Re-Animator (1985)

Director:

Stuart Gordon

Writers:

H.P. Lovecraft (story)
Dennis Paoli (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 October 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale of horror

Plot:

A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.

Plot Keywords:

Guard | Black Comedy | Screaming | Extreme Gore | Strangulation

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Jeffrey Combs	...	Herbert West
Bruce Abbott	...	Daniel 'Dan' Cain
Barbara Crampton	...	Megan Halsey
David Gale	...	Dr. Carl Hill
Robert Sampson	...	Dean Alan Halsey
Gerry Black	...	Mace (Miskatonic security guard)
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon	...	Dr. Harrod
Peter Kent	...	Melvin the Re-Animated
Barbara Pieters	...	Nurse
Ian Patrick Williams	...	Swiss professor
Bunny Summers	...	Swiss doctor
Al Berry	...	Dr. Gruber
Derek Pendleton	...	Swiss policeman #1
Gene Scherer	...	Swiss policeman #2
James Ellis	...	Psycho Ward guard #1

Runtime:

86 min (unrated version) | USA:95 min (R-rated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA (re-rating) (2007) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | UK:18 (re-rating) (2007) (uncut) | Australia:MA (2007 re-rating) | West Germany:Not Rated | Finland:K-18 | West Germany:18 (video premiere) (heavily cut) | South Korea:18 | Singapore:(Banned) | Belgium:16 (video rating) | Australia:R | France:-12 | Italy:VM18 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 (Banned) | UK:18 (cut) | USA:Open (rating surrendered: 1986) | USA:R (cut version: 1986) | Iceland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Empire Pictures

Trivia:

Very loosely adapted from H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West - Re-Animator".

Goofs:

Continuity: The university where all the action takes place is "Miskatonic". When West is reanimating the dead cat Rufus, there is a close-up of a bottle of chemicals from the university, spelled "Misketonic", with an 'e'.

Quotes:

Herbert West: Meatball?
Dan Cain: Just put your shoes on.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Making of 'Evil Dead II' or The Gore the Merrier (2000) (V)

The Greatest of All Lovecraft Interpretations

After learning all he can learn in Switzerland, Herbert West comes to America to study life and death. Can death be overcome? West thinks so, and with his reagent serum he might just prove to the world how right he is.

"Re-Animator" ranks at the very top of my all-time favorite horror movies. For a guy who has seen probably one thousand horror films, that's quite the accomplishment. For me, the film is paced perfectly, has plenty of gore, a fair amount of nudity (and a scene of sexuality you won't find elsewhere), some black comedy and a simple plot premise (a variation on the Frankenstein story).

This is the film that gave Jeffrey Combs his place in cult film history. On the basis of this movie alone, he is sought after to appear in other horror films and appear at horror conventions. Sure, some of his other films are pretty good, and he had an impressive run on both "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "The 4400". But he will always be known as Herbert West. None of the other stars (David Gale, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton) has gone on to such a level of recognition.

The film has some flaws. The score, which is supposed to be an "homage" to "Psycho" sounds more like a blatant ripoff. And my biggest pet peeve is trying to find a complete copy of the film. I owned the longer, R-rated version on VHS. Now I own the shorter, unrated version on DVD (the Millennium Edition). I have yet to find one that combines the gore of the uncut version with the plot of the R-rated one (which I think really drives home the story and fleshes out the motives and power of Dr. Hill).

But the sheer fun of the film makes up for the flaws. Jeffrey Combs is clearly having plenty of fun, and the way they approach such things as the reanimated cat and the use of the reagent as an intravenous drug tells me they knew that the key was just letting a good time fly.

The people involved with this film (Combs, director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna) went on to make a variety of other Lovecraft-inspired films. So I guess I have to thank the success of "Re-Animator" for giving them the chance to pursue these other projects (even the less wonderful ones like "Necronomicon" or "Dagon" (which many people like but I wasn't impressed)).

If you're a horror fan and haven't seen this, shame on you. You simply cannot have an in-depth conversation on horror without this film coming up. I urge you to check it out and decide for yourself. Can thousands of horror fans be wrong on this one? When have they steered you wrong before?