Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

 

Story:

For three decades, strange plaques with messages about resurrecting the dead have mysteriously appeared on streets throughout North and South America, prompting director Jon Foy to seek out the story of their origin. Artist Justin Duerr, who began investigating the tiles in 1993, takes us on a tour of unusual and seemingly random clues, and in the process resurrects not the dead, but the innate human desire for magic and mystery. (NetFlix)

Review:

If there is one thing I’ve learned, documentaries with insanely original subject matter usually result in excellent films.  Admittedly, they can fall flat just as easily, but put something unique into the caring and earnest hands of a filmmaker and the result is usually wonderful. Jon Foy’s Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles happens to be one of the shining examples of this theory. It’s a film you can’t possibly explain but most certainly shouldn’t miss.

Resurrect Dead is basically a mystery with seemingly supernatural elements thrown in for good measure.  The story follows one man as he tries to figure out the meaning to cryptic tiles sprinkled about his hometown.  I worry that most have already tuned out after hearing such a description.  After all, how can a legitimate documentary involve a mystery? Documentaries aren’t about giving you goosebumps, they are about explanations, right?

Thankfully, Foy is not your standard documentary filmmaker.  Technically he’s not even a true filmmaker.  He, like his main character, is just fascinated by tiles randomly placed throughout his city (they later discover they are across the Western Hemisphere).  Because he’s not a your typical documentary director, he adds elements traditionalists would shun- which is a good thing. Comic book style animations help recreate scenes Foy missed and add to the mysterious elements of Resurrect Dead. Audiences will love these sequences as they propel the story and, most importantly, put you in the same mindset as the very characters seeking to uncover the truth.

There is probably no greater sign of the devotion and care Foy puts into the film than the score you hear. It is haunting, eerie and wonderful.  It will have your skin crawling in a way you may not have felt since you watched X-Files.  It’s not just that this is a great score, it’s that Foy himself grew frustrated with finding a talented composer on his shoestring budget, so he opted to compose the piece himself.  That’s right. The non-filmmaker who decided to make a documentary (with impressive visuals) taught himself how to write music and create his own musical score for a feature length film- and did I mention it’s really good?

Foy and Resurrect Dead is that diamond in the rough all documentary lovers desire to find every time they see a non-fiction film. It’s a great film you can bring anyone to.  It’s cleaver, well made and wholly invested in itself.  And yes, the ‘mystery’ is rather minor and insignificant compared to countless other stories but Foy and his band of characters aren’t trumping this up as proving Global Warming or curing major diseases. This is a story of a few people who followed their curiosity to the end, determined to answer their questions without insulting or demonizing anyone in the process. In short, it’s fun, it’s fantastic and it’s worth whatever the cost to see it.

Reviewed by Matthew Abshire for Documentary Film Online on February 14, 2012

In Conclusion: