There's a lot in Haeckel's Tale that makes it s strong contender for one of the better films in the Masters Of Horror lot. First off, its a period piece which in this genre is rare these days. Scodnly, there's some great acting. Thirdly, the atmosphere is to die for. Director John McNaughton has filmed a near perfect episode in that regard. Fourthly, its adapted by series creator Mick Garris from a Clive Barker story so there is pedigree here. And finally, there are zombies that look like they just shambled out of Lucio Fulci's early eighties gore classics. Nice! What really pulls the episode back down to the bottom of the pile after all these wonderful points is the fact that its about a woman who has sex with her deceased husband. Add on that the titular hero has a jones on for her as does her current husband and seemingly every other zombie in the graveyard and you get one heck of a rotting orgy of the the dead. Its just that after that titillation, there's no other legs for the story to stand on so it falls flat on its face. this would have played far better as a full feature with the masters segment that is presented being only a small scene in the film (say 10-20 minutes of the runtime) Then it might have had impact and many of the threads that are left dangling would have been tied up. A failure. Still better than Fair Haired Child, though.
Review of Haeckel's Tale
