User reviews

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.

When i first saw re-animator in 85, i was aghast and appalled. i just didn't get it. i was a classic horror fan; so when i heard the obvious rip from psycho's theme, it irritated me even more.

well, now i'm an older, wiser horror fan. i just saw it again for the first time since 85 and i laughed my bum off! homage, homage, homage! honouring everything from hitchcock to raimi, from day of the dead to frankenstein. this in-your-face send off is a great double feature with dead alive. jeffery combs' over the top performance is reminiscent of colin clive and cronenberg found his very own ash in bruce abbott. so sit back, relax (as much as you can...) and enjoy re-animator.

This movie is certainly not for everybody, but it sure is one of the better mad scientists films around. Stuart Gordon injects black comedy with over the top gore and he gets a modern horror classic. Jeffrey Combs is outstanding as Dr. Herbert West, and there are scenes that you will never forget in this one. One of my personal favorite horror films.

The astute viewer will immediately pick up on the tone of Re-Animator. The introduction (added to the film at the last minute before its release) is a glimpse of the over-the-top nature of the entire production. If one were to be frightened by this intro, he or she will be comforted by the playful cheer of the opening title music. The score was heavily inspired by the famous Psycho score, a classic by Bernard Herrmann.

The movie, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's `Herbert West: Re-Animator', follows a simple plot. Herbert West (played to precise pitch perfection by Jeffrey Combs who, like Bruce Campbell, is a B-Movie legend) is new at Miskatonic Medical University. Immediately, Herbert clashes with Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) on the subject of `brain death'.

At the same time, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot) is looking for a roommate. He is also dating Dean Alan Halsey's (Robert Sampson) daughter, Megan (Barbara Crampton). When Herbert West shows up at Dan's door one night during a `study' session, Megan is immediately suspicious. Why is Herbert so anxious to move in? Why is he so interested in the basement?

It is not long before the cat is dead, re-animated and dead again. The early scenes of violence are disturbing and hilarious at the same time and are only a taste of what is to come. Dan tries to resist the temptation of power inherent in the re-animating fluid, but is sucked into Herbert's mad world of life giving.

There is a turn of events about halfway through the film (which I would be crazy to spoil) that almost screams to the viewer, `We aren't playing by the rules here.' The storyline twists its way to the famous conclusion that, if you haven't heard of it, will leave you breathless. Even if you know what is going to happen, when you finally see it, in all of it's gory, sexual glory you understand why this classic has achieved such a status. The finale of the film is twisted in so many ways it's impossible to count.

Obviously, I loved the movie. Having never been anything but a horror fan, I cannot say it will suit everyones' tastes. The film is so over-the-top that the outrageous gore becomes less and less shocking. The timid viewer may want to shy away from this masterpiece. Anyone with even the slightest curiosity should seek this movie out.

I was really hyped up about watching this, but it let me down somewhat.

The acting is really good, especially Jeffery Combs, who steals the movie as Dr Herbert West. He manages to pull off the difficult character quite well, and is ably supported by his backup cast. The gore is also very well done, especially towards the climax of movie, with blood shooting everywhere and realistic zombies.

One thing that is said about Re-Animator is that it is supposed to be funny. Asides from the guy with the severed head and his cunnilingus scene, nothing is particularly funny.

Overall, nothing about this movie really stands out, and while good acting is always a plus, it is probably the least important factor in a horror movie. I recommend a watch, but don't expect something too original or intense.

Most of the cheap or not so cheaply made horror films these days are nothing more than a tedious exercise in how to bump off as many teenagers in as many different ways as one can imagine in ninety minutes or less. One need only watch recent films such as Wrong Turn or the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre to realize how far the horror genre has fallen. Once John Carpenter made the first Halloween film, we have been subject to an endless series of copy cat films whose only purpose seems to be finding an imaginative way to slice and dice the local teenage population. All of the Freddies, Jasons, and Michael Myers films combined don't come close to having an ounce of the entertainment and imagination of Producer Brian Yuzna and Director and Writer Stuart Gordon's Re-animator.

