I saw
Re-Animator years and years ago but it wasn't until I watched it again at a friend's house this weekend that I realized what a trashy little nugget of comedic horror gold Stuart Gordon directed . . .
When I bought this movie off Amazon.com for above mentioned friend's birthday that would have been good enough - he loves Re-Animator and had been trying to find it for a while. But the piece de resistance of this little gift was that it came in a box that contained a syringe-shaped highlighter in that funky green tone of the Re-Animator serum - how priceless is that?
But I digress, back to the movie. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is an eccentric and very driven medical student who has one thing on his mind . . . curing the dead. He has worked very hard under his mentor Dr. Gruber (Al Berry) to perfect a serum that can re-animate the brain. However, things don't go so well for him at home and he ends up coming to the states to continue his studies.
There he ends up as roommate to Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), another gifted medical student who also happens to be shagging the daughter (Barbara Crampton) of the Dean of the school - Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson). From the beginning, West does not get along well with the school's scholarship fountain, Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) whom he thinks is just a plagiarizing hack. But more than that, he pulls Cain into his research and this is no good for Cain's career or his life in general (and especially not good for his cat). During their research things go from bad to worse when Dean Halsey walks in on their research in progress and ends up their freshest victim - er I mean subject - yet.
With unforgettable gems such as a rape/bondage style "love" scene with a severed head being held by its own body and of course the eye popping, exploding head scene Re-Animator certainly has enough gore to satisfy. It is also hilariously funny and just as equally exquisitely disturbing (you did read about the rape/bondage style "love" scene, right . . . ).
I need to mention the performance of David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill who is the severed head being held by its own body I mentioned above. Gale was just superb as an arrogant professor who was also obsessively albeit secretly stalking the daughter of the Dean. Jeffrey Combs also put out smart rendition of an extremely obsessive/compulsive medical genius gone awry. The rest of the cast were just so-so for me but these two really made the film in my opinion.
A must see for fans of comedic horror. If you loved the Evil Dead series, I would venture to say that Re-Animator would be right up your alley.
Re-Animator Movie Cast and Credits
Directed by
Stuart Gordon
Writing credits
H.P. Lovecraft (story Herbert West, Re-Animator)
Dennis Paoli (screenplay) and
William Norris (screenplay) (as William J. Norris) and
Stuart Gordon (screenplay)
Cast (in credits order)
Jeffrey Combs ... Herbert West
Bruce Abbott ... Dan Cain
Barbara Crampton ... Megan Halsey
David Gale ... Dr. Carl Hill
Robert Sampson ... Dean Alan Halsey
Gerry Black ... Mace (Miskatonic security guard)
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon ... Dr. Harrod
Peter Kent ... Melvin the Re-Animated
Barbara Pieters ... Nurse
Ian Patrick Williams ... Swiss professor
Bunny Summers ... Swiss doctor
Al Berry ... Dr. Gruber
Derek Pendleton ... Swiss policeman #1
Gene Scherer ... Swiss policeman #2
James Ellis ... Psycho Ward guard #1
James Earl Cathay ... Psycho Ward guard #2
Annyce Holzman ... E-R patient corpse
Velvet Debois ... Slit wrist girl corpse
Lawrence Lowe ... Failed operation corpse
Robert Holcomb ... Motorcycle accident corpse
Mike Filloon ... Facial bullet wound corpse
Greg Reid ... One-armed man corpse
Jack Draheim ... Tall skinny guy corpse
Robert Pitzele ... Bald O-R corpse
More Re-Animator Movie Reviews
Re-Animator Movie Review from FeoAmanteReview of Re-Animator at BlogCritics
