A Resurrection

source: A Resurrection

Must be the most popular sentence in horror movies , well I think this film has a great story , reminding of " dead mans shoes " a bit - its a low budget movie, and I wish they had put some money in it to raise up the quality - this could have been better, and acting is not 100 either ,, but its a good movie , see it.

-1 Star For This one seeming to take forever for something interesting to happen. -1 Star for the unsatisfying ending This one just wasn't very impressive. Sad that this was Michael Clarke Duncan's last role. Even having him in this one didn't help it.

Eli (J. Michael Trautmann) who is off his meds, believes his dead brother Devon (Patrick de Ledebur) is going to come back from the grave and kill the students who killed him in an unsolved hit and run. Jessica Parker (Mischa Barton) the the school psychologist is attempting to wade through all of this while her deputy boyfriend (Devon Sawa) is out investigating weird things such as Devon's grave being dug up. The film is more mystery than horror as we try to wade through things with Jessica deciding if Devon is back from the dead or if this an elaborate hoax as the body count climbs. I liked J. Michael Trautmann as the creepy kid. Unfortunately the film needs an upgrade in dialouge and horror. The production gets failing marks as a horror film, but passing grades as a suspense/mystery. Mischa Barton, one of my favorite B girls, was unconvincing in her scenes with Trautmann due to script dialouge. A decent rental if horror is not the main goal. What was with the sigma nu delta frat paddle located in the principle's (Michael Clarke Duncan) office?

Where do I start? It started off pretty good and then went downhill fast. It had this lazy larconic pace and delivery. On hearing that a body is missing from its grave, a main character says, well, that's creepy. Cop finds decaying corpse with its head blown off and he phones it in, I mean he phones it in. Trapped in a dark school with corpses piling up fast, does anyone use a cellphone to call for help? No (I understand the students on locked down on punishment may have had theirs taken away.) Apparently, this town is so small they have only one cop who is just lazily and slowly moved from spot to spot accomplishing nothing. Never see him wishing anyone. Shouldn't he have been at the school questioning the kid about his mother's dead body on the livingroom? Nope. Keeping with slow and lazy, what was with the psychologist's reading? Does she have a learning disability? Need her reading glasses? Illiterate? That was bizarre. The whole thing barely explained it's supernatural elements. Just some mumbo jumbo about needing 6 dead bodies to bring back the dead. The ending makes no sense, but you won't care.

A strange outcast kid who likes to draw has recently lost his brother in a mysterious hit and run accident. He claims his brother is returning from the dead with the help of a witch, becomes entangled with the brother's former rivals, and the school shrink attempts to intervene. Some really crazy and tragic stuff follows. A RESURRECTION is decently acted and quite well-filmed: The winter scenery adds a great deal to the atmosphere. The first 20 minutes or so are very engrossing, but the storyline then progressively staggers, quickly degenerating into a pretty ho-hum slasher flick. A RESURRECTION may be worth seeing if you're a big supernatural horror (or Mischa Barton) fan; but then again, you've probably seen this movie many times before. There's a lot more they could have done with this. More back-story on the brother's death and why it happened might have helped.

A Resurrection is a story about Eli who is a high school outcast trying to deal with the death of his older brother Devon who was recently killed in a hit and run incident. For such low ratings on IMDb this film was pretty good. There is a slow build up but once the story gets going it keeps a good pace. It deals into the occult which is not seen too often these days. The direction that the story takes is quite interesting. There was a few scenes that were unnecessary and had nothing to do with the story. Not much gore and violence which is refreshing for a change. I was pleased with the cinematography which I thought was outstanding. The acting was flawed except for a few actors including Devon Sawa, Mischa Barton and Michael Clarke Duncan(RIP). The character of Eli never makes a big impression on me as grieving brother would. With all that was going on in his life it begged a lot more emotion from the character. Overall this film was well put together and it definitely worth a peek.

I don't think I've ever felt so inclined to leave a bad review of a horror movie. I'm very passionate about the genre and in most cases, if a movie is "panned" by critics I usually find that I myself enjoy it, such is the ridiculous bias against the genre by mainstream outlets, so I pay zero attention to the reviews left by others. In this case the movie was panned by critics and by myself to boot, I'm sad to say. The plot in itself was good and definitely something that under different circumstances could have made for a terrific movie. It was nothing original but it was a simple idea that could have been very effective. However, the acting and to a lesser extent the script completely undermined the premise and made for a very poor movie. My main gripe is the performance of "Eli" which was nothing less than appalling. Featuring him in the opening scene set the tone for the rest of the movie and made me question the movie very early on. The rest of the cast's performances ranged from poor-acceptable, but I strongly believe that with another portrayal of Eli the film could have too been deemed acceptable. However, such was the portrayal of the main character the movie could not be any better than poor. Without coming across as unnecessarily cruel it was possibly the worst performance that I think I've ever seen and single-handedly sabotaged the film. The responsibility has to fall on the director/producer, whoever that may be, who in addition to leaving in a few less than convincing lines/scenes did not re-cast such an important character. The camera work was easy on the eye and the budget was capable of backing a good movie, and you would think that with a good idea for a movie there is only a slim chance that it could go wrong. It proved to be the case though as it did go wrong and made for a disappointing 90 minutes. I wouldn't recommend this to a horror fan unless you are struggling for new movies in the genre to watch. It's not eye-rollingly, mind- numbingly bad by any means but it was definitely disappointing.

Mischa Barton couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag. Viewing her performance in this travesty was actually painful. Michael Clarke Duncan brought himself down to her level. He should be ashamed of himself. The supporting cast was an odd mix of irrelevant and absurd. The plot (what there was of it) made very little sense. I suppose if this story had been handled by a competent director with actually talented actors at his disposal, then the end result might not have been so embarrassing to watch. As it is, I very much want all those associated with this production to be banned from the industry. (Well, I really want them dropped into an active volcano, but I suppose that's too much to ask...)

"I'm standing outside Devon Dregers grave site and he doesn't appear to be in his hole anymore." After bullies push him too far Eli (Trautmann) and the group end up in detention and psychologist Jesse (Barton) is called in to interview them. When news that one of the bullies is responsible for the death of Eli's brother Jesse thinks she has found the answers. Then Eli tells her something that changes everything. This is a movie that is actually not that bad but nothing amazing either. For a lower budget movie like this it is very much worth seeing and the quality isn't that bad. The acting is OK also. This is at its core a horror movie but not a typical horror movie. I would call this more of a suspense because the whole movie you are waiting for something to happen that you know is coming. While not all that scary it does make you tense up in parts and wanting to see what the end will be like. Overall, a movie that is OK and good for what it is but again nothing amazing but it will keep you watching. I give it a B-.