Professor Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a scientist who has discovered a formula which brings the dead back to life by reanimating their tissue. After an experiment in Switzerland goes awry, he moves to Miskatonic University to continue his experiments. One thing Professor West isn't and that is modest. He even takes a few moments to ridicule a professor, Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) when he disagrees with him about when death actually occurs. He eventually rents a room from fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot). Dan is dating Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) who is the daughter of the college dean, Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson). What Dan doesn't know is that the aforementioned Dr. Hill has a perverted eye on Megan also. We know this because of the sleazy stares Dr. Hill eyeballs her with when ever she's around. Think of Megan as being an overage Lolita and Dr. Hill as Humbert Humbert and you've got the idea. All of this is not window dressing as it would be in some other films. It all comes into play very nicely. It goes without saying that sooner or later, Dr. West will be making good use of his reanimation formula, in ways only those with the most grotesque sense of humor can imagine. To say any more than that would deny you of the true pleasures of this film.

How can a film that is so explicitly graphic and perverted in nature be fun? It's because every person involved in the making of Re-Animator was smart enough not to take it too seriously themselves. Everything in this film is so wildly over the top, that you can't help but chuckle right along with them as they wink their eye at you. There may be certain moments of the film that would normally sicken even the most hardcore horror film fanatic, but since Yuzna and Gordon never once let Re-animator sink into the tedious by the numbers game of other films of these nature, these same scenes become intentionally cartoonish and silly.

But more than anything, this film owes it's life to it's cast. Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West should serve as the model for anyone wanting to make a film involving a mad or semi-mad scientist. Given this kind of role, there is many an actor who would have been tempted to ham it up and alas in many horror films they do just that. However, when Combs seems to imply that he is the smartest man on the planet and the rest of us are Neanderthal, we don't hate him for this implication at all. He is so good at making us believe he is the smartest man since Einstein and we are all nothing but Cro-magnon man by comparison that we love him for it just the same. He may be crazy, but he's a fun kind of crazy.

David Gale as the smarmy Dr. Hill, is a joy to watch also. He has some of the most ridiculous scenes in the film yet somehow manages to keep a straight face through it all. He gives new life to the old saying about not losing your head over a piece of tail.

Bruce Abbot as Dan Cain is the perfect contrast for West. He is a straight arrow, is madly in love with Megan, yet somehow lets himself become involved in West's experiments. Abbot also is smart enough to know that the center of this film is West, and never once overplays his role to try and overshadow him. As for Barbara Crampton, she should have won some kind of award, just for the abuse the producers put her through as Megan. Is there an award for most abuse of a female by the walking dead?

Re-animator was made on a budget of less than a million dollars which is truly remarkable. There isn't a film budget in the world though that can replace the imagination and daring rampant through out Re-Animator. And when a horror film is that well done, and is something all the Freddies, and Jasons, And Michael Myers can only dream about, I have no choice but to give it my grade which for Re-Animator is an A.

I feel I missed a lot of great movie experiences by not watching this when I was a kid. It has everything that I would have loved, and lots of it. Now, a bit older, I can still appreciate it for what it is, but the novelty of it all is gone.

I'm not sure if I have read the specific Lovecraft story this is based on, but as far as I can understand, it moves away from Lovecraft's storyline. Because I don't know how the original story goes, I can't say this for sure, but: It feels like they stuck to the story a while, but then got too caught up in having fun with ideas for scenes. It's like the filmmakers were let loose on a set with SFX-people, trying to think how they could do as much sick/fun things as possible. Which leads to some interesting situation, but it all feels very engineered. The plot built up in the first act(s) of the movie is still there in the background, but they miss the chance they had at making a compelling story. All the characters get caught up in the gore and he violence (and the slapstick), leading to a blood filled finale.

What would I have preferred? Well, the SFX is fun, so I'm not really complaining about it. But I wish they had followed more up on the conflicts between the young idealistic scientist and the older, cheating one. It's there throughout the movie, but at one point you realize that it's just there to justify hostility. It also appears that some parts of the plot were removed, because the ending kind of does not make sense. How is one character able to control some of the re-animated? (according to wikipedia, it's explained in some cut scenes) Anyway, if you're a younger kid, you're gonna love this.

