31 Days of Horror- RE-ANIMATOR
The 1980s was the best eras for horror films ever. It was just one classic after another in a decade of great films. One of those films is the absolute masterpiece, Re-Animator, directed by Stuart Gordon in 1985. It is based on a Lovecraft short story.
Re-Animator is the story of a boy and his dream. Herbert West, played by the most excellent Jeffrey Combs, is introduced to us in an eye bursting opening scene. Literally. A medical student in Switzerland, West has just used his new re-agent serum to revive his mentor, a professor at the University. Not quite having the right amount of serum leads to a second death for the erstwhile professor.
Herbert then comes back to the USA to continue his research into the re-agent serum. He rents an extra bedroom from fellow medical school student Dan Cain, played by Bruce Abbot. His girlfriend, played by the delicious Barbara Crampton, is seriously creeped out by Herb.
It doesn’t take long for West to rope Dan into his research with questionable ethics, and things quickly start to fall apart. The father of Dan’s fiance ends up dead, and then as a reanimated corpse. West’s professor tried to steal West’s re-agent serum for his own and ends up on the wrong end of a shovel edge, making him considerably shorter. An entire morgue gets reanimated into the violent, brainless, semi-living dead.
In the middle of all that, we get to see a cat re-animated and a headless body holding its own head while it performs oral sex on a strapped-down, naked Crampton. Indeed.
The movie is a masterpiece. Like The Return Of The Living Dead, it is very much a dark comedy. Not as heavy on the comedy, but it is there. The special effects are top-notch, practical stuff. It is very bloody. Combs is great as Herbert West and I would argue it is his signature role. He went on to play West in two sequels. All worth watching.
Re-Animator is a film I give my highest recommendation to, and is an October essential. Hell, I watch it at least once every 2 months anyway.