Intriguing yet all-too-familiar and, therefore, middling entry in the “Masters Of Horror” series; interestingly, it had first been offered to George A. Romero (who was unavailable) and Roger Corman (who had to decline because of ill-health) – their original option was a natural, since the episode deals with zombies in a period setting. Still, the final choice of director wasn’t an entirely happy one – even if McNaughton was perfectly capable of handling intense gore (HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER [1990]) as well as twisted sex (WILD THINGS [1998]), the intended Gothic atmosphere is largely dissipated through the dreary and utterly flat look which (regrettably) has virtually become the standard in today’s TV and film work!
Anyway, the narrative deals with a young follower of Dr. Victor Frankenstein(!) in the re-animation of corpses – though the first experiment he conducts (before a disbelieving audience) sees his female subject burned to a crisp(!), he’s later advised to seek the help of an itinerant necromancer. Dubbing him a charlatan after he brings a dog back to life, the scientist leaves to attend to his dying father – but, on the way, he’s taken in by an old man who tells him it’s not safe to rest beside a cemetery at night. The latter is married to a much younger girl, who naturally elicits the studious hero’s attentions (of which the husband is fully aware).
That night, the scientist is surprised to see the necromancer visit the couple – after which, the girl exits the house; the young man goes after her against the elder’s pleas not to interfere. It turns out she had been married to another, who has died – but her passion is so strong that the girl has the necromancer resuscitate him to keep their sex life going(!)…for which not only are his buried ‘neighbors’ invited to join in, but the union had even borne her a monster child! Witness to all this, the hero obviously tries to put a stop to it by shooting the necromancer dead…though when the second husband intervenes, he’s attacked and feasted upon by the living dead – while the scientist himself faints.
So far so good (that is to say, not that bad) – but the film is bookended by a sequence depicting the request of a grief-stricken young man to an old woman who’s said to be capable of raising the dead (during which Haeckel’s Tale itself unfolds). However, the ending – involving the wholly unsurprising revelation of the old lady as the girl in the story (though she looks nothing like the petite sexy actress of her younger guise!), who then informs the men in her life (i.e. two husbands, necromancer and scientist), obviously zombified yet conveniently residing inside the house, that dinner is served, all the while bottle-feeding her repulsive baby – is at once unnecessary, heavy-handed and potentially campy!
Anyway, the narrative deals with a young follower of Dr. Victor Frankenstein(!) in the re-animation of corpses – though the first experiment he conducts (before a disbelieving audience) sees his female subject burned to a crisp(!), he’s later advised to seek the help of an itinerant necromancer. Dubbing him a charlatan after he brings a dog back to life, the scientist leaves to attend to his dying father – but, on the way, he’s taken in by an old man who tells him it’s not safe to rest beside a cemetery at night. The latter is married to a much younger girl, who naturally elicits the studious hero’s attentions (of which the husband is fully aware).
That night, the scientist is surprised to see the necromancer visit the couple – after which, the girl exits the house; the young man goes after her against the elder’s pleas not to interfere. It turns out she had been married to another, who has died – but her passion is so strong that the girl has the necromancer resuscitate him to keep their sex life going(!)…for which not only are his buried ‘neighbors’ invited to join in, but the union had even borne her a monster child! Witness to all this, the hero obviously tries to put a stop to it by shooting the necromancer dead…though when the second husband intervenes, he’s attacked and feasted upon by the living dead – while the scientist himself faints.
So far so good (that is to say, not that bad) – but the film is bookended by a sequence depicting the request of a grief-stricken young man to an old woman who’s said to be capable of raising the dead (during which Haeckel’s Tale itself unfolds). However, the ending – involving the wholly unsurprising revelation of the old lady as the girl in the story (though she looks nothing like the petite sexy actress of her younger guise!), who then informs the men in her life (i.e. two husbands, necromancer and scientist), obviously zombified yet conveniently residing inside the house, that dinner is served, all the while bottle-feeding her repulsive baby – is at once unnecessary, heavy-handed and potentially campy!