Re-Animator

This movie is certainly not for everybody, but it sure is one of the better mad scientists films around. Stuart Gordon injects black comedy with over the top gore and he gets a modern horror classic. Jeffrey Combs is outstanding as Dr. Herbert West, and there are scenes that you will never forget in this one. One of my personal favorite horror films.

In Austria, the medical student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) develops a serum to resuscitate the dead while working with a famous scientist that mysteriously dies. Herbert travels to Massachusetts and his application is accepted by the Miskatonic Medical University Dean Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson); then he moves to the basement of the house of Daniel 'Dan' Cain (Bruce Abbott), a medical student that is seeking a roommate to share his expenses and that is in love with Alan's daughter Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton). When Megan's cat disappears, she finds it dead in Herbert's refrigerator. Later, Daniel hears a cat and Herbert screaming and he sees the cat alive violently attacking Herbert and they kill the animal again. Herbert invites Daniel to work with him, but Megan sees the bizarre experiment and tells her father that expels the students from the University. But Herbert and Daniel go to the morgue to find a corpse to revive and they are surprised by the dean that is murdered by a resurrected man. Herbert injects the re-animating fluid in Alan that revives but the envious and greedy Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) wants his formula to become famous.

"Re-Animator" is one of my favorite cult-movie and I have just watched it again at least for the sixth time (last time I saw it was on 21 March 2000). This funny and gore B-movie has excellent special effects and made Jeffrey Combs worshiped for the rest of his career. Barbara Crampton is very beautiful and the scene in the laboratory with she naked and Dr. Carl Hill beheaded is one of the funniest I have ever seen. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Re-Animator"

Note: On 26 August 2012, I saw this film again, now on DVD.

Note: On 25 June 2015, I saw this movie again.

When i first saw re-animator in 85, i was aghast and appalled. i just didn't get it. i was a classic horror fan; so when i heard the obvious rip from psycho's theme, it irritated me even more.

well, now i'm an older, wiser horror fan. i just saw it again for the first time since 85 and i laughed my bum off! homage, homage, homage! honouring everything from hitchcock to raimi, from day of the dead to frankenstein. this in-your-face send off is a great double feature with dead alive. jeffery combs' over the top performance is reminiscent of colin clive and cronenberg found his very own ash in bruce abbott. so sit back, relax (as much as you can...) and enjoy re-animator.

The astute viewer will immediately pick up on the tone of Re-Animator. The introduction (added to the film at the last minute before its release) is a glimpse of the over-the-top nature of the entire production. If one were to be frightened by this intro, he or she will be comforted by the playful cheer of the opening title music. The score was heavily inspired by the famous Psycho score, a classic by Bernard Herrmann.

The movie, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's `Herbert West: Re-Animator', follows a simple plot. Herbert West (played to precise pitch perfection by Jeffrey Combs who, like Bruce Campbell, is a B-Movie legend) is new at Miskatonic Medical University. Immediately, Herbert clashes with Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) on the subject of `brain death'.

At the same time, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot) is looking for a roommate. He is also dating Dean Alan Halsey's (Robert Sampson) daughter, Megan (Barbara Crampton). When Herbert West shows up at Dan's door one night during a `study' session, Megan is immediately suspicious. Why is Herbert so anxious to move in? Why is he so interested in the basement?

It is not long before the cat is dead, re-animated and dead again. The early scenes of violence are disturbing and hilarious at the same time and are only a taste of what is to come. Dan tries to resist the temptation of power inherent in the re-animating fluid, but is sucked into Herbert's mad world of life giving.

There is a turn of events about halfway through the film (which I would be crazy to spoil) that almost screams to the viewer, `We aren't playing by the rules here.' The storyline twists its way to the famous conclusion that, if you haven't heard of it, will leave you breathless. Even if you know what is going to happen, when you finally see it, in all of it's gory, sexual glory you understand why this classic has achieved such a status. The finale of the film is twisted in so many ways it's impossible to count.

Obviously, I loved the movie. Having never been anything but a horror fan, I cannot say it will suit everyones' tastes. The film is so over-the-top that the outrageous gore becomes less and less shocking. The timid viewer may want to shy away from this masterpiece. Anyone with even the slightest curiosity should seek this movie out.

Considering the 70's was a decade of monumental proportions as far as films went, it was a shame the 80's had to produce such dreck, especially where horror films are concerned. In the 70's we had "The Exorcist", "Halloween", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Phantasm"-just to name a few. The 80's did produce a small but stellar group of classics, however, including "Evil Dead" 1 & 2, "A Nightmare On Elm Street", "An American Werewolf In London" and, of course, "Re-Animator". Like "Werewolf" and the "Evil Dead" films, part of "Re-Animator"'s success and notoriety is the film's deliciously sinister blend of horror and humor. Wait let me correct that-perverse horror and sick humor. In accordance with the decade that birthed it, this film is typically over the top and totally gratuitous, pulling out all the stops at every turn. Jeffrey Combs heads a great cast as Herbert West, a strange and eccentric but brilliant young doctor/scientist who has perfected a syrum that can reanimate the dead. Circumstances get out of hand when a medical student and his fiance (Bruce Abbott & Barbara Crampton) get involved in West's work and a plagarist rival doctor (David Gale) plots to steal his idea. Horror and hilarity ensue from there on, thanks to imaginitive visual effects coupled with clever dialogue. For nitpickers like myself there are a few minor inconsistencies in the screenplay, but it does very little to hinder the film. Ironically, several scenes that wound up on the cutting room floor (included on the dvd) would have fleshed out those minor story flaws, but they were excised-and probably rightly so-in the name of pacing. Besides, any flaws in writing are easily forgotten about thanks to the terrific performances. Here is a cast that really brought the characters "to life" so to speak; Combs as the nerdy scientist and Gale's lecherous Dr. Hill are both standouts. And Stuart Gordon's strong direction holds the whole thing together even when the film threatens to be crushed by it's own outlandishness. For those interested, check out the sequel "Bride of Re-Animator" that followed 4 years later. It doesn't hold a candle to this one, but it's plenty of fun in it's own right.