It feels like the more immersed I fall into another world created by Dan O’Bannon, the more I am enamoured by what he produces. By this stage, he would have already penned Dark Star, Alien, Dead and Buried, Blue Thunder, Lifeforce, Invaders From Mars, Total Recall and directed the sublime Return of the Living Dead.
The Resurrected would also be the second and last time that O’Bannon would sit in the director’s chair. It is based on a HP Lovecraft short novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which reminds me that I should follow up with fellow Surgeon and self-confessed Lovecraft fan, Oscar Jack to see if he’s caught this film or not. The O’Bannon/Lovecraft combination comes across as a match made in heaven.

While it doesn’t quite match up to O’Bannon’s debut ROTLD, The Resurrected is still jam-packed with plenty of humour and energy that fizzles along with an amount of insane energy that perfectly encapsulates the feel of his previous feature.

The fact that it also boasts the magnificent Chris Sarandon as the afore-mentioned Charles Dexter Ward in its cast, only lifts this film to greater heights.

Played as a hard-boiled detective story, where the investigation leads John March (John Terry) on a path to the undead and an ancestral history of resurrection.
Hired by Dexter’s wife Claire (Jane Sibbett) to find out what her husband is up to in his remote cabin, March finds there’s more than just the typical secrets held by husbands up to know good in the night and it’s not long before he realises that he may have got more than he bargained for.

I gotta say that I really dug the performances and it puzzles me that it didn’t get a greater theatrical release. Some may struggle with the ‘Sam Spade detective style investigation, and at times, The Resurrected comes across like a TV movie in its look and feel, but there’s a lot to keep your interest contained.
Now celebrating 30 years since its release, it deserves a reawakening and some further love and not be shelved in the remnants of the celluloid catacombs.
So, if you haven’t had the time to watch this yet or it simply passed you by, I highly recommend it.
I’m looking at you Oscar.

• Saul Muerte