Risen, The (2001)

Posted on Oct 15, 2003 under Horror |

Written, produced, and directed by Scott Klein
Starring
- Michael Edan
- Gene Dove
- Anne Connolly
- Rebecca Nyahay

Remember just the other week when I went on and on about how current zombie films lean toward winking humor whenever they can? Well, here’s a welcome exception to that trend. Not that it takes itself with that deadly earnest seriousness that can drag a movie down faster than King Kong clinging to a biplane. No, this movie simply tries to tell its little story with enough competent visuals, believable acting, and confidence in its storyline that it doesn’t need to let the viewing audience “in on the joke” to win us over.

“And to top it off, I hate this mirror!”

Arthur Roth (Michael Edan) is a man hip-deep in Hell on Earth. His job as a gravedigger is about as dead-end as you can get; and at the end of his backbreaking day, all he has to come home to is his disabled wife Adrian (Anne Connolly), whose gimpy leg has soured her soul to the point that her only purpose in life is to nag Arthur on his forgetfulness, his inattentiveness, his lack of earnings potential, and the hours he keeps. And there’s little he can do about it, because she knows his “little secret,” and loves nothing more than to goad him with the mention of it.

That, right there, is enough of a horror story for me… but there were zombies promised too, right? Right. Which is why, while Arthur and his younger underling Jonathan (Gene Dove) are surveying an undeveloped corner of the cemetery grounds, Jonathan uncovers a small ceramic plaque with “1865″ written on it in Roman numerals. (Cringe with anticipation as Jonathan tries to put all those M’s and X’s together into a number!) And it’s more than just a Civil War souvenir — when Jonathan touches it, he’s assaulted by images of a strange dark ceremony, of chanting, of corpses rising…

“All right! Who put Krazy Glue on my contacts?”

All right, I’ll let you in on the Meaning To It All. See, according to the preamble that began the movie, in 1865 a bunch of Civil War widows made a deal with the Devil to bring back their slain husbands. They didn’t exactly get them back in the condition they had hoped for (when was the last time a deal with the Devil went well, I ask you?), but the pact was unbreakable. And the seal of it was the plaque that Jonathan unearthed; all it takes is a blood offering to start things going all over again.

And boy, wouldn’t you know it, Jonathan tries to dig out the plaque with his pocketknife and accidentally cuts his finger.

All of which should have you saying, “Wait — wasn’t this movie about Arthur?” And so it is. While Jonathan’s off digging up and bleeding over psychometric Civil War artifacts, Arthur’s got a little side project, and her name is Rebecca (Rebecca Nyahay). Seeing the two of them together should provoke a hearty “Huh?”, because she’s a classy woman with a fur-lined collar and he’s a forty-something schmoe with hands he can’t get clean. But they do have something in common: a devotion to grave-robbing.

“I’m telling you, she’s dead! She doesn’t want another credit card!”

Sure, it started out innocently enough, back when Arthur had heart trouble and needed a bypass, and the only way he could think to finance it was to take from the recently deceased the pretty things that they weren’t going to need while they decomposed. But just like Doritos, you can’t take just one, and when Rebecca came along, Arthur started using the pawnables of the dead to give her gifts. She knows where the jewelry comes from, and has no problem with it; the other things Arthur gives out to friends and co-workers, like the chain Jonathan wears around his neck, were handed out without detailing their provenance.

So now that Jonathan’s gone and rung the dead’s doorbell, whaddaya suppose is going to happen next? Well, these aren’t Civil War corpses, remember; they’re much more recent decedents, i.e., modern possession-obsessed Americans. So you know the first things they’re going to want to get their hand on are all the baubles that Arthur lifted off them…

Gee, that’s just such a coincidentally appropriate movie poster to have hanging there…

The first mark of a successful piece of cinema that I noticed was the acting, and the confidence with which writer/director Scott Klein put it front and center. The first scene of the movie is nothing but Arthur and Adrian pissing at each other, but I swear, it works beautifully on the strength of the two performers. And it doesn’t let up; everyone pulls off their part well, and Arthur stays a sympathetic if pitiable character, despite the habit of pickpocketing cadavers.

The second commendable quality was the cinematography. You may not think, in the post-Steadicam era, that a watchable movie could be put together of mostly static shots. You would be wrong. Thanks to thoughtful composition and understated editing, there was better visual storytelling on display here than in most pan- and tilt-filled features shot by a DP drunk on dollies.

Now if THAT pose doesn’t scream “CD cover”…

In the final assessment, the story’s a little slight, but that’s to be expected with a fifty-five minute running time. What we end up with is a skillful blend of a Twilight Zone episode and an EC horror comic, moderated by a sizeable dollop of good stagecraft. It’s not a film that will become the next cult hit, but it should serve as a welcome change of pace among all the other indie zombie movies out there.