When Italian horror director Mattia de Pascali offered some of their films for review, I was more than happy to watch. The Forbidden Lands was a beautiful tale of folk magic and cannibalism amongst rural townsfolk. I was expecting the same feeling with Resurrection Corporation, only to be completely surprised with its animated art style and black-and-white Expressionist leanings. This gothic cartoon let me expand my horizons to something I rarely, if ever, see nowadays: the horrors of life after death and a mad scientist all through a simple, animated lens.
Caligari is a famous undertaker who’s been on the streets since death itself was banned in the city and supplanted by a practical method of resurrection.
Resurrection Corporation, IMDB
Dottor Caligari (voiced by Antonio Amoruso) and his zombified assistant Bruta (Paola Masciadri) are wallowing in self pity as their coffin business has lacked just that: business. Death has been outlawed, instead taken over by repurposing body parts of others. Hoping to rekindle the lost love between him and his wife, regain the supremacy of his business, and best rival Potriantow at Resurrection Corporation, Caligari and Bruta set upon a quest to figure out the key to bringing something back from the dead.
Obviously, Resurrection Corporation is animated in a style similar to South Park: stiff and simple. At first glance, this would be easy to write off as amateur, but paired with its German Expressionist styling and stark black-and-white contrasting colors, Resurrection Corporation feels a lot more classy. The likeness to early 20th century aesthetics doesn’t stop there either: Bruta resembles the Bride of Frankenstein, Caligari’s name references a certain Cabinet, and Potriantow’s mentor looks to be F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. Such smart choices to fit the overall vibe.
What didn’t quite fit though, was the acting and certain plot points. Though Resurrection Corporation is originally in Italian, I was watching with an English dub. Any time you can watch a film in its original language, I highly recommend doing so. That said, the voice acting left very much to be desired and may have even hurt some of the dialogue, making it feel like the actors weren’t giving their all to the story. But perhaps it was the story itself; while I enjoyed the overall resurrection business, the drama between overly-sexualized Bruta, incompetent and uncaring Caligari, and pretty much everyone else was harder to enjoy. It felt like I was watching a melodrama soap opera that just happened to be riddled with skinned bodies.
But I will say that those bodies did save the movie — that, and the animation. Resurrection Corporation was so hard to decide whether to put into the good pile or the bad pile, so to speak. It wasn’t light on the horror aspects with plenty of moments of blood, viscera, experimentation, and even sexual violence (which was an odd experience to have in an animated film). Despite its appearance, this movie is definitely not for kids.
As a horror nerd, I had my ideas of Italian horror firmly placed into three sections: giallo, folk, or modern. Resurrection Corporation has turned my world upside down with a cartoon feature that is both overly dramatic while still giving props to horror legends from a hundred years ago that only horror nerds like me would appreciate. Resurrection Corporation is a strange one, but shouldn’t be counted out. If you can find the sub, you will likely enjoy it more.
Resurrection Corporation is streaming now on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video.
