The last horror, thriller or suspense film you watched

Resurrection (1999) - Russel Mulchay

I have only seen this very typical late 90s crime-thriller once before, and this one surely tries hard in style and tone to "cash in" on the success of several serial-thrillers of the mid 90s, such as Se7en (1995) and Copycat (1995). But there is also a bit of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) vibe going on strong, at least a few times, I think.
Of course, this is probably a far more low budget or tv-movie made film, that still manages to be, well, maybe better is not exactly the right word when it comes to Christopher Lambert and his acting, but compared to so much of the awful films he usally makes, I think this one of the few times I was left postively surprised.

It is fast paced, gory, nasty, stylish, and at times very funny, but I just wished there was a bit more, how should you say, originality to the script and its characters, because, I am not saying a "great" movie lie between the pages or something like that, but it could surely have become a little more sharper in both tone, and story.
Lambert sure does his best, but again, it kind of feels a little to over-the-top, and which brings some of the more overused thriller cliches into being almost unintentional funny, than what they were meant to be.

Of course, there is lots of walking cliches in this one, the tragic main character, his caring and lonely wife, their sad backstory, the wisecracking partner and sidekick, the angry and explosive police chief, the douchy asshole co-workers, the creepy looking killer with his huge bug eyes and constant intense stare, the grungy green-grey use of colors, the constant heavy rain showering the city and streets, and showing far too much of all these horrible dead bodies or body parts, and yeah, sometimes those who are not even dead, just dying and, well, I tend to prefer movies such as Manhunter (1986), specially when it comes to not show "everything", all the time. 

Let the fantasy or imagination play their part, because what you often do not see, is way more scary or effective (or so I believe), than being constantly thrown all these horrific and gory images of mutilated bodies and victims of the killer. 

Also, when I think of wandering cliches, the serial killer is quite a piece of "work" himself, I mean the religous themes, the use of numbers, digitals and other obvious clues, such as windows or walls, being smeared in with blood in huge red letters "COME FIND ME!" and then Lamberts charactert begin this long and very serious speech about that this means the killer is serious and will surely continue on with his murdering, and it just, well, was so laughable and funny (sure not meant to be) that it felt like a parody of the crime-thrillere genre at times.

Another reason to why I have a certain soft spot for the film, is that one of my favorite directors, David Cronenberg also has a small part in here, as a local priest. Nothing huge or really special, but I thought it was nice little role from Cronenbergs side, and he did it pretty good.

The one thing I would have really liked, and I think could have done this movie a huge favor, was surprising the viewer with a bit a of a shock, and I do not mean more blood and gore, but because somewhere along the way, especially when Lamberts character began discussing with his wisecracking partner and friend, about how he "admired" the intellect of the serial killer, and his partner, I always hoped or suspected would turn out as the bad guy, and he for a few moments looked very creepy, when Lambert started the whole admiring part, but sadly I guess that whole potential just got thrown away, and it was back the more creepy looking, sterotypical Hollywood serial killer kind of type, and again, that is why I love Manhunter and constantly brings it up, as how I wished more thrillers would deliver their serial killer.

Brian Cox looks just like a "normal" guy, with a very non-normal way of personality, while most of the Hollywood serial killer figures looks like they just stumbled out of the assembly line for "movie serial killer" or "creepy movie monsters", and they just do absolutely nothing for me.

They are rarely ever scary or impressive, just most of the time dull and I have seen them so many times over, so just come up with something a little different, as I like to think normal is way more scarier or unsettling than having yet another cheap looking rip-off of the legendary Dr. Hannibal Lecter (the Anthony Hopkins version).

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie, not great by any means, but entertaining and surely one of the better films that Christopher Lambert made during the late 90s.

6/10