Morella

1997 "What would you give up to live forever?"
Morella
3.5| 1h28m| en| More Info
Released: 11 November 1997 Released
Producted By: Allott Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

The time is the early 21st century and a genetics lab has been destroyed in a fire seriously injuring a scientist and possibly killing his daughter. As two investigators begin to unravel the story of the lab and its experiments, they discover that the scientist may have started the fire himself with the intention of killing his own daughter. The journals of the scientist and of the lab's founder, Dr. Patricia Morella, tell the tale of genetics experiments going badly awry and of the deceit that was used to hide them even from some of those that were involved. Dr. Morella's legacy is a clone whose only goal in life is its own survival and reproduction...no matter what the cost!

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ZeriamDoga This movie was so absurd it was hysterical. Okay, its the near future and this genius geneticist creates a clone of her screwed up self before she dies. Somehow this clone becomes the child of her on job paramour (Guest) and then everything goes straight to hell. The clone (Sarah) does the typical Bad Seed faire complete with cloying choir music and jarring violins. Add to this the annoying preponderace of poorly lit sets and the occasional but pompous narration and you have a film that literally drains the life out of you as you watch. I wouldn't recommend it not even on a whim.
suessis The story of Morella is not one of Edgar Allen Poe's better known works, but it lacks nothing of the poetic spine-tingling terror that Poe was famous for. This version of the story, however, is silly and pretentious. I suspect that the makers of this film intended it to be "arty", but the result is actually more confusing and annoying.I have never much been impressed with Nicholas Guest's acting ability, but I have to say that I was impressed with the English accent that he effected for this role (although I probably shouldn't be as his father was a member of the British House of Lords there by making him half English). His normal voice is not too dissimilar from his brother Christopher's, but the change he makes somehow alters him so that he is not recognizable. I had to push the button on the remote several times to verify via the on-screen channel guide that it was actually him.Everyone else in this film seems very one dimensional including Angela Jones as Morella who hams it up so annoyingly that you almost want to slap her. Her acting range is limited to the number of different ways that one can be overtly seductive on screen. The chemistry between her and Guest is almost nonexistant there by making his character's claim that her character is the love of his life not ring very true.On top of all this, the director decided to shoot this film with minimal lighting. While one can suppose that he means to make it more "spooky" or "mysterious" that way, all he really succeeds in doing is making it more difficult to see most of the sets and some of the actors.I think it is probably a good thing Poe is already dead because this film would finish him for sure.
jait This movie, based on Edgar Allen Poe's work, has some interesting points to it. It's an interesting play on the apocryphal theme of Lillith. It's a laudable attempt at putting a woman in the Frankenstein monster's role.Too bad it was so slow moving. The ill-lighting and constant rain suggests that the movie was an attempt at gothic moodiness, but setting it in an antiseptic futuristic environment undermines the emotional impact. This is a true shame, as Poe's original work had mood & punch.Nicholas Guest was disappointing in this movie, while the supporting actor, Robert Lipton did a much more convincing job. But the evolution of the story to a moralistic commentary on the current hot topic of cloning is a little heavy-handed and tiresome. Not easy stuff to work with.Some neat ideas, but generally, a failed attempt at bringing a strong Victorian work into the modern age.
apostate The dark and ominous music was the highlight of this exercise in predictability. In Poe's original Morella, the narrator's wife dies giving birth to her daughter. In this mediocre modernized telling, Morella is a genetic scientist who creates a clone of herself before dying. While Poe's text was full of eloquence (The days have never been when thou couldst love me- but her whom in life thou didst abhor, in death thou shalt adore), this script is driven by pretentious voice-overs. The movie tries too hard to be moody and creepy, and ends up being cheesy.