LogFAQs > #979960879

12. Re-Animator (1985 / 181 points)
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Why Its Significant - While perhaps not the biggest box office success story ever, Re-Animators outrageous gore, gruesome reanimation sequences, witty dialogue, and slapstick humor found a devoted following on home video and became a quick cult horror hit. Its hard to believe with how prevalent Lovecraft adaptations have become, but Re-Animator is not only one of the first full-length adaptations of a Lovecraft story, but also one of the rare few that isnt obviously low-budget or completely obscure. Re-Animator also became an unlikely franchise with two sequels, thematic successor in From Beyond (another Lovecraft adaptation with the main creative team from Re-Animator), Italian remake, comic books, & musical.

The Rankers
Fortybelowsummer - 3
Seginustemple - 7
Inviso - 8
Jcgamer107 - 8
Bitto - 9
Karo - 9
Mythiot - 12
Rockus - 16
Lightning - 17
Johnbobb - 21
Plasmabeam - 22
Snake - 23
Evilordexdeath - 26

Fortybelowsummer - Re-Animator is a movie that perfectly caters to my tastes, with copious amounts of gore, dark humor, and a delightful B movie presentation that is hugely entertaining all the way through. It doesnt waste any time introducing us to Herbert West and what hes all about with a gnarly eye-popping opening followed by one of the coolest opening credits ever. Its a wild ride from there, with a disembodied head ordering around its former body, a flying zombie cat thats so blatantly a puppet (the funniest moment in all of our movies), lots of naked zombies, and a number of creative kills. Its all bolstered by some good to great performances from established theater actors, including everyones favorite scream queen Barbara Crampton (maybe not everyone, but anyone with good taste). Im delighted to get Re-Animator in my top 3 because it is top freakin notch.

Seginustemple - Jeffrey Combs is a pure delight as the insufferable know-it-all Dr. West, giving the face of scientific hubris a shit-eating grin. And Bruce Abbott's more sympathetic Dr. Cain doesn't get enough credit as the foil, his kindness grounds the movie emotionally so it's not totally suffocated by snark and cynicism. West has the dominant personality but the narrative is really about Cain's good intentions helping him pave the road, and I think that's what makes it land with real tragedy. The sunk cost rationale to their madness is both unnervingly plausible (I wouldn't put it past an Elon) and hilariously over-the-top. The zombie acting is some of my favorite in the genre, feral and jerky, it really gives the action a berserk intensity. Once the professor is beheaded and revived the craziness gets cranked, everything to do with him is great. The fellatio gross-out scene, the physical comedy of the body/head acting duo, the dad zombie popping the head and flinging it at the wall like a deflated dodgeball, the overdosed body's intestines constricting Dr. West like a snake, man it's such a delicious finale. A good doctor knows when to quit!

Inviso - This movie is absolutely gross, with a lot of gore effects given that the subject matter is a chemical formula designed to reanimate deceased lifeforms and bring them back to life with a certain degree of cognizant thought. I think if the movie had tried to play it straight and gone the route of a very serious, Frankenstein-style plot, it wouldnt have been as enjoyable. But with the more comedic tone, you can go over-the-top with some of the films sequences, and still find them enjoyable to watch. West himself is the kind of insane, camp character that elevates a movie just by chewing the scenery with his insanity. But beyond him, you have this hilarious exploration of a very morbid storyline.

But yeah, you have the perfect heroic everyman in Dan Cain; hes introduced as this guy who desperately wants to save lives, even when its clear hes fighting for a lost cause. And he gets wrapped up with West because he needs a roommate, and slowly he gets wrapped into Wests orbit because WEST wants to prevent death as well. Its a great way to justify why a straight-laced guy like Cain would EVER want to get involved with a psycho like West, especially after West has some straight-up cat murder on his resum. But yeah, this ONE relationship completely tanks Dans life and his efforts to get Wests work recognized wind up setting in motion the rest of the film.

I love the doofus deans death scene as well, because the idea of reanimations being psychotic and overpowered is lovely. We get a whole scene of a naked dead guy straight-up murdering the dean, and then the DEAN gets reanimated and he turns into a mindless zombie himself. But this all leads to an investigation into why the dean is acting so crazy, and Professor Hill gets involved to try and steal Wests workonly to get murdered for his arrogance. But then HE turns into the villain because HE reanimates with some actual brainpower. And HE has goals: namely getting everything he wants by stealing Wests formula and trying to screw Meg as a severed head. Its all fucked up, but it MAKES SENSE in the context of what it is.

My ONLY problem is thatI GET the ending. I get the ending of having Dan Cain succumb to the dark side and personally use Wests formula to resurrect Meg. But JUST before that, we have a callback to Dans first scene where hes trying to CPR and defibrillate a dead patient, and then he gets a second chance to rescue Meg. I almost wish hed gotten that hero moment to kind of show that he was still a good guy, even if West was a lunatic. But I get the ending is meant to be more in line with the tone of the rest of the film. I just wish I could see a second cut with a more heroic tone.

Jcgamer107 - 7/10

Bitto - Rating: B-

If I had to show someone one movie to explain the appeal of shlocky American horror movies, it would be this one. It's really got it all and it does it well. Cornel West is such a fun character to watch. He really carries the movie for a while, because man, everyone else is bad. Then Dr. Hill gets re-animated and he also does a great job. There's obviously a lot of fun with having a guy that's both a head and a headless body. It also leads to some insane scenes like a decapitated head performing oral on a woman, which is just...wow, they really had an imagination, huh. Meg and Dan really bring the movie down, unfortunately, especially as they continue to gain a really prominent role in the movie. Meg, especially, because she's kinda the connecting force between all the characters in the movie and she's just...nothing.

Also, I really like the main theme song of this movie.

Karo - A mad doctor trying to cure death discovers way to move some dead bones, the secret of which involves injecting corpses with glowing green ooze straight out of the ninja turtles. Radical, dude.

Thus begins a journey featuring copious amounts medical malpractice and corpse desecration across the board which makes me wonder about the vetting process for employment at this hospital insomuch as they seem to keep hiring obsessive psychopaths with a god complex.

Unfortunately, the movie repeatedly violates not only basic logic, but also the established rules of its own world. One minute you're killing a reanimation instantly by stabbing it through the heart, next you have one surviving for hours being nothing but a fucking head. You might need to re-animate some consistency here.

It is a movie that is fun, if not really great, but honestly I prefer the song.