(Streamed via Pluto TV)
When producer Charles Band came up with the idea of “Deadly Ten”, it allowed him to crowdsource funds from fans who wanted to see him dip into his back catalogue of horror films and create sequels, reboots, re-imaginings, and straight-up rip-offs of his old franchises. Among the series he’s been mining are Puppet Master, Necropolis, and Femalien. I don’t think anyone would get too upset at the prospect of Band meddling with those brands. However, The Resonator: Miskatonic U is a sequel/updating of Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond, one of the greatest horror films of the ’80s. When you start messing around with classics like that, I start to get nervous. He and his writer/director William Butler (who got his start with Band acting in Ghoulies 2) were wise not to put the From Beyond moniker in the title as there is no way this could ever hope to compete with that immortal all-timer.
It begins with a dedication to Gordon, which is a nice touch, and one of the characters is even named “Professor Gordon”, but the movie is closer in tone and feel to something like The Killer Eye than From Beyond. Speaking as a fan of The Killer Eye, that’s not a bad thing. If you go into it with reserved expectations, you’ll probably enjoy it as much as I did. Like most of the Deadly Ten films, it’s kind of fun if you’re in the right frame of mind.
A cocksure student at Miskatonic University is hellbent on recreating his dead father’s experiments. He cobbles together a “resonator” that stimulates the user’s pineal gland and allows them to see into another dimension. After a night of drinking, he invites some friends back to the lab and turns on the machine. Naturally, he unleashes a bunch of monsters and has to deal with his professor who wants to use the machine to make himself a god.
While nothing here comes close to approaching the greatness of From Beyond (and frankly, what could?), there is some good stuff. I dug the appearance of the sexy squid woman who lurks about whenever the machine is turned on. Speaking of being turned on, the psychic sexual visions are well done, if a tad brief. Even though much of this feels low rent and cheesy, Butler keeps the pace going at a steady clip (the scant sixty-four-minute running time certainly helps). The young cast members aren’t exactly memorable, but it helps that the supporting cast is peppered with old pros like Amanda Wyss and Michael Pare.
Overall, The Resonator: Miskatonic U probably won’t convert any new fans to Band’s Full Moon label, but those who enjoy his recent output should be thoroughly entertained. The ending opens up the possibility for a sequel as it introduces a very familiar character into the fold in the final moments. This scene is very much like a Marvel movie post-credits sequence, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Band was angling to make this a franchise a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Would that make it the Miskatonic Cinematic Universe?
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