34 Days to Halloween- 1985 Re-Animator

Over the next 100 days, I will present one movie of significances in horror, suspense or thrillers for each year from 1919 to 2018. The next film presented here is the 1985 science fiction horror comedy "Re-Animator" starring Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, David Gale, Barbara Crampton and directed by Stuart Gordon.

Re-Animator (1985)

Dir- Stuart Gordon

There seems to be a rule that no HP Lovecraft story can be made right, well don't tell that to Stuart Gordon. In what is considered his most benign series of stories, Gordon delivers what may be the best-made movie based on any Lovecraft story. Herbert West (played so well by Jeffrey Combs) arrives at Miskatonic University with a weird green fluid and an attitude that would put fighter jocks to shame. He moves in with a fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), and they work together on his hideous experiments. Unfortunately, West has made a quick enemy, the evil Dr. Carl Hill, who wishes to take full credit for West's discovery. West soon dispatches him and revives his disembodied head with his fluid. Big mistake! The evil doctor then goes about trying to take out West and kidnap the Dean's lovely daughter Megan (Barbara Crampton). Re-Animator is a weird film, no question it was an instant cult classic when released. The movie boasts some of the goriest and funny scenes put on film, yet remains an intense and shocking horror film. The scenes involving the disembodied doctor are worth the price of admission and the dialogue is priceless. "What are they going to do, Embalm us!" I must warn you to avoid the R-rated version as it is cut and slashed worse than any corpse in this movie. It is also longer than the uncut version as they add some rather unnecessary dialogue to fill space.