Before 'Black Death' - The Best (and Worst) Necromancer Movies

2011 sees the release of "Black Death," the latest horror film to show the sinister art of necromancy and the necromancers who practice it. However, it's hardly the first film to cover this ground. It's probably best to lay down some definitions. A necromancer is anybody who is able to raise the dead through mystical means. Necromancy is different from a zombie because a single person is deliberately responsible for the dead rising, unlike some virus or mass unexplained phenomenon. It's a niche genre, but one that horror fans take great pleasure in.

"The Serpent and the Rainbow"

One of the best examples of this sub-genre is horror master Wes Craven's oft-overlooked 1988 offering "The Serpent and the Rainbow." Bill Pullman plays an anthropologist who travels to Haiti to study the phenomenon of voodoo zombies. As expected, he gets more than he bargained for. What's most amazing about the film is that it's inspired by true events. The film has been passed over simply because it isn't as strong as Craven's better known work, like "A Nightmare on Elm Street." However it doesn't have to be the director's best work to be worth seeing.

"The Prophecy"

Humans don't have exclusive rights to raise the dead, and the 1995 supernatural thriller "The Prophecy" proves that. Wicked angel Gabriel is fond of raising recently dead humans who will handle work he considers himself too good for. Adding insult to injury Gabriel resurrects people who would rather be dead, and torments them with the promise of letting them die after they do his bidding. Christopher Walken is wonderfully creepy as Gabriel (before he became a self parody) and Viggo Mortensen makes an impression as Lucifer himself.

"Army of Darkness"

Not all movies that feature necromancers need to be dead serious, that's where Sam Raimi's horror-comedy mash-up "Army of Darkness" comes in. B-movie superstar Bruce Campbell plays Ash, who buffoon trapped in medieval times. Among the many horrors Ash faces one is an evil version of himself. Evil Ash doesn't stay alive too long at first, but soon he rises from the dead. That's when he takes on the traditional necromancer role of raising his own army of "deadites," made primarily of skeletons. The humor often reaches Three Stooges levels of slapstick but it never forgets its horror movie roots.

"Necromancer," "Necromancy," and "The Chronicles of Riddick"

There are more than a few painful uses of necromancers and their art on film. Sadly the two movies that have the word (or a form of it) in the title fall into this category. 1988's "Necromancer" tried for a supernatural twist on 'woman seeking revenge' style exploitation movies, but painful acting and laughable effects sink any hope of it working. 1972's "Necromancy" only fairs slightly better due to the advantage of Orson Welles stopping by to pick up a quick paycheck, but in the end it's just another cheesy bore. More recently "The Chronicles of Riddick" featured an entire race known as the Necromongers who are in the necromancer mold. It had the cast and the budget to work, but a nonsense story and a mix of both wooden and over the top acting kept it back.

"Re-Animator"

One final film that bares mentioning is the cult classic "Re-Animator." While differing from the other films mentioned in that the dead are ostensibly brought back to life using 'science', that's really just splitting hairs. For the purposes of the story it's effectively a magic serum that's doing the work. This freaky film has become a horror fan favorite for it's twisted dark humor and the twitchy performance of Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, the serum's inventor. Both are good reasons for seeking out this twisted little gem.