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Directed By
Stuart Gordon
Written By:
H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon
Cast:
Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Robert Sampson, Gerry Black, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Peter Kent, Ian Patrick Williams, Bunny Summers, James Ellis, Barbara Pieters, Al Berry, Derek Pendleton, Gene Scherer
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Re-Animator (1985)
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Movie Review by Chris
December 19th, 2008
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Based on a short story by HP Lovecraft, 'Re Animator' is a cult classic from director Stuart Gordon, who recently directed Stuck, which is one strange movie I'm dying to see. 'Re Animator' ranks right up there with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser and Halloween as one of the best horror films to be released in the 1980's. It deals with death and how some people react to the belief that maybe we are technically "alive" after death. John Carl Buechler delivers some absoulutely amazng make up effects, the gore is bloody but it never takes it to the point where its laughable. The movie also has a lot of black comedy to it, some may find it funny while others just believe it to be stupid. The acting is great and the story is interesting. So this is a must see film for any horror fan, two sequels have been made since this release, but they could never stand up to the initial impact of the original.
In this H.P. Lovecraft tale, Herbert West is a scientist who has discovered a fluid which brings dead tissue back to life. After the suspicious death of his professor in Switzerland, West moves to Miskatonic University to continue his research. He involves fellow student Dan Cain and his fiancée Megan Halsey in his research by experimenting on their dead cat. Dan, fascinated by West's research, agrees to smuggle him into the hospital morgue with predictable results.
'Re Animator' was released in 1985, right after films like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street began springing out numerous sequels and even worst prequels. The main gore scene started in the 60's with the uprising of Herschell Gordon Lewis, with his movie Blood Feast which featured a very graphic scene of a woman getting her tongue pulled out of her mouth. After John Carpenter made Halloween in 1978, most horror films started featuring an attractive young cast and attempted to kill them off in the most horrific and bloody ways possible. This lead to a few amazing killing in Friday the 13th which featured slit throats and an absoulutely amazing decapitiation at the end of the movie.
Re Animator is very high on gore, most of the on screen kills are inventive and garunteed to please the gore fans of the world. As West brings bodies back to life, most of the time the experiments go wrong and he's forced to kill them again. He brings a cat back to life which then proceeds to attack him, he must kill it and he even gets attacked by a headless body, whos head is actually still alive. This film also features the best headless body I have ever seen in a film. The second best goes to Idle Hands, but the scenes where we see this body are so funny. It actually looks like the body has no head and the head still talks and moves, but it's so real it's scary. Besides that, most of the deaths include stabbings and such, theyre all supported with copious amounts of blood and usually a smile by the audience.
Herbet West is played terrifically by Jeffrey Combs; an absoulutely unforgettable performance. In the two sequels which follow this, Jeff continues to play the part evenly and as creepy as he did the first time around. Herbert is a strange guy dedicated to the art of science, when it comes to dead bodies of course. He is usually quiet and doesnt like people snooping in on his work, which is why he continues to flip on Dan and Megan. When Dan finally begins working with him and stuff, we see that he's truly dedicated to his work and he'll stop at nothing to succeed in bringing the body back to life. Jeff's performance is creepy and it gets scarier as the movie goes on. Just how passionate about death can one become? A good question.
Bruce Abbot puts on a good performance as Dan, the advanced medical student in whom West moves in with. Dan thinks West is insane, he's always down in the basement and he never really eats. So when Dan's cat goes missing one day and he finds it in West's refrigerator, things get a little tense between them. Dan eventually begins working with West though, working on bringing the dead back to life for good. They could put a stop to dying forever. Bruce is an average actor who doesnt really stand out to much, but he plays a key role and for that I needed to grant him some credit.
'Re Animator' is an amazing movie, I love it and I hope whoever watches it will enjoy it as much as I did.
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