Veteran horror actor and director William Butler returns to his Full Moon roots with a “movie” trilogy that I, as far as I can understand, is actually just a bunch of short episodes of a show that have been combined to create three different film installments, none of which runs more than an hour. That’s perfect for me, because it’s just enough to give us a throwback to Stuart Gordon’s Lovecraft adaptations of the 80s, most notably Re-Animator.
Visually, the films are neon color eye candy more in keeping with From Beyond. They’re also loaded with cosmic creatures, most of which are created using practical effects. And what would a Stuart Gordon homage be without some sexy scary sleaze thrown into the mix?
THE RESONATOR: MISKATONIC U (2021)
The first feature is 63 minutes long. The plot involves a handsome young college student who tries to carry on his late father’s experiments, which involve connections to higher dimensions. In doing so, he drags a group of classmates into the insanity as he unleashes the cosmic creatures into the earthly plain of existence.
This also spawns a bunch of erotic dreams and visions featuring a seductive demon.
Elm Street alum Amanda Wyss makes a brief appearance as a teacher, as does Michael Pare, who plays a crucial role by the end of the first installment as he becomes immersed in the unleashing of the cosmic creatures.
The film ends with the arrival of a new student at the school: Herbert West. Awesome.
BEYOND THE RESONATOR (2022)
Classic Re-Animator character Herbert West moves to the forefront for the 48-minute sequel, in which he quickly begins to experiment with reanimating little animals.
Meanwhile, our main guy from the first movie is grappling with the horror he and his friends experienced first time around. He also has to deal with the fact that one of his friends has now blown out his own brains.
What luck for Herbert West. A human head with a huge bullet hole in it that he can experiment on.
The monstrosities and gore in this one are better than in the first as the friends tackle the cosmic creatures and Herbert West’s scientific mess-ups, plus, Michael Pare returns just in time with a sinister smile that sets us up for the final film.
This is definitely my favorite of the three films.
CURSE OF THE REANIMATOR (2023)
The remake truth is out as the final film drops the Resonator mask and uses Reanimator in the title.
This 49-minute movie easily could have been combined with the second film to make one full-length sequel to the first film, but then we couldn’t call this a trilogy, and that’s no fun.
But seriously, the first half is essentially repetitive filler of West’s experiments and the main guy’s manipulation of his father’s dimensional machine. The only bright side is that we finally see the main guy shirtless.
All the fun is packed into the last few minutes, when the students and West manage to resurrect a bunch of their dead friends, who turn into classic, shuffling zombies that turn on the seductive demon to end the madness once and for all.
