By Melissa Ann
It has been 30 years since we were introduced to the brilliantly mad Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) in Re-Animator. With a budget of just under a million dollars, director and writer Stuart Gordon created a movie that is loved by horror fans decades later and considered to be one of the top cult films ever made. This is a movie that I fall a little more in love with each time I see it.
Medical student Herbert West creates a green glowing reagent that brings the dead back to life. He is fixated with advancing his research and proving that the brain and tissue can be reanimated, even after it’s been dead for some time. Jeffrey Combs plays the creepy, dark and obsessive Herbert West perfectly with the right amount of deadpan humor. I can’t help but find him oddly loveable as a modern day Frankenstein. Herbert’s classmate and roommate, Dan (Bruce Abbott), and Dan’s girlfriend Megan (Barbara Crampton), get thrown into the madness after seeing the reagent used on Dan’s dead cat.
Things spiral out of control and the dead bodies quickly start adding up. Of course, they have a hard time staying dead when Herbert West is around. He isn’t one to miss an opportunity to experiment, regardless of consequences. Herbert, Dan, and Megan must see their way through violent raging corpses, personal loss, a reanimated and decapitated mastermind, lobotomized zombies under mind control and a cringe-worthy sexual situation involving a talking head. How badly I wanted to look away while horror queen Barbara Crampton’s naked body gets kissed and touched by a bloody head while she’s strapped to a table. Having her zombie father in the room while this takes place only adds to my discomfort. It shocked me the first time I saw it and still packs a punch every time I watch.
Re-Animator is able to satisfy my craving for practical effects, zombies and dark humor. Its over-the-top gore and sexualized scenes are unapologetic. Special effects make-up artist John Naulin claims that Re-Animator was the bloodiest film he’s ever worked on and used 24 gallons of fake blood. Watching a bone saw going through a zombie or a dismembered head talking as he’s soaking in a bucket of fresh blood gives me a huge thrill.
It was followed by Bride of Re-Animator in 1990 and Beyond Re-Animator in 2003, as well as comics, books and a Broadway musical. I can see why the movie made such an impact and continues to get talked about 30 years after its release. This is a must-see classic for every horror fan and gorehound.
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Produced by: Brian Yuzna
Written by: Stuart Gordon William J. Norris Dennis Paoli
Distributed by: Empire Pictures
Release date: October 18, 1985
Rating: 8.5/10
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