If Dr. Gruber only knew the cult favorite he started back in 1985, being the guinea pig for that glowing, now-famous antidote for death. Yes!  Who can forget the screaming Dr. Gruber, with eyes bulging, his eyes spraying blood, heralding the carnage to come? Who can forget the now infamous Herbert West emerging to say in defense, ”I gave him life!”  Re-Animator was directed by Stuart Gordon and based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story called “Herbert West, Re-Animator.”  The result is now a cult classic, if not a classic in general.

Re-Animator opens at a university in Switzerland and moves, after its bloody beginning, to the Miskatonic Medical School in Arkham, Massachussetts, on the stomping grounds of H.P. Lovecraft himself.  (Yes, I wonder how many people know that?)  Everything is normal, or as normal as things get in med school, until the arrival of the main, but not-so-normal character, Herbert West.

“We can achieve every doctor’s dream! You’ll be famous, and live lifetimes.” ~ Herbert West

Just who is Herbert West, nicknamed Re-Animator by Lovecraft?  West (Jeffrey Combs) is just the character needed for cinematic cultdom, nerdy to extremes, ripe with onscreen insanity.  Yes, medical mayhem is West’s destiny, although bringing the dead back to life is his goal.  “I’ve broken the six to twelve minute barrier.  I’ve conquered brain death,” says Herbert.  (Has he ever, and with what consequences!)  Being at odds with the movie’s chief surgeon, Dr. Hill, is where the conflict begins.  Can things get more bizarre than even Herbert’s twisted mind could imagine?  Oh yes!  Even zombified intestines are twisted in this tale!  Dr. Gruber would be proud!  Could Re-Animator have been become the cult classic that it is without Jeffrey Combs?  Absolutely not!

As for Jeffrey Combs, isn’t he the perfect Herbert West?  Oh yes!  Mirroring the movie’s theme, Combs gives his character just the life he needs.  In fact, “I gave him life,” is a line Combs might well use describing his performance, just as West uses it to speak of the dead.  Without the personality Combs injects, Re-Animator might have been an empty syringe (pun intended), or a horror-movie dead on arrival.  Combs plays the role deadly serious, adding deliciously-dark humor in doing so.  He plays West as arrogant and overconfident, selfish and cynical.  Combs is the undead heart and soul of Re-Animator, keeping it alive and beating again, and again…and again.

“Who’s going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow.” ~ Herbert West

Entering into our cult classic is the ever-necessary staple of the genre—the ultra-beautiful blonde and sure to be unrequited love of the movie’s villain. The always captivating and ever-gorgeous Barbara Crampton is Megan Halsey—our damsel in distress and daughter of the dean.  She’s the girl-next-door knockout guys wish for–the one who’s our neighbor only in dreams.  Megan’s beauty is natural, clean, and fresh, as an effective, simple contrast to the movie’s copious horror and gore.  (Yes, I love the tension between the beautiful and the grotesque!)  Megan is the co-ed every guy wants for a girlfriend.  Not even a re-animated zombie can make us forget that!

Of course, what man would not be captivated by the beautiful Megan Halsey, lying helpless on Dr. Hill’s gurney?  Is this the most famous, possibly oft-watched scene in cult film history?  Very possibly, yes!  There lies Megan, horrified by Dr. Hill’s head, screaming as his arm moves it ever closer to….  Yes!  You know where!  Here, camp humor becomes horror’s best-loved, most-remembered double entendre.   Yes!  What would Re-Animator be without this scene?  Not as much, I say!  And certainly not as much without Barbara Crampton as Megan.  Writhing and screaming, helpless and vulnerable against the evil doctor, Megan’s peril is a pulp horror cover come to life—the anti-Norman Rockwell–never more metaphorical, titillating, humorous, and terrifying, all at once!  A cult-classic work of Americana art, horror, and humor, all bound (on a gurney) into one!  As Dr. Hill so famously said, “To Megan, my esteemed colleague’s beautiful daughter, the obsession of all who fall under her spell.”

Finally, what about that med-student boyfriend?  He’s Dan Cain, played by Bruce Abbott.  Dan is the kind of Ivy-league preppie who deserves a girl like Megan (and usually gets her) with his future full of success, and yes…money that’s sure to come!  (Yes, he dates the Dean’s daughter for a reason!)  Dan is an intelligent, “normal” guy who would be nearly boring in almost any other movie.  Here, as an ultimate contrast to Herbert’s weirdness, Dan is necessary, effective, and outstanding.  He is nothing like Herbert…at least not yet!  Yes, every movie like this needs a counterbalance to the madness, and Dan is that!  But, does he keep his sanity and remain so normal?  Loving a girl like Megan has its consequences, especially in death! (Yes, just when you thought it was over, it’s not!)

