I still can't believe I slept on Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator for as long as I did. I didn't actually wind up seeing it for the first time until earlier this year when I discovered that Joe Bob Briggs was going to be showing the sequel, Bride of Re-Animator as part of his "The Last Drive-In" show on Shudder. I went in pretty much blind and a short 90 minutes later came out with a silly grin. This is easily one of the craziest and downright hilarious (in a really dark and twisted way) horror comedies I have ever seen.
Herbert West (played by Jeffrey Combs) has just transferred to the Miskatonic University School of Medicine to further his studies as a medical student and quickly finds lodging in the home of fellow Medical Student Dan Cain (played by Bruce Abbott). Of particular interest is Dan's unfinished basement, which provides ample room for him to carry out his studies. Soon enough, Dan discovers Herbert's extracurricular studies with a formula of his own creation that can re-animate dead tissue. He demonstrates this by re-animating Dan's dead cat. The resulting chaos causes them to be discovered by Dan's girlfriend, Megan Halsey (played by Barbara Crampton), who is naturally horrified. Yet, Dan finds himself drawn into Herbert's admittingly groundbreaking research. As their research progresses to recently human subjects, things start to get out of control as their subjects do indeed come back to life, but far more violent and vicious. This attracts the attention of not only the school's dean (and Megan's father), Alan Halsey (played by Robert Sampson) but one of their professors looking to steal Herbert's research for himself, Dr. Carl Hill (played by David Gale).
The film was directed by Stuart Gordon from a script he co-wrote with Dennis Paoli and William J. Norris and is loosely based on the short story "Herbert West - Re-Animator" by H.P Lovecraft. The filmmakers waste no time getting the film going as the movie kicks off with Herbert West already in the midst of his research while working in Switzerland, having given a dose of his "re-agent" to a subject only to rather gruesomely discover he used to much when the man's eyeballs bulge out of his head and explode. They play out the scenario and all the mayhem that follows throughout the film with a strong dose of very black humor that sets this film apart from others. It's hard to tell if it was all intentional or just the effect of how the actors performed their scenes but either way, it makes the film. It is also hard to believe some of the more outrageous moments in the film involving a reanimated zombie carrying around their own decapitated head were meant to be taken the least bit seriously as the whole thing is so far over the top it's hilarious. I also have to give the filmmakers credit for opting to release the film unrated rather than mess with the MPAA as the film is quite gruesome, with fantastic makeup effects by John Naulin. Everything is capped off with a memorable score by Richard Band, with a bopping and playful main theme that shamelessly builds on Bernard Hermann's theme for Psycho.
The cast for this film is really good, starting with Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West who just completely steals the show. He does a great job showing West's single minded obsession with unlocking the secrets of life and death and doesn't stop for a second to consider the consequences. His obsession just continues to grow throughout the film as he tries to find the right dosage of his re-agent. Not only that, but his curiosity leads him to do things he probably shouldn't and Combs plays these scenes wonderfully. You can just see the wheels turning in West's head as he wonders what would happen if he did something, such as deciding to inject a decapitated head with the re-agent and then perfectly playing the comedic aspect as he absent mindedly taps the head with a pencil as he waits for it to re-animate. On the other side of the coin, Bruce Abbott plays the far more straight-laced Dan who wants nothing more than to be a good doctor and help his patients. Still, when we are first introduced to him, we see him desperately trying to save a patient and losing the battle, so it's easy to see how he will be seduced by Herbert's research. It's that desire to save his patients and triumph over death that pulls him into the experiments. Barbara Crampton does well as Megan, bringing a lot of intelligence and strength to her character as she finds herself having to deal with the escalating insanity alongside Dan being unleashed by Herbert West. David Gale is clearly having fun playing the evil Dr. Hill who only wants to steal West's creation for himself and will do whatever it takes to get it. To add to the creep factor, he also has an obsessed fixation on Megan that escalates over the course of the film to some really wild and uncomfortable places.
Overall, Re-Animator is one wild ride of a movie. It has some similar themes as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein but is pared with a very healthy dose of black humor as the film goes way, way over the top with both it's gore effects as well as it's overall story. With memorable performances, especially from Jeffrey Combs, this film is a hoot from beginning to end. It is certainly one I regret waiting so long to see. I will concede that it is not going to be a movie for everyone as it does get pretty twisted as it goes along. But if you have a twisted sense of humor like I do, you'll probably have a good time with it.
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