Zombie Rom Com. If that doesn’t sell you on the premise of Re-Animator, then you must not be a fan of absurd horror movies. Re-Animator is one of my favorite horror movies, solely for the reason that movie is just so subversive, darkly humorous, and gory. A veritable cocktail mix for horror fans that are looking for a little something for everyone. A buffet of choices for viewers and it would probably make a good group movie. Also, who doesn’t love zombie movies?
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a brilliant medical student who has perfected a green-glowing serum for regenerating life into dead things — or even parts of dead things. But a corrupt superior, Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale), assumes control of West’s experiments and winds up, by ghastly necessity, using the stuff on his own severed head and body. West and in-over-his-head co-worker Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) struggle to control the now out-of-control effects of the serum, but the bone-saws and zombies complicate their plans. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi
A cult classic movie, probably the reason why I love this movie, Re-Animator definitely is twisted enough to instill the love of cult mentality on those that watch this movie. You got to really love H.P. Lovecraft and also high visceral, grisly gore to enjoy this movie with a rabid affection that most of the fans have. A potent mix of dark humor and the signature gore that makes horror movies that loveable medium where we can watch fantastical displays of violence and shock.
The movie is just fantastic, with Jeffery Combs as Hebert West, played to a creepy perfection. A wax figure looking man, his beady eyed West is a maniacal character who becomes obsessed with the re-animating the dead and being a Frankenstein creator in his own right. The sort of obsessed scientist in movies that allow him to have no moral compass in terms of doing what is right and only satisfying his needs, this leads him to doing insane acts against people and the manic nature shows. He certainly carries a lot of this movie, but he also has a lot of pathos in line delivery with his deadpan, dark humor lean in his lines.
The gore, violence and everything else in Re-Animator is just so over the top that it borders on the cartoon aspect of horror movies. I feel that this is what helps really sell the movie in a way with the shock value being diluted to an enjoyable, campy movie. The zombie gore is just about as plentiful as the amount of nude butts in the movie, which there is a lot of, so horror fans with get their blood lust on. The gallows style humor cuts through the gore and turns this into a comedy of sorts with Jeffery Combs nailing his deadpan lines. It all feels a bit too tongue in cheek, especially considering the source material. But this doesn’t stop or stymie the enjoyment of this movie.