Re-Animator (1985)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Back in the early 60s and 70s there some Lovecraft adaptation movies here and there but non of them get quite the recognition like Re-Animator in 1985 when it not only put Stuart Gordon and actor Jeffrey Combs into the cult status of horror movie history but also kick start the Lovecraft adaptation and Lovecraftian movies to this day with the latest contributation The Void in 2016.In Re-Animator despite being written by the author himself H.P Lovecraft and there's no doubt about the fun and gory natural of the movie it still contain nothing like the latter on adaptation movies when it not about the other dimension or crazy tentacle monster but a straigh up zombie movie.It's kind of bugging me out when i saw it for the first time but now after revisited Re-Animator the second time I finally known the true purpose of this movie is to introduce Lovecraft works to a new generation that grew up with modern monster like:Vampire,giant monster,werewolf and zombie before the good stuff that is fear of the unknown

'Re-Animator (1985)' is a strange and sometimes uncomfortable picture practically the perfect place for the practical special effects work splattered across the gooey, slimy scenes that mix straight horror with slight surrealism to off-putting yet successful effect. It's cheesy yet charming, ill-conceived yet somewhat justifiable, hard to place yet strangely enjoyable and, while it's certainly not a classic by any standard other than 'cult', it isn't a bad watch if you want some whacky weirdness and a good bit of blood. 6/10

Based loosely on the 1922 H. P. Lovecraft novella "Herbert West– Reanimator", this classic mid-80s horror is both old-fashioned and new. It takes a work of period literature – about a grave-robbing doctor restarting dead human beings as if they were machines – and transplants it to a modern-day mad scientist workshop, effectively reinvigorating the zombie genre. With its unnatural lighting, crooked angles and melodramatic outbursts, Re-Animator has the style of cautionary 50s sci-fi. Except much, much gorier.Jeffrey Combs plays West, whom we meet grappling with one Dr Hans Gruber (that's right). It turns out that West wasn't killing Gruber; he was bringing him back to life with the help of a special serum. West flees to New England, where he moves in with Dan (Bruce Abbott), a trainee surgeon, and his girlfriend Megan (scream queen Barbara Crampton). West soon gets to work resurrecting dead animals, but his sights are set on human reanimation. Appealing to his curiosity and his ego – and despite the warnings of Megan – West convinces Dan to assist him, gaining access to the morgue. Meanwhile, the scheming Dr Hill (David Gale) seeks to steal the serum and create a zombie army of his own. The movie is based mostly in a single set, the morgue, meaning most of the sub-$1m budget goes on spectacularly gruesome special makeup effects. This release is the "Unrated" version, meaning all the beheadings and disembowellings are here in all their 4K glory. It's safe to say Re-Animator features some of the most impressive and memorable gore effects of the decade. Tony Doublin's design for the headless Dr Hill is masterful. The scenes where Hill's disembodied head is psychically controlling his stumbling body are eye-poppingly gross and funny.The script is sharp, the plotting is tight, and the characters are well-rounded. Sure, the goodies aren't nearly as fun as the plotting puppeteers. But then, this isn't the kind of movie where you're expecting to feel fuzzy and consoled come the final freeze-frame. More satirical than David Cronenberg's The Fly but straighter than Frank Henenlotter's Frankenhooker, Re-Animator successfully finds the sweet spot between comedy and horror. This is thanks in large part to the universally good performances, chief of which is the possessed Combs, whose deranged scientist is hilarious and unique. There's talent on the other side of the camera, too. Richard Band's wonderful music is pure Psycho-era Bernard Herrman. And the producer is Brian Yuzna, whose directorial debut would be the fantastically grotesque Society, and who would direct the Re-Animator sequel in 1990. Bold characterisation, barking performances, timeless practical effects, efficient plotting and jet-black humour – not to mention considerable after-the-event reassessment – leaves Re-Animator a shoe-in for cult status. It even dares to ask big questions: What is medical science for? Should we seek to cheat death entirely? And then it drowns such lofty concerns in a bucket of offal.

Re-Animator is a low budget, silly, gore filled, schlock horror comedy. In fact I think the director was hoping to make a serious adaptation of a H P Lovecraft story and decided to send it up as a campy horror comedy based on the Frankenstein/zombie genres and somehow it succeeds. A dismembered head trying to give fellatio to a naked, bound woman will forever be etched in my memory!Bruce Abbott plays the rather wooden lead, Dan Kane, a well meaning doctor who is roped in by Jeffrey Comb's Herbert West who is experimenting with a serum to bring the dead to life. Barbara Crampton plays the sexy girlfriend of Kane who is also the daughter of the hospital principal. David Gale plays a rival doctor who also wants to experiment in reviving the dead and has a sleazy eye on Crampton as well.The film in some ways makes little sense, dismembered bodies moving and attacking people. Yet its a hoot as well as unnerving. Its a classic of 80s horror-comedy.