THE RESURRECTED (1991) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

THE RESURRECTED (1991)

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 105 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Dan O'Banon
Cast: Chris Sarandon, Jane Sibbett, John Terry, Laurie Briscoe, Robert Romanus

The late writer/director Dan O'Bannon directed far too few movie for my tastes, the man helped bring Alien (1979) and Lifeforce (1986) to the big screen as a writer, he directed the seminal 80s punk rock zombie flick The Return of the Living Dead (1986), but would only go on to direct one more feature film, the Lovecraft adaptation, The Resurrected (1991). Adding insult the film was taken away by the  producers in the final stages of post-production after disagreements, after which it was dumped straight-to-video without a proper cinema release.

The film opens where it ends, with private eye named John March (John Terry, Zodiac) walking in on gruesome bloodbath scenario at the local asylum, from there he goes back to his dimly lit office and in time horned noir fashion recounts the story of how it came to be he was investigating the curious case of Charles Dexter Ward (Chris Sarandon, Fright Night), beginning when a gorgeous woman named Claire Ward (Jill Sibbett, TV's Herman's Head) walks into his office and ask the P.I. to look into what her reclusive scientist husband has been up, hes been holed up away a crumbling family estate, performing some bizarre and mysterious experiment. .

March tracks Ward down to the remote Gothic mansion out in the country and interviews him under the false pretense of being some sort of government regulator concerned about possible chemical contamination emanating from the home. March cannot help but help but notice the foul stench that permeates the area, while Ward offers little insight the private eye later asks the town folk nearby about the place and learns a bit of the sordid history associated with the Ward family, particularly his 18th century ancestor, a diabolical chemist named Joseph Curwen (Sarandon again in a tasty dual role), who sought to discover the secret to immortality. It seems that ward has found his journals and is continuing his work, experiments that apparently require more raw meat than the average diner uses in a month, it also requires loads of fresh animal blood, sourced from a local slaughterhouse. 

I long ago read Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and this seemed to be to be quite faithful to the source, with the exclusion of updating the era and introducing the noir-ish private eye as the narrator of the story, and it works very nicely, in fact this is one of the truest Lovecraft cinema-adaptations yet, more so than any of Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft tales, which I also love, but if you ask me this Lovecraft entry is right up there with those. 

The gooey and grotesque special effects creations from Todd Masters (Demon Knight) and his team are awesome, they all do not hold up in crisp HD image but if you love rubbery special effects there's a lot to love, some seriously demented stuff winds up onscreen right here, including deformed experiments gone wrong and hideous transformations, making  this an easy go-to for lovers of practical creature design and gooey gore. 

The cast is strong, Sibbett and Terry do good work as the suffering wife and persistent private eye, at times I felt Terry comes across wooden, but then again maybe he's just going for the stone-cold private eye thing. Sarandon does a lot of the heavy lifting here is a tasty dual-role as both the wealthy scientist Ward and his 18th-century ancestor in flashbacks, he plays maniacal and insane very well, with more than a tinge of creepiness, at times he reminded me of Jefferey Combs as Dr. Herbert West, which was fun. Also be on the lookout for Robert Romanus from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) as one of March's investigators. 

This movie deserved so much better than to be dumped straight-to-video, it's a Lovecraft adaptation shrouded in mystery, grue and intrigue, the Gothic subterranean set pieces look great and the special effects are worth the price of admission all by themselves. The only dig I have is that it can be a bit long in the tooth at moments, it goes off the boil to a simmer for a few too many minutes, but it didn't drag the film down much, it just lagged from time to time.  

Audio/Video: The Resurrected (1990) (aka Shatterbrain) has not been an easy to find move through the years, released on an open matte full frame DVD that has been long out of print, the film was released a few years back on a German import media book Blu-ray release and streamed on Netflix for a brief time before evaporating from the streaming service. Now we have a proper Region A release from distributor Scream Factory, sourced from a brand new 2K scan from the film’s vaulted interpositive film elements, framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and it looks solid, a bit on the grainy side, but that was not unexpected considering this is a low budget early 90's productions. Colors are impressive, shadow detail is adequate, ski tones looked good, and there some nice fine detail to the image, which is nice, love those practical special effects from Todd Masters, some super icky stuff happening here. 

Audio on the disc by way of an English DTS-HD 2.0 - not 5.1 as advertised on the sleeve - it's a clean crisp presentation, dialogue is crisp and clean, the music score from Richard Band (Re-Animator) comes through strong, with a nice eerie title sequence score and some atmospheric music throughout that amps up the tension. Optional English subtitles re included.

While not branded as one of Scream Factory's Collector's Edition this single-disc Blu-ray is absolutely stuffed to the gills with special features, porting over nearly all the Red Shirt Pictures produced extras from the German import Blu-ray, minus two German language commentaries and a German audio reading of the Lovecraft short 'The case of Charles Dexter Ward', and a whopper of an 84-page booklet. Scream Factory and Red Shirt also offer up two brand new extras, interviews with actress Jane Sibbett and S.T. Joshi, author of I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft. This all adds up to over two hours worth of extras for this one, it might not be a CE but it should have been, if they'd thrown a slipcover on this one and labeled it a CE no one would have complained. 

The release comes in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the a-side is a new illustration from artist Justin Osbourn,  which to be I didn't much care for,  looking like a riff on another Lovecraft adaptation, Stuart Gordon's From Beyond. However, the reverse artwork is fucking fantastic, also by Osbourn, which was featured on the German Blu-ray, glad they were able to offer it here as an alternate artwork! The one-thing I wish we could have gotten for this release was a workprint version as assembled by Dan O'Bannon, it exists, probably only on VHS, but I would have enjoyed seeing what his original vision was. 

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K transfer from the film’s vaulted interpositive film element
- NEW Claire’s Conundrum – an interview with actress Jane Sibbett (15 min) HD 
- 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 (24 min) HD 
- 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 (16 min) HD 
- Abominations and Adaptations – an interview with screenwriter Brent Friedman (18 min) HD 
- Grotesque Melodies - an interview with composer Richard Band (10 min) HD 
- Lovecraftian Landscapes – an interview with production designer Brent Thomas (8 min) HD 
- Human Experiments – an interview with special effects artist Todd Masters (16 min) HD 
- Deleted and Extended Scenes from the Workprint (18 min) HD 
- Home Video Trailer (2 min) HD 
- Japanese Trailer (2 min) HD 
- Photo Gallery (8 min) HD

That The Resurrected (1991)is now available on a proper looking and reasonably priced HD format for fans in the U.S. is a reason for rejoicing! If you're a Lovecraft fan you need it, this is one of those under seen horror gems just waiting to be discovered, or re-discovered as the case may be, highly recommended, great to see the other Dan O'Bannon film get some love from Scream Factory!