By Geno McGahee
Anything that takes place in the 19th century doesn’t really strike my fancy. I like to relate to things and when I see a film made in this time period, I’m taken out of it, but I have elected to review ALL of the Masters of Horror entries and had to proceed. This one “HAECKEL’S TALE” was based on a Clive Barker story and directed by John McNaughton, and was actually pretty good. It was strange and silly, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.
Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil) is trying to prove that you can bring the dead back to life but is having issues with the holy rollers in town. He is either being called a hack or is messing with God with his practices. A failed attempt to bring a girl back to life embarrasses Haeckel publicly and he is now more intent on proving he can do this. That’s when he meets up with Montesquino, a necromancer that seems to have amazing powers. Ernst doesn’t buy it, but he is still very intrigued.
As Ernst travels, he runs into Walter (Tom McBeath), and he allows him to stay in his cabin overnight to get out of the rain. While there, he meets Walter’s young and hot wife, Elise (Leela Savasta). She is very attractive and mysterious and is also caring for a baby, but I could tell Ernst was thinking: “Hey mother, want another?”
Ernst wakes up and sees Montesquino making a deal with Walter and Elise following him out the door shortly after. He arises and demands to know what is happening but Walter insists that they stay inside and let things happen as they will. That’s not good enough for Haeckel and he storms out the door and stumbles upon Elise having sex with a zombie while other zombies watch on. I guess zombies are looking for sex as well as brains…we just never knew it.
Initially George A. Romero was supposed to be involved, but he probably wasn’t too keen with the idea of zombie sex and the zombies in this were really into it…not as much as Elise, but pretty damn close.
In the end, the baby turns out to actually be the child of a zombie and Elise elects to spend the rest of her life with three men in zombie form in her house. Only dead guys can satisfy her sexual appetite and she, and the three zombies, seem cool with the arrangement. Good for them!
HAECKEL’S TALE has a lot of good visuals and the zombies look outstanding. I really enjoyed this tale despite my bias toward the century it took place in. It was silly and fun and amusing. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Rating: 7/10
NEW HORROR ANTHOLOGY TRAILER: SCARY TALES