Resurrected, The (1992) aka "Shatterbrain"
Summary: H. P. Lovecraft called this story The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and it remains one of the creepiest stories I have ever read. It is not action packed like most of today's films; it is more of a horror that plays in your mind when you relax and try to go to sleep or something.
Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected is only a little less successful than the story. It is probably the best Lovecraft adaptation I have yet seen, with some really disturbing images and ambiance.
The film is about a man who finds the journals of an old ancestor and is drawn into continuing his occult delvings. His wife comes to a private detective (modern trappings of the screenwriters) with the strange tale of her husband's obsessive studies at an old farm near the Pawtuxet river. She wants to know why he has moved out less than a year into their marriage and why he gets huge quantities of meat and blood delivered so often.
The detective and his associate delve into the mystery, and that is when the film becomes very effective and haunting. It seems that Charles Ward found the writings of an ancient and reviled ancestor Joseph Curwen, who was burned at his farm by the townspeople for practising witchcraft. The atmosphere of Lovecraft's story is strong in the recounting of Curwen's tale through the writings of a local witness to the burning. He described strange events near the farm, strange sounds at night. Also, during one year's heavy spring flooding, horrible, malformed but vaguely human things were washed out of the riverbank near the farm.
The detective goes out to see Ward, who has a new companion named Dr. Ash that wears many bandages on his face. Of course, he finds nothing until later. Underneath the house is a chamber of horrors that also captures some of the genuine chills of the story. Down there in the subterranean gloom, our man finds out just what Ward has been up to, and just manages to get away with his life.
I will not say anymore, lest I spoil it for those who have not read the story. The plot has a good twist in it, long before that became the modern marketing strategy of movies like Sixth Sense, What Lies Beneath, etc.
Chris Sarandon plays Ward, and he is the most excellent thing about this film. He gives an appropriately elaborate performance that still manages to look and feel uncontrived. He is a powerful presence in this role.
Typically, Lovecraft's writing style does not translate very well to the screen. He favored atmosphere over action except in his more lowbrow efforts like the Herbert West stories. Unfortunately this film tries to make it more accessible to the viewer by layering a detective story on top of it. An interesting method, but it rings false in this context. So does the understated romantic angle between detective Marsh and Ward's wife. The movie can't seem to decide if there is a romance or not, as if there might have been more that was cut out. It is totally gratuitous anyway, just something to appeal to the masses.
I do recommend this film despite it's shortcomings. The story is strong enough to survive the little faults. Dan O'Bannon could have gone the campy route (a la Brian Yuzna) with it but he did not (yea!). This one has much more intelligence than the average low-budget movie as well as the faintest suggestion of cloning or genetic experimentation. Lovecraft did write about taking the 'essential saltes' of a creature and bringing it back to life. Unfortunately for Charles Dexter Ward, the results were not what he expected.
