Hey what's up guys
Today I'll show you a horror episode: "Masters of Horror: Haeckel's Tale"
Spoiler ahead, watch out and take care
The movie begins in the late 19th century
A gentleman on horseback arrives at an old woman's cottage in the middle of the night
Ominously, there are several graves with wooden crosses on the front lawn
The gentleman slowly knocks, and the old woman tells him to come in
He says that he's seeking her, a necromancer
The man quickly gets to the point: he wants her to raise his dead wife from the dead
She has recently died, and the man is bereft with grief
He hears about a necromancer who can bring back the dead, and he pleads for her to help him
But the old woman refuses him, citing that bringing back the dead always has a heavy price
Her deeds of resurrection have taken too much from her too; and she remarks she's all used up
Still, the gentleman insists she can do this extraordinary feat
After a pause, the old woman issues a challenge for him
She will tell him a story; and if after hearing it,
he still wants to bring back his wife, then she will do as he wishes
The gentleman accepts, and he sits on a chair by the fireplace
The necromancer begins the tale of Haeckel,
who was an ambitious and overconfident medical student five decades ago
Haeckel's professor at the medical school is teaching the class that God blesses medicine,
and all those who pursue it
Haeckel, ever the contrarian, challenges his professor,
and criticizes him for bringing religion into their studies
He doesn't believe in God or faith
Instead, he worships solid medical evidence and advancement
Haeckel cites Frankenstein's experiments, as proof that man can be God
The professor scoffs at his example, and says that resurrection is not possible,
because it is God alone who can grant bodies the spark of life
With a glint in his eye, Haeckel proudly proclaims that he can bring the dead back to life,
and he will show the professor how
That night, the classmates and professor watch as he reveals a dead naked woman, lying on a table
He explains that she recently died of consumption
The professor criticizes him for procuring the body through nefarious means;
but Haeckel isn't exactly concerned with ethics
He adds that Haeckel's father is a pious man, and he wouldn't approve of Haeckel's methods
His father is a sore point for Haeckel; and he raises his voice,
as he argues that his father wants the cold, hard truth
Haeckel then continues his presentation,
saying that he closely follows Frankenstein's scientific process,
and he will be using an electric current to revive the dead woman
Without further ado, he turns on his machine and electrocutes the woman
For a brief moment, her eyes flash open
But the current is too much, and it fries the woman's body like bacon
The professor then smugly admonishes him for daring to defy God
After everyone else has left Haeckel's laboratory, an undertaker visits him
He brings with him a fresh corpse of a man, who has died of pneumonia
This undertaker has long been supplying Haeckel with corpses for his experiments
However, Haeckel is too dejected from his failures to buy a corpse that night
The undertaker suggests he meet with a necromancer, named Montesquino,
whom he saw perform an impossible feat just days before
Haeckel dismisses his suggestion as a mere myth
But the undertaker tells him there is a thin line between science and magic
He invites Haeckel to see Montesquino's work for himself
Intrigued, Haeckel attends one of Montesquino's demonstrations
Montesquino is a squat man, with long hair and a nasty mustache
He claims that he's granted the powers to resurrect the dead;
but for every person he brings back, one year of his life is deducted
Montesquino starts his show, by holding up a dead dog for the audience to see
He places the animal back into a basket, and closes the cover
Montesquino utters a few words in Latin, and suddenly the dog comes back to life
But he bashes the damned dog's head with his cane, and fatally shoots it with a gun
He explains to Haeckel that resurrecting an animal is much simpler than resurrecting a human,
because a person's soul is complex
Right at that time, a husband and wife step forward,
and ask Montesquino to resurrect their dead daughter claimed by diphtheria
The price for her life is 100 dollars, a price too steep for the impoverished couple
The wife tries to appeal to Montesquino's good heart,
so he will bring their daughter back for free; but the necromancer is adamant that he get paid
That night, Haeckel visits Montesquino again in his camp within the forest
He asks the necromancer to teach him his ways
But of course, Montesquino's precious knowledge is his bread and butter,
so he isn't willing to share it with others
Haeckel then accuses him of pretending he can resurrect beings, and scamming grief-stricken people
Montesquino takes offense and angrily storms out
The next day, Haeckel receives a letter, informing him that his father's illness has worsened
He goes inside the forest to have a quiet moment eating bread under the tree
Suddenly, some grayish liquid lands on top of his bread
He looks up and sees a dead man hanging from a rope,
a placard proclaiming that he's a pedophile nailed to his body
Disgusted, Haeckel resumes his journey
Night falls, and he is forced to take shelter inside a cave
There he meets a man named Walter, who offers him a night in his house
Pride makes Haeckel refuse his offer;
but when Walter tells him the cave is next to a necropolis, Haeckel hesitantly accepts
He looks out the cave, and sure enough,
there are lots of tombstones spreading out in the graveyard next door
