Re-Animator is the story of Herbert West, a young medical student who’s singular interest is in his work trying to bring the dead back to life. After being expelled from the Zurich University Institute of Medicine, West enrolls in the Miskatonic University medical program to continue his research, much to the chagrin of Dr. Carl Hill, who West claims is ripping off his mentor while disagreeing heavily with is own findings on death. Herbert West rents a room in an apartment of another student, Dan Cain. West soon cajoles Cain into helping him with his research which ends up getting both of them expelled. West tenaciously has Cain sneak him into the morgue to perform his experiments with ghastly results. West’s re-animated corpse kills Dean Halsey, the father of Cain’s fiance. West, finding an opportunity in the crisis, re-animates the Dean which only serves to bring West’s experiments to Dr. Hill’s attention. Dr. Hill in turn makes his play to steal West’s re-agent, the green glowing chemical that re-animates the dead, in an effort to take the credit for the discovery.

Re-Animator is a brilliant adaption of H.P. Lovecraft’s serialized story Herbert West: Reanimator and is rife with gore and humor. The movie has a lot of fun with it’s low budget special effects and the quippy dialog of Jeffrey Comb’s Herbert West character.
Dan Cain: “You couldn’t call, or write a note.” [regarding the death of Rufus, his cat]
Herbert West: “I was busy pushing bodies around as you well know. And what would a note say, Dan? ‘Cat dead; details later’?”

The zombies in the Re-Animator series aren’t your typical shambling flesh-eaters, once re-animated, they go berserk thrashing, biting and throwing everyone in sight. But, once Dr. Hill lobotomizes the re-animated dead, they fall under his command in a typical Haitian zombie fashion. The make-up for the zombies is pretty good. Most of the zombies are naked, as they in a hospital morgue, so it was necessary to do full body make-up which doesn’t always match up, but the action, slapstick and gore take you mind off that rather quick.

Re-Animator is a classic and original film that every horror, gore and zombie fan should check out post haste.

Comments(1)

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our  RSS feed!     Bookmark to: