Directed by
John McNaughton and loosely based on a short story by
Clive Barker. At the end of the 19th century, a man (
Steve Bacic) who has just lost his wife comes to the house of Miss Carnation, the Necromancer (Micki Maunsell) and begs her to bring his love
Back from the Dead. She hesitates, but when he insists she proposes to revive her if he still wants her to do so after he hears the tale of medical student Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil), which happened 50 years before.
Tropes:
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: Miss Carnation is Elise.
- Ascended Extra: In the original Clive Barker story, Montesquino is only a necromancer some tavern patrons scoff at, which prompts Haeckel to recount his story. Here, he's a Composite Character, taking on the role of the unnamed Englishman who arranges Elise's "meeting" with the dead.
- Back from the Dead: Almost every character wants to do this one way or another.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: What Miss Carnation keeps trying to tell her interlocutor, as he won't admit no for an answer.
- Book Ends: Miss Carnation and her interlocutor only appear at the beginning and end of the episode, with the rest being the equivalent of a Show Within a Show.
- Came Back Wrong: People can only revive as zombies.
- Creepy Cemetery: The setting of the literal climax.
- Cuckold: Wolfram admits that he cannot satisfy his younger wife, and allows her to sleep with her late first husband.
- Darkest Africa: Montesquino claims to have learned necromancy from "the Shaman of Zanzibar".
- Death by Adaptation: Thanks to his ascended role, Montesquino suffers this fate. As does Haeckel, which is foreshadowed by the adaptation giving the narrator's role to Miss Carnation.
- Epic Failure: Haeckel's attempt to revive a cadaver with electricity just combust it.
- Fan Disservice: The most iconic shot is a sex scene involving a beautiful young woman and the zombified corpse of her late husband. Pardon us for not sharing it here, even though it is part of the official cover.
- Hollywood Atheist: Haeckel, a medical student, doesn't believe in God, the soul, or the supernatural, and tries to reproduce Dr. Frankenstein's experiments. This is clearly linked to his materialist view of things, which is proven entirely, horribly wrong by the end. Oh, and he shares a name with the real biologist Ernst Haeckel, the 19th century German scientist who proposed racist scientific theories and was a materialist (though not an atheist, but a pantheist-he's often mistaken for the former).
- I Love the Dead: And the dead love Elise back!
- In Name Only: The first half of Miss Carnation's tale and the Book Ends are more of a homage to Tales from the Crypt, Frankenstein, and classic Gothic Horror in general. Only the second half follows the short story, and still with notable differences. The original was set in Germany, the narrator was Haeckel himself, telling the story to fellow students, and he didn't want to resurrect the dead himself; Montesquino was not the necromancer in the later part of the story, but a name with a reputation for being a quack, and neither he nor Haeckel died.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They still kill people but it isn't their only goal. And while dumb they aren't entirely brainless or without personality.
- Recycled In Space: The original story is set in Germany, but the episode seems to be in the southern US.
- Shout-Out: In the beginning, Haeckel and his teacher discuss the experiments performed by a German doctor called Frankenstein. Haeckel tries to replicate his attempt to revive a cadaver using electricity but only manages to burn it. He also shares his name with a famous German biologist noted for his racist scientific theories.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Montesquino comes across as this at first, but he actually has powers.
- Southern Gothic: Technically, though it misses the usual subtropes and the Southern setting is only given by the accents.
- Twist Ending: Besides Miss Carnation's identity, it is also revealed that Haeckel, Montesquino, and her second husband became zombies and came to "reside" in her house, for lack of a better word. She also had a zombie baby, presumably from her first husband.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Wolfram and Elise, as he admits himself. Moreso when he becomes a zombie.
- Undead Child: The episode ends with Miss Carnation caring for a zombie baby.