Walter leads Haeckel inside his humble home
They are greeted by Walter's young and beautiful wife Elise
Haeckel's gaze lingers on Elise for a moment too long, and Walter notices his hormone thoughts
Elise herself seems to be intrigued by the young medical student
They sit down for dinner, and Haeckel still can't tear his horny eyes away from Elise
Walter bluntly tells Haeckel that
he must be wondering why such a beautiful girl is married to a poor old man like him
He adds that love is always complicated, and does not always run like how we expect it
while pouring more wine into Haeckel's glass, Elise asks him if he has ever been in love
Haeckel replies he had never experienced true love
Walter then asks him a bold question, about whether he had experienced physical love
Haeckel is taken aback by the forwardness of the old man, and refuses to answer it
Elise leads him down a hallway into the spare bedroom, where he will stay the night
Haeckel can't help but inch his face closer to her
For a moment, it seems like Elise is drawn to him as well,
but she quickly composes herself and leaves the room
Haeckel settles down on the bed,
and through a crack in the door, he sees Elise pleasuring herself by the window
She turns around and sees him watching
Instead of being embarrassed, Elise just continues her ministrations
Haeckel eventually falls asleep
He wakes up in the middle of the night
This time, he sees Walter meeting with Montesquino
Then sometime later, Elise walks by nursing an infant, who is shrieking loudly
She puts down the annoying baby,
and then angrily whispers to Walter that she cannot wait anymore,
because she has been waiting for a whole year already
Elise walks out of the door
Haeckel gets out of the bed and joins Walter at the table
The old man reveals that because of his age, he's never able to perform his marital duties in bed
Haeckel points out that they have a baby together,
and Walter ruefully replies the father of the baby is Elise's dead husband, whom she loves dearly
When he married her, he tried his best to satisfy her by hiring Montesquino,
and selling all his possessions to pay the necromancer to resurrect the dead husband
Haeckel admonishes him for believing Montesquino's lies,
but Walter assures him the necromancer's powers are true
A second later, they heard Elise's screams
Haeckel rushes out of the house with Walter's shotgun
Walter chases him and tries to stop him
The same dog that Montesquino resurrected a day before,
emerges from the edge of the forest and barks at the two men
Haeckel bashes it on the head with a rock, but it just keeps coming back to life
Haeckel then follows Elise's cries to the necropolis
Walter stays behind at the gate, and Haeckel calls him a fool for being deluded
Haeckel finds Montesquino smoking a pipe near the tomb
He berates the necromancer for taking advantage of Elise's grief,
and Walter's foolish desire to please her
Montesquino is unperturbed by Haeckel's accusations,
and he shows the young man that he didn't do anything to Elise, but actually makes her happy instead
Inside the tomb is a naked Elise, gyrating on top of her dead husband,
who has been reanimated, but still looks like a corpse
Around her are other reanimated corpses
Walter appears, and Haeckel screams at him for letting this happen
With tears in his eyes,
Walter soberly explains that no living person can ever satisfy the horny Elise,
so he just lets her sleep with her dead husband to make her happy
The other corpses start joining Elise and her dead husband
Desperate now, Haeckel points the shotgun at Montesquino,
to force him to stop whatever magic is reanimating the corpses
Walter tries to convince Elise to stop,
but the other corpses begin tearing him apart, and feasting on his organs
Montesquino flees the necropolis, and Haeckel shoots him
Before he dies, Haeckel forces him to say the incantation that will unravel the spell
Haeckel passes out in the necropolis
He wakes up the next morning, only to find Walter's dead body
The corpses are now back in their graves
He returns to the house and sees Elise sitting on a rocking chair, nursing her fat baby again
Apparently, she's unbothered by her new husband's death,
and even alludes that she chose him because he's old and wouldn't get her pregnant
Elise says that her baby looks just like her dead husband
She stands up from her chair, and proudly shows the baby's face to him for the first time
To his horror, the baby is actually a zombie,
born out of the unholy marital relations between Elise and her resurrected husband
The baby's face is mottled, gray, and monstrous
She presses the baby's face to Haeckel's neck, and lets the baby rip his throat out with its teeth
That night, Elise sleeps with a zombified Haeckel,
as the reanimated corpses including Walter and Montesquino, just watch like a peeping Tom
Back to the present, the old woman ends her story there
The gentleman is disgusted by her tale, and he realizes the old woman is actually Elise
Her house is the same house that she and Walter lived in beside the necropolis
Her dead husband suddenly appears, and she kisses his dessicated lips
She tells the gentleman that Montesquino has taught her the dark arts
This enables her to keep resurrecting corpses at night
A second later, the reanimated Walter walks in, holding her zombie baby
The zombie Haeckel appears too
Horrified, the gentleman runs his smelly ass out of the house and into the night
The movie ends with Elise bottle-feeding her annoying baby,
and her zombie men gathering around her, like she's the queen of the dead
This's Daniel CC movie channel Stay safe and enjoy your day