Re-Animator (1985)

 

Stuart Gordon, you wonderful, wonderful man you... Now there was a director who loved HP Lovecraft and did his very best to bring several stories to life, albeit with his very own spin on the proceedings and it gave us some absolute gems. 'Re-Animator' is most likely the best known of Gordon's Lovecraft adaptations and for good reason, as this one is a hoot from start to finish and an absolute must-see for everyone and anyone who claims to enjoy horror and darkly comedic ventures.

Yes, this one is not only gory but also funny. A most potent combination if there ever was one.

The story centres around Dan Cain, a very promising student at Miskatonic Medical School and his lovely, lovely girlfriend Megan. Things go excellently for him and then he gets a new roommate, a rather peculiar student called Herbert West. West is a bit of a weirdo and a loner, but Dan needs the extra money this new roommate supplies, so West is welcomed. 

At school, West immediately rubs one of the eminent surgeons the wrong way by stating that Dr Hill's ideas about braindeath are outdated. 

You can instantly tell West doesn't have a lot of friends in life.

What's even more peculiar is that West is working on a concoction that - according to him - reanimates corpses so that death need no longer be a finality. He tests it out on Dan's cat with pretty effective yet gruesome results. Before long, things get a bit out of hand and several people undergo the same fate. 

This all comes to a head (pun very much intended) when West kills dr Hill and then proceeds to re-animate him as well, but Hill has some ideas on what to do with his new lease on life-after-death, and one of those things includes Megan... 

The first thing you'll notice when watching this one is how colourful everything is when compared to many other films with zombies. It occasionally feels like a comic book, a look that was very much intended. The green fluorescent goo West uses has also become an iconic image in its own right, just as the decapitated dr Hill. 

'Re-Animator' would have also been just rather quaint if the characters weren't so memorable, but all the actors are endearing, each in their own way. Bruce Abbott is wonderful as Dan, who just can't seem to catch a break once Herbert West comes into his life. Speaking of West, Jeffrey Combs is the perfect fit for this role: you can tell he's a genius, but he's also deeply disturbed and will stop at nothing to prove his theorem. Combs plays him straight and it works. 

Then there's David Gale as the absolutely creep dr Hill. Heck, the dude feels even more disturbing just as a regular person lusting after Megan than after his unfortunate accident. Try not to cringe with the infamous head-scene. You'll know it when you see it. 

And last but certainly not least there is the incomparable Barbara Crampton, who manages to be sweet and innocent and also sexy as all heck. She would become a staple of Stuart Gordon's productions and she never fails to disappoint in any role she's in. Seriously: she's great. 

As for the gore: there is plenty and it looks amazing. The spcial effects' people studied real corpses and their various discolorations to make these dead people look actually more real than in many other films and it is truly disturbing. You also get a cat in various stages of decay, burn victims, decapitations, intestines exploding, braindrills used for various situations... It's a bloody blast.

Yet through it all, this has some levity and a very poignant ending, because Gordon never forgot that in order to fully get immersed in a story, the audience needs to feel something for the characters and it is that human heart that makes this one stand out as a true classic of the genre.