.T. Joshi, author of I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft
• Audio Commentary with producers Mark Borde and Kenneth Raich, screenwriter Brent V. Friedman, actor Richard Romanus and make-up effects artist Todd Masters
• The Resurrected Man – an interview with Chris Sarandon
• Abominations & Adaptations – an interview with screenwriter Brent Friedman
• Grotesque Melodies - an interview with composer Richard Band
• Lovecraftian Landscapes – an interview with production designer Brent Thomas
• Human Experiments – an interview with special effects artist Todd Masters
• Deleted and Extended Scenes from the workprint
• Home Video Trailer & Japanese Trailer
• Photo Gallery

Final Score: ​

The Resurrected may not be billed as a collector’s edition, but it comes with all the trappings of one (well, except for the famed collector’s edition slipcovers that Scream/Shout Factory is famous for). There’s a brand new master from the Interpositive, a TON of great special features, and the benefit of being a horror flick. The movie isn’t the single greatest horror gem out there, but it most certainly is a fun film, and one of the better DTV movies in the genre. The old film has been dusted off and spruced up nicely, and I had a blast revisiting it. Definitely worth checking out.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: John Terry, Jane Sibbett, Chris Sarandon
Directed by: Dan O'Bannon
Written by: Brent V. Friedman (Screenplay), H.P. Lovecraft (Story)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 108 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 12th, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Asere]

You know I think I missed watching this one.

 

[Michael Scott]

You know I think I missed watching this one.

Wait? There's an 80s and 90s horror movie that I've seen that you haven't? This is new

 

[Asere]

Wait? There's an 80s and 90s horror movie that I've seen that you haven't? This is new

I know right. What are the chances of that happening?
I might just have to buy it now. $19.99 isn't too bad.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.