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Codex Atanicus
Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peņa made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus. The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her...
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Movie Review: Masters of Horror (S01E12): Haeckel's Tale

Story
Set in the 1800's, a man named Mr. Ralston goes to visit an old woman who's a necromancer. He asks her to raise his newly departed wife from the dead, and bring her back to him. The woman says that she can't help him, but after that Ralston has plead and begged, she tells him that she will help him, but that he has to listen to her story first, and if he still wants to raise his dead wife after hearing the story, so be it. And so, Ralston gets to her the tale of Haeckel:

Now Haeckel is a young medical student who believs in no God, but only science, and that everything can be explained. He has heard about re-animation experiments in Germany, and just like Victor Frankenstein, he tries to bring the dead back using science. When he gets the message that his sick father's condition has gotten worse, he depart to go visit his old man, to be at his side. On the way there, he meets Walter Wolfram on a rainy night, who invites him into his home. There he meets Wolfram's beautiful young wife Elise, but that night she leaves the home to go and visit her dead ex-husband at the Necropolis close by. Haeckel follows her, and enters the land of the dead where science is nowhere to be found.

Comments
Haeckel's Tale is the 12th and last episode in the first season of the Masters of Horror series, since the 13th addition by Takashi Miike was never aired (but will be released on DVD shortly when writing this). Directed by John McNaughton (Wild Things) who might also be famous for 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer', but that is no master of the genre per se. Still though, I thought he did a pretty good job with Haeckel which came out as an interesting little tale. Written by Clive Barker (you'll probably recognize some elements) and teleplay by Mick Garris, creator of the MoH series.

I liked the fact that this movie was set in the 1800's, and it was also cool with the concept of a tale within a tale. What I mean with that is that you're watching one story were this old necromancer lady tells a man a another story, and that story is about Haeckel, hence Haeckel's Tale. Early on, when the tale of Haeckel is first being told by the old lady, it comes out looking like a Frankenstein rip-off, and you get to see young Haeckel trying to bring a dead female corpse back to life using the power of lighting. Well, you know Frankenstein, don't ya? But it's not a rip-off, and as the movie goes, it leads to other things, mainly dealing with necromancy and bringing the dead back to life.

Haeckel's Tale Haeckel's Tale

Since I don't want to spoil anything for those who yet haven't seen this flick, I'm gonna keep it short and not go into too much detail. Basically Haeckel is a young determined man who only believes in science, and while a lot of people seem to believe in magic, Haeckel is sure it's just different kinds of tricks. One day he hears about this necromancer, and goes to visit him. The necromancer sees that the young man has doubts, so he makes a dead dog live again, but Haeckel still thinks it was just some kind of trick that the old man pulled. Shortly after he leaves to go visit his sick father, but on the way there when about to spend the night in some barn, an old man warns him that the barn is haunted and invites him to stay the night in his house instead. Haeckel is immediately attracted to the old man's wife, a young beauty named Elise. In the middle of the night he wakes up and sees that Elise's leaving even though her old husband begs her to stay. When asking the old man, Haeckel finds out that she's going to the Necropolis to visit her dead ex-husband who the necromancer (that made the dog live again) has evoken. Haeckel follows her, and gets himself into a whole lotta trouble.

The movie has really good pacing, good acting, and I found it to be very interesting almost all the way. There were some twists and turns towards the very end when the movie got an whole other feel to it, and it turned a bit campy so to speak. I'm a bit indecisive whether or not I liked the actual ending, but what I'm sure of though is that I liked most parts of the movie, and found it to be pretty entertaining, and interesting. The fact that it dealt with necromancers was a cool idea, and made me wanna look up more movies that deals with that as well (any good tips?). Even if I didn't find it to be scary, it still had a few pretty good scares to offer, and on top of that, a whole bunch of gore, blood, and some brief nudity and necrophilia for people into that sort of thing. Anyway, not great, and not sure about the ending, but I would still consider it well worth a look.

Final Comments
Haeckel's Tale sure had a Barker feel to it, and even though it was not directed by any 'master', it still came out as a pretty decent horror flick that had a few scares to offer, along with some decent gore. The overall story kept the interest up, but the ending might've been too campy, or that I was just not in the mood for that sort of thing. Either way, it's worth checking out.

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Masters of Horror (S01E12): Haeckel's Tale

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Haeckel's Tale
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: John McNaughton
WRITING CREDITS: Mick Garris, Clive Barker
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Steve Bacic, Gerard Plunkett, Derek Cecil
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 60 min

RATING: 6/10

Masters of Horror (S01E12): Haeckel's Tale Website/IMDB Click here
Masters of Horror (S01E12): Haeckel's Tale Trailer Click here

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