Director: Stuart Gordon
Writer: Dennis Paoli, William Norris, Stuart Gordon (Screenplay) H.P. Lovecraft (Story)
Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Robert Sampson, Gerry Black
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.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: One for All Horror Fans
Story: Re-Animator starts as we see Dr Herbert West (Combs) latest experiment in Switzerland go terribly wrong he returns to America. Back in America he joins the class with highly regarded student Dan Cain (Abbott) to which he roommates with. It doesn’t take long for Dr West to clash with his teacher Dr Hill (Gale) who has been doing similar studies with different results.
When Dan learns of Herbert’s experiments he agrees to help in the studying much against his girlfriend Megan (Crampton) and her father Dean Halsey’s (Sampson) wishes, this leads to Herbert getting kicked out and lots of sneaking around, as they look to prove you can bring the dead back to life.
When Herbert and Dan bring someone back from the dead Dr Hill gets jealous and want to steal the abilities they have as his own research leading to the bodies to pile up because when people come back from the dead they are all the deadlier.
Thoughts on Re-Animator
Characters/Performance – Dr Herbert West is the scientist determined to prove you can bring the dead back to life, he is socially awkward and always believes he is correct. He will do anything to prove his science. Dan is the honest medical student who has a bright future a head of himself but soon finds himself caught in the middle of West and Hill experiments. Megan is the innocent girlfriend of Dan and daughter of the Dean. Dr Hill also believe he knows everything when it comes to dealing with the human brain but once Wet arrives he wants to learn from his ideas to steal them as his own.
Performance wise, Jeffrey Combs shines in this role as he is both creepy and brilliant in his delivery of his lines. Bruce Abbott is good as this character with Barbara Crampton makes for an iconic couple of scenes in horror. David gale is good as the jealous doctor fully making us believe his desires.
Story – The story is clearly the next advancement of the Frankenstein idea with a scientist who wants to bring people back to life. This does have enough of twist to be its own story and brings in a fresh approach to how the reanimating is performed, we do also have the mad scientist and a love story that makes this a very entertaining horror film.
Comedy/Horror/Sci-Fi – There are moments of comedy in this film and I sure people will have a laugh or two, the horror adds to both the comedy and sci-fi elements of the film because we get to see graphic kill and body horror in this film. the idea of bringing people back from the dead helps with the sci-fi side of the story.
Settings – The settings used in this film do come off the normal for the style of film with the morgue scene being the most iconic of all of the settings being used.
Special Effects – The special effects are all practical ones and they all look fantastic even after 32 years, this is just amazing to see what they did.
Final Thoughts – When it comes to horror I do think this is something all the horror fans will enjoy, the effects are brilliant the graphic blood also makes it feel over the top too.
Overall: Must watch for all horror fans.
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