The Resurrected is an American horror film of the supernatural thriller subgenre. The movie is based on the 1927 novella, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft, which did not see publication until the May-July, 1941 issue of Weird Tales. The film was directed and co-written by Dan O'Bannon with other major plot elements added by Brent V. Friedman. Friedman had been working on his own film adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward at the same time as O'Bannon and so their efforts were combined into a single film. The movie was produced by Lions Gate Entertainment and released direct-to-video on April 15th, 1992. The film stars Chris Sarandon in the dual role of ambitious occultist Charles Dexter Ward and his 17th century ancestor, Joseph Curwen. Other stars in the film include Jane Sibbett as his wife Claire Ward, John Terry as private investigator John March and Robert Romanus as Lonnie Peck. The premise of the film centers on Rhode Island occultist, Charles Dexter Ward, who attempts to use black magic and alchemy to resurrect the soul of his own ancestor, Joseph Curwin. Charles' wife, Claire, hires private investigator John March to look into her husband's dark affairs.
This is Dan O'Bannon's second film as a director and his sixth horror film as a screenwriter, though he is uncredited in the film in this capacity. O'Bannon made his directorial debut in the horror genre in 1985 with The Return of the Living Dead, which he also wrote.
This is Brent V. Friedman's third horror film as screenwriter. He previously wrote the plots and/or scripts for Evil Altar in 1988 and Syngenor in 1990.
Weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft was dissatisfied with The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and did not actively seek out publication for the piece. Lovecraft's contemporary, August Derleth was the one who pushed to have it published, though a completed version of the story was not revealed to the general public for fourteen years after it had been written.