Of course, every such movie must have an evil scientist, at odds with the hero, the anti-hero, and the world at large, causing mischief, mayhem, and danger for all.  Also needed is an evil scientist who wants…you guessed it…the the girl of every man’s dreams, Megan.  Dr. Hill (David Gale) is just the gaunt-faced, ill-tempered, misanthropic, psycho-surgeon pervert needed for the job.  Yes, a twisted doctor is danger to all of his patients, alive or, in this case, even dead.  Dr. Hill believes the brain is dead six to twelve minutes after death, and West believes otherwise.  If you think minutes don’t matter in horror, think again.  The difference, as we happily know, is human or zombie!  Add to the mix an undead doctor raising an army of like-minded (or no-minded) monsters, and what do we have?  We have Re-Animator, of course!

Before Re-Animator, such horror films set in a college were more self-mocking than serious, more a parody or the subject of one to come.  Re-Animator’s deadpan style is fresh and all its own, even now; serious but humorous, absurdly gross, and beyond real science, it finds its niche.  Over-the-top medical experiments, gross-out gore effects, entrails with a life of their own, and reanimated animals (namely a cat) are just several highlights for fans.  One can’t help but smile, while being unnerved, as Dr. Hill inserts a six-inch Q-tip through a hole in a corpse’s head, amidst the sound of it sloshing inside. The fiasco that ensues when West reanimates a dead cat borders on slapstick, with his numerous attempts to kill it…again and again, finally hurling it into a wall.  Dean Halsey (Robert Sampson), after being reanimated, slobbers and drools in captivity, hamming it up, making the best zombie I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot).  And never to be forgotten is Dr. Hill, while decapitated, walking with a plastic head in place of his own, attempting to appear “normal” to the staff.  Then, there’s endless one liners uttered by West–unforgettable, just what every cult film needs.  “Who’s going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow!” is one of many to remember.

Oh, and if ever there was a movie setting itself up for a sequel, here it is.  Destined it was, in that serum, glowing in the dark, in desperate hands; Dan’s girlfriend is dead, and he wants her back!  What could be next?  A lot!  Re-Animator spawned (or “gave life”) to two sequels, not as good as the first, but well worth seeing, for sure.  In all fairness, they had a tall order (or big syringe) to fill, and they did their best.  Bride of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator are out there, for those addicted.

“I know your work, Dr. Hill. Quite well. Your theory on the location of the will in the brain is… interesting. Though derivative of Dr. Gruber’s research in the early 70s. So derivative in fact in Europe it’s considered plagiarized.” ~ Herbert West

And, of course, who could forget the cacophonic opening title, composed and conducted by Richard Band, accompanied by neon drawings from Grey’s Anatomy?  Brains, eyeballs, and fascia spin and spiral with notes in sync.  Intense and urgent, grating the nerves, unpleasant but compelling, it captures, with sound, all we know as Re-Animator.  Rising and falling, with erratic pace, it sets the psycho speed–with noise and dysfunction to match.

A review of a cult classic is always challenging to write.  Rather than a critique, it’s mostly a recounting or remembering of why the movie’s a classic to so many already…even the critic.  No matter how remembered, Re-Animator is a holocaust of zombie fun, setting the high bar higher for movies of its kind–at the time, and even now.  Enduring images of Megan on the gurney (oh my goodness!), homicidal zombies on steroids gone amok, and the undead cat with ten lives, at least, are visual feasts leaving fans fulfilled.  Zombified intestines really can strangle a human with a life of their own!  (I knew it!)  And thank goodness the bone-saw-through-the-chest scene is restored in the unrated edition!  Could it completely be a classic without that…and Megan on the gurney? (Yes, I said that again!)  With all of this and more, Re-Animator injects itself easily in the system of cult-film junkies looking for a fix that lasts.  With its tongue-in-cheek humor and gritty gore, Re-Animator works long after six to twelve minutes, years, decades or, perhaps, even centuries.  As Herbert West might say to his fans, “I gave [it] life!”

And now for that Richard Band theme one more time!

Chris Rennirt (the author of this review) is a movie critic and writer in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as editor in chief at Space Jockey Reviews.  He has been a judge at many film festivals, including Macabre Faire Film Festival and Crimson Screen Film Fest, and he attends horror and sci-fi conventions often.  Chris’ movie reviews, articles, and interviews are published regularly on Space Jockey Reviews and in Effective Magazine.  His mission statement (describing his goals as a movie critic and philosophy for review writing) can be found on the “Mission” page, here at SJR.  For more information about Chris Rennirt (including contact details, publicity photos, and more), click here.

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