‘Dead’ resurrects classic horror

From its widescreen atmospherics and “Hammer Horror”-meets-“The X-Files” milieu to its Kurt Weill-like score, “I Sell the Dead” is the “Inglourious Basterds” of grave-robber movies.

Written and directed by Dublin-born Glenn McQuaid, an extension of his 2005 short “The Resurrection Apprentice,” the film begins with a James Whale-inspired creditsequence and regurgitates and transplants the tale of the Edinburgh-based body snatchers Burke and Hare and updates it with such delectable touches as zombies, aliens and ultra-widescreen visuals.

Holy “Bride of Frankenstein,” I think I’m going to like this, says your average die-hard horror film buff.

Dominic Monaghan, Merry hobbit himself, is Arthur Blake, apprentice “Resurrection Man” to veteran Willie Grimes (actor-director Larry Fessenden). The plot unfolds in lush sepia tones with acomical beheading and revolves around a lengthy confession Arthur gives to a giant Jesuit priest inquisitor.

The priest is Father Francis Duffy (“Hellboy” himself Ron Perlman sporting an Irish accent). The villains of the piece are the Murphy clan, whose leader Cornelius (John Speredakos) is a very unpleasant fellow. Among the other characters are Fanny Bryers (Brenda Cooney), a “wrecker” (i.e., one who lures ships to the rocks in a storm to pillage the broken remains) who aspires to be a “snatcher.” A sequence depicting Cornelius’ appalling Gothic childhood makes Tim Burton’s recent work pale.

From its tasty collections of false skies to its “classic age of horror” collection of cemetery backdrops and extras, “I Sell the Dead” is a lushly detailed throwback as well as a zombie-tongue-in-cheek tribute to horror films past.

Yes, that is Angus Scrimm as the Ernest Thesiger-like vivisectionist Dr. Vernon Quint. Dr. Quint offers Arthur and Willie 10 times the usual amount for “unusual corpses.”

Before you know it, a small island has become inhabited, if that is the word, with zombies that were packed in boxes aboard a sunken freighter. Now, there’s an “unusual corpse”-seeking body snatcher’s dream come true.

I can say with complete conviction that “I Sell the Dead” is the best body-snatcher film of the year.

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