Resurrection (1999)

I, for one, welcome Russell Mulcahy’s decent into DTV and gun-for-hire jobs after the entertaining but overrated Highlander. If he continued to one of those big fancy Hollywood directors he would have ended up being completely soulless and just another mainstream-maggot among the others. He made one of the finest thrillers after Highlander, for example the Ricochet and one of Dolph Lundgren’s best films, Silent Trigger. Tale of the Mummy from 1998 is also one fine piece of DTV classic, very underrated. The year after he teamed up with Christopher Lambert once again for the Seven-rip off Resurrection. Maybe “rip-off” is a bit unfair, but it’s surely inspired by David Fincher’s classic serial killer thriller, and also a damn fine thriller on its own.

A serial killer is hunting down victims in Chicago (mostly in Toronto, this is a Canadian production) and seem to take one body part at the time. An arm, a leg, a head, and soon the workaholic cop John Prudhomme (Christopher Lambert) understands that the killer is building the body of Jesus Christ! Together with his partner, the fast-talking Andrew Hollinsworth (Leland Orser) and an enthusiastic profiler from FBI, Gerald Demus (Robert Joy) they seem to get closer to the killer, or is the killer getting closer to them?

Resurrection shares a couple of similar themes and plot twists with Seven, but I still think it’s in the same level of quality, Sure, it does not have Brad Pitt or Morgan Freeman (which, to be honest, I’m very happy about – Pitt I like, but Morgan hasn’t been a good actor since Seven), but I still think this is one of Lamebert’s finest moments as an actor (he was also co-writer and producer) and overall has a stellar cast of excellent actors. Leland Orser and Robert Joy are both among the best, and even David Cronenberg makes a small performance as Lambert’s priest. He’s a good actor, and it’s always fun to see him show up in genre movies.

Resurrection never bog down with extra character development or romance, everything is very smartly built into the story and it’s just not necessary to stop and think. It’s all there, at the same time as the thrills and scares. Because first of all Resurrection is a serial killer thriller, a quite graphic one. Not much graphic violence, but a lot of gory aftermaths with shocking and realistic special effects. Mulcahy, always an extremely visual director, shows off his talent in a couple of very impressive set-pieces. A pro at work, and it would be good if more could realize what a master he is – after all, he also directed the best Resident Evil film!

Hidden away in the DTV corner of history, Resurrection is one of my favourite serial killer thrillers and it deserves a better place in movieland. The region 1 from Colombia Tri-Star boasts a great widescreen version and an audio commentary by Russell Mulcahy. Get it!