Unlimitedia
Sick Product of a Sick System
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Claudio Carvalho
In the nineteen century, a man seeks help with a necromancer, asking her to revive his beloved wife. The woman advises him that the process could be dangerous, since she can bring the body back, but not necessarily the spirit and proposes him to listen to Haeckel's story to help in his decision. Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil) is a cocky medical student fascinated with resuscitation. When the illness of his father becomes terminal, he travels to visit him and in his journey he meets the necromancer Montesquino (Jon Polito), who claims to have the ability to bring the dead back to life. While preparing to spend the night nearby a cemetery, the old man Wolfram (Tom McBeath) offers him shelter in his home, telling him that it would be very dangerous to stay near the necropolis. Haeckel accepts the invitation and meets his young wife Elise Wolfram (Leela Savasta). He feels seduced by the sexy woman, and sooner he finds her eternal love for her deceased husband."Haeckel's Tale" is a great erotic zombie tale and one of the best episodes of "Masters of Horror". The atmosphere is creepy, and the Canadian is one of the sexiest actresses I have ever seen. Her sensual "zombie gang bang" is morbidly fascinating and absolutely original, but not for conservative and bigoted audiences. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Terrível História de Haeckel" ("The Terrible Story of Haeckel")
Vic_max
The first 2/3 of this movie is really well done. It plays out like any solid fantasy/horror movie would. When it has to wrap things up, it starts to falter. Given the state of horror movies these days, however, having a good first 40 minutes seems like a significant accomplishment.The story is about a man who goes to an old woman (a "necromancer") in an effort to raise his recently deceased wife. She warns him that before she does so, she must hear a story about a medical student named Haeckel from many years ago. The movie then picks up with the story of Haeckel.Everything is done really well - the atmosphere, acting, storyline, etc. Unfortunately, in the last 20 minutes the story tries to inject more horror elements. It doesn't work and the story gets progressively worst and the characters less believable. (In fairness to Clive Barker, I'm willing to believe story probably worked well in print).Many horror fans will find this step above most horror movies because of the nice setup - see it if that is good enough for you.
jrock14
I just want to say that Haekel's Tale starts off like the classiest of all the Masters of Horror leading you to believe that Haekel will have a Frankensteinish encounter in his lust for control over necromancy that would ultimately be his undoing, however it completely goes to the gutter when Clive Barker got bored and started writing up sick stuff. (In fact Haekel is undone at the hands of a zombie baby which just made me grimace in disgust when this easily could have been one of the best MOH episodes)You can pretty much time line this out to how it was written: At 10 O'clock he wrote the first half of the story, at 11 O'clock he started looking at pornographic material, at 12 O'clock he finished writing the story.
OttoJg14
Unlike the other reviewer I don't really care about framing techniques; special effects critiques and such; I bought this DVD because I think in terms of the Horror genre in general..it pushes the boundaries! This I think is pretty much the main emphasis in all of the 'Masters of Horror' pieces! I think (listen to the commentary) that a lot of the humorous moments in the film,like the Frankenstein homage, were done on purpose; there's also an Frankenstein homage in the other 'Master's of Horror' piece "Jenifer", see my review! I personally thought, as in 'Jenifer' by Dario Argento, that the eerie combination of horror mixed with sensuality is a delightful combination; exactly what's needed given the current torrent of teen horror flicks that are awash in the marketplace! Leela Savasta is one of the most gorgeous and perfectly constructed women I've ever seen; my Frankenstein homage...and lends the piece it's sensuality. A must have if you enjoy your horror mixed with sensuality and what something new an/or different!!
