Re-Animator (1985)

Stuart Gordon's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Herbert West: Re-Animator puts a Night of the Living Dead spin on the classic Frankenstein story. Jeffrey Combs furrows his brow and bugs his eyes as the preternaturally intense Herbert West, a maverick medical student whose gory, gooey experiments cause bloody corpses and body parts to jerk to life. Bruce Abbot is the studious roommate drawn into his extracurricular experiments, which soon involve the dean's daughter (the frequently naked Barbara Crampton) and the college's cadaverous, calculating star professor (David Gale), who literally loses his head over a battle for West's discovery. In this world, that's only a minor setback. Charged with sick gallows humor and a ghoulish gallery of undead beasties, Re-Animator, like Evil Dead II, is one of the most inspired and inventive--and funniest--horror films of the 1980s. Combs, Abbot, and Gale reunite for the almost-as-entertaining sequel Bride of Re-Animator. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

"You agree it's dead now?"

Beware all those who are squeamish or easily offended. Re-Animator is of the old school B-horror movie class that revels in gore, nudity and all around madness. It is the perfect melding of humor and horror, as madly brilliant medical student Herbert West perfects his procedure of reanimating the dead. Once perfected (on a very put-upon cat) West begins to reanimate all the dead bodies he comes across, and since this is a horror movie, he stumbles across quite a few. Again, because it is a horror movie the path to perfect reanimation does not run smooth, and West must face the dire consequences of his actions.
The special effects in Re-animator are quite good for 1985, and the tongue-in-cheek tone of the movie makes them even better. They were meant to be laughed at, even in 1985. The acting is much better than the average horror movie, particularly Jeffrey Combs, as the monomaniacal West. In plot, acting and effects the movie is just fine; its in the details that the movie goes gleefully off the rails, making it the most fun horror movie of all time.


September 9, 2008

Far better than what I expected

After seeing From Beyond for the very first time recently. I was encouraged by a few amazon friends to give this a watch. Some even claimed it was better. Well I agree with every word and I'm glad to add this into my horror collection. Re Animator is packed with over the top gore and dark comedy.

Jeffrey Combs stars as Herbert West. A mad scientist hell bent on bringing back the dead with a formula he created. His formula causes the subjects to go off in a berserker rage. His subjects also include animals, this wild attempt gave birth to one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in horror.

This film is over the top fun even though I felt my intelligence was insulted at times. The acting was pretty solid and I enjoyed every single minute. The only gripe that I have which is minor, is the film isn't scary at all. I found it to barely be creepy. However, this is definitly a film I'm glad to have and horror buffs should definitly check this out. If you're very serious about your horror and can't tolerate dark comedy at all. I recommend a rental at most.

July 27, 2008

Re-Animator

This deserves three and a half stars. If you enjoy a little schlock with your horror SciFi then you should definitely catch Re-Animator. Jeffrey Combs (Star Trek: DS-9, Voyager, Enterprise, etc.) is great and the rest the cast aren't bad. Your typical mad doctor brings the undead back to life to rip peoples heads and insides off. A bit grisly for those unacustomed to horror gore. The production values were not bad for a B movie. Overall a fun experience for teenagers and adults. Contains some nudity. Good quality DVD with some replayability. If you enjoyed this catch "Van Helsing", "Frankenstein", and "Army of Darkness". - C. Luster July 14, 2008

Good for a laugh

This a camp movie that's good for a laugh. Beware though, there are some pretty much gore and nudity in the movie. I wonder what H.P. would have thought. June 18, 2008

Re-Animator impresses!

Amazingly I hadn't seen this one until recently despite the fact that it appears on just about every list of essential horror films, but after a single viewing I could see why. Boasting some likable characters and a modest amount of gore, this movie really stands out from the slasher dominated 80's horror scene. That being said, I would not go as far as to call this a zombie film as many people do. Although reanimated corpses make an appearance, it is much more along the lines of a mad scientist type movie, and it has to be among the best of its kind offering a great blend of horror and dark comedy.

In short, aspiring Dr. Herbert West has discovered a formula for reanimating deceased subject matters. When he grows weary of experimenting with animals, he convinces his fellow medical student and room mate Dan to accompany him to the morgue to further pursue his research with human specimins. Herbert's formula does in fact reanimate humans, but the living corpses display erratic and violent behavior. When their instructor Dr. Hill learns of Herbert's discovery, he sets out to claim the discovery as his own as well as creating his own army of reanimated subjects, but Herbert will not allow it. The two face off in a final and gory confrontation.

Jeffrey Combs is just fantastic as the eccentric Herbert West! He really manages to make you laugh despite the amount of graphic gore on screen and is quite a memorable character from the horror genre in general. Barbara Crampton is also great as the film's female interest as well as the rest of the cast with ocassionally over the top, yet sufficient performances . The score, although a tad cheesy, is a great touch as well and seems to be based on the theme from Psycho. Overall it's just a fun movie with nothing not to like if you enjoy this type of movie. I highly recommend Re-Animator, thanks for reading! March 27, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...