Morella

Running time: N/A

In the spirit of 19th century Gothic tales, reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, Morella takes bio-technology as its bogeyman and sets it in its own cold and drafty "haunted mansion"--a gene-splicing research lab. In an effort to survive her impending death from a rare form of multiple sclerosis, the beautiful and ruthless Dr. Morella (played by Angela Jones of the recent film Curdled) recruits a fellow researcher to help clone herself into a viable embryo. The enraptured Dr. Lynden, powerless under the spell of Morella's considerable charms, risks everything--his marriage, his sanity, his life--to further her evil purposes. The experiment is a success, albeit with one minor flaw. Though the embryo survives--and is surreptitiously inseminated into Lynden's unsuspecting wife---the gene from which it was cloned is devoid of the DNA that creates a conscience and a soul. The result is a malevolent "daughter" who will stop at nothing to ensure her own survival. Murder and madness ensue and before long everything is ablaze in a desperate attempt to destroy the creature. Director Duddelson, through some imaginative camera work, lighting, and costuming, and a haunting musical score, takes us on a dark and wild ride with our eternal fascination with immortality and our ill-fated attempts to play God. --Pete Crane