RE-ANIMATOR - 1985
Empire Pictures / Vestron Video
Rating: USA: R |
|
H.P. Lovecraft would be proud of this movie. Well, maybe. Okay, probably not. After all
his stories were almost as lifeless as his corpses and this intense horror
flick about the dead being brought back to life is lively indeed.
Before you start the frantic e-mail campaign telling me what a genius Lovecraft was
let me say that I agree. I enjoy his dry as a bone Freudian prose now
and again. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement.
RE-ANIMATOR opens with German-speaking security guards breaking into a locked lab
to investigate horrific screams. Inside, young Herbert West (Jeffrey
Combs: FROM BEYOND, THE FRIGHTENERS) is leaning over his mentor, Dr. Hans Gruber (Al
Berry: HALLOWEEN III: Season of the Witch) who is in the throes
of a seizure that quickly results in an eye-popping cranial detonation
(Not as good as SCANNERS, but pretty good).
We cut from this teaser to Miskatonic Medical Institute in Lovecraft’s imaginary
Arkham, Massachusetts. Medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott: THE PROPHECY II, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR) loses a patient
and takes the corpse down to the morgue. The acting here is far from Oscar
quality, but it’s good enough.
In the morgue Dan meets Herbert West, who has just transferred here. Also present are
the Dean of the University, Dean Halsey (Robert
Sampson: NETHERWORLD) and
Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale: SYNGENOR).
There is immediate tension between Herbert and Dr. Hill, whom Herbert
accuses of stealing ideas from his mentor, Dr. Gruber.
Herbert meets Dan again later that night when he answers Dan’s roommate ad. Herbert
moves into the basement and the story really begins to move. Dan’s
girl friend Megan (Barbara Crampton: FROM
BEYOND, CASTLE FREAK) takes an immediate dislike to Herbert,
especially after her cat disappears. She’s even more upset when Dan
is drawn into Herbert’s web and begins participating in the experiments.
The story revolves around the Frankenstein idea: that there is such a thing as a
"life force" and that by using this mystical energy the dead
can be brought back to life. Instead of electricity, Herbert uses a glowing
green chemical of his own making, but the idea is the same. The science
isn’t terrible; Herbert makes it clear that his reagent simply reactivates
life’s chemical processes. It does this well, but even for someone
who’s been dead a short time, the brain damage is massive so the
re-animated individual is either a drooling idiot or a pain-crazed animal.
Toward the end the movie pays less and less attention to the science (how
can a severed head speak when no air is passing over its vocal cords?)
but your suspension of disbelief is plenty roomy by then.
Jeffrey Combs does a good job as the text-book mad scientist, willing to sacrifice anything
or anyone to prove he’s right, and willing to experiment on anything
dead he happens to find. The only major criticism I have is with the lighting.
Half the time the scenes are so dark it’s hard to tell what’s
going on. But the gore is inventive and non-stop and you get to see one
of the best horror nude scenes ever made. I give RE-ANIMATOR four shriek girls.
This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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