Plot
A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.
Release Year: 1985
Rating: 7.3/10 (17,974 voted)
Director:
Stuart Gordon
Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton
Storyline A medical student and his girlfriend become involved in a bizarre experiment into reanimating the dead conducted by the student's incorrigible housemate in this campy sendup of an H.P. Lovecraft story. The emphasis is on humour but once the dead walk, there is gore aplenty.
Writers: H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli
Cast: Jeffrey Combs
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Herbert West
Bruce Abbott
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Dan Cain
Barbara Crampton
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Megan Halsey
David Gale
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Dr. Carl Hill
Robert Sampson
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Dean Halsey
Gerry Black
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Mace
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
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Dr. Harrod
Peter Kent
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Melvin the Re-Animated
Barbara Pieters
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Nurse
Ian Patrick Williams
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Swiss Professor
Bunny Summers
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Swiss Woman Doctor
Al Berry
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Dr. Gruber
Derek Pendleton
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Swiss Policeman #1
Gene Scherer
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Swiss Policeman #2
James Ellis
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Psycho Ward Guard #1
Trivia:
Cameo:
[James Cameron's father]
The man sitting next to Meg with his jaw bandaged up is James Cameron's father.
Goofs:
Factual errors:
The bone saw that Dr. Hill uses to dissect the cadaver in class never rotates.
Quotes: Herbert West:
Meatball? Dan Cain:
Just put your shoes on.
User Review
Tons of campy fun.
Rating: 8/10
Ah, finally a horror camp classic that deserves to be called a horror
camp classic. Re-Animator is one of those fun horror movies that is so
over the top that it is just a lot of fun to watch, kind of like the
spectacular Evil Dead films, although not quite to that same level of
skillful horror/comedy mix. Ironically enough, I think it should be a
testament to the quality of the rest of the movie that it is able to
work so well despite prominently featuring a soundtrack that is a naked
rip-off of the Psycho soundtrack. It's amazing to me that Richard Bond,
the music composer, didn't think anyone would notice him plagiarizing
one of the most famous movie soundtracks in cinematic history, but
luckily everyone else in the production was right on the mark.
Jeffrey Combs delivers a wonderfully crazy performance as Herbert West,
the scientist in the movie who is determined that he has discovered a
scientific method to beat death, and is desperate to try it out on a
human being rather than small animals, on whom he has had remarkable
success. He is playing a completely one-dimensional character, a genius
scientist whose mental capacity is also tinged with madness, but which
is counterbalanced by the fact that he may very well be desperate to
try something potentially immoral but which could also potentially
revolutionize medicine. Maybe his intentions are good after all, but
for the purposes of the film, he just wants to get his hands on some
fresh corpses, which is a great premise for a horror film.
The movie operates in its own world, like the Evil Dead films did. It
takes place in the horror genre but wants to combine some elements of
drama as well, as we have a real scientist who is truly brilliant. He
is still in medical school, I believe, but is often smarter than his
often-published professors, criticizing their work for being incorrect
or even plagiarized. He's very quick to make enemies, I would think his
line of work might be easier the less people he had watching him, so
it's unfortunate that he was so good at making people not like him.
Mere days after he rents out a room from a couple of other students,
they find their cat dead in his refrigerator. I hate it when new
roommates do that.
There is plenty of gratuitous nudity in the film, and while I
appreciate nudity as much as the next guy, I don't like it when it
drives a weak film, and that is certainly not the case here. There is a
graphic and highly disturbing nude scene three quarters or so through
the film that made me literally cringe and turn my head, not because of
gore but by the sheer disturbing idea of it, it was awful. But the
thing that I loved is that that scene fits in with the rest of this
movie so well. It is all about too much gore and too much blood and too
much nudity, but also lots of laughs. This is a perfect example of how
much fun scary movies can be.
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