Based on the frightening story by the undisputed expert of the terror H. P. Lovecraft titled "Herbert West, Re-Animator". The picture packs thrills, chills , terror , fantasy and lots of blood and gore . Furthermore , unrelenting twists and turns . Director Stuart Gordon joined with Brian Yuzna and Charles Band's Empire Pictures to create the company's first major hit, Re-Animator (1985), based on the story by H. P. Lovecraft, which won a Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film Festival . It's first outing in Reanimator trilogy formed by ¨Re-Animator¨ "Bride of Re-Animator" and "Beyond Re-animator" . It is set at a medical school in Zurich, Switzerland, where a dean is called in to investigate a disturbance in one of the labs. After an odd new medical student called Herbert Wise (Jeffrey Combs) arrives on campus, a dedicated local (Bruce Abott) and his fiancée (Barbara Crampton) become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue. Herbert (Jeffrey Combs) finds an unexpected ally in the person of the young medical doctor. There is also an instant animosity between West and faculty member Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale). West declares that Hill stole the theory of brain death from West's late mentor. Herbert Wise continues obsessed with the idea of overcoming the obstacle of death and determined to vindicate himself by backing up his ambitious theory , as he goes on his creepy activities , as become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation. H. P. Lovecraft's classic tale of horror ! . Death Is Just The Beginning...Herbert West Has A Very Good Head On His Shoulders... And Another One In A Dish On His Desk It will scare you to pieces !. But For Dr. West, Death Is Only The Beginning !. Inject life into the dead !. The creator of the original cult injects new life into body parts other films cannot reach... it's a scream!. The Doctor Will See You Now. Death Is Just The Beginning...Herbert West Has A Very Good Head On His Shoulders... And Another One In A Dish On His Desk. . It will scare you to pieces !.

Herbert Wise/Jeffrey Combs stars an entirely Empire Pictures production with chills , tongue-in-cheek and loads of gore in this H. P. Lovecraft's classic tale of horror . In this early entry to the immensely popular trilogy about Herbert Wise he carries out his first gruesome and sinister experiments . High camp and blood curling gore make this a standout horror movie . It is a frightening movie with plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count , hilarious scenes and lurid images with lots of blood and gore . Violent, bizarre, unpleasant and disappointing at times , but entertaining as well. Special effects are pretty well but there are several images without much sense and the interpretations are middling but acceptable . Available in a R-rated version too . Cast is pretty good , along with trio protagonists , Jeffrey Combs , Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton , appearing other nice secondaries , such as : David Gale, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and Robert Sampson. Followed by ¨Bride of Re-Animator¨ (1990) by Brian Yuzna with Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott , Claude Earl Jones, Fabiana Udenio, David Gale , in which Doctors Herbert West and Dan Cain discover the secret to creating human life and proceed to create a perfect woman from dead tissue. And ¨Beyond Reanimator¨ (2003) by Brian Yuzna , in which Herbert Wise is back , and this time he not only reanimates but creates life at a noisy prison , it stars Jason Barry , Elsa Pataky , Santiago Segura and Jeffrey Combs.

This horror movie was efficiently directed by Stuart Gordon who along with Brian Yuzna are important American filmmakers expert on terror cinema , both of whom working for Castelao , Fantastic Factory or Filmax . It displays colorful and adequate cinematography by cameraman Mac Ahlberg , as well as impressive musical score by Richard Band . The picture is compellingly directed by Stuart Gordon who along with Brian Yuzna are important American filmmakers expert on terror cinema. Gordon then helmed another Lovecraft adaptation Re-Sonator (From Beyond) (1986) and tackled the murderous Dolls (1986) followed by Robot jox (1989). Gordon co-created the story for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) a major hit for Disney. The same year, he directed the remake and more graphic version of The pit and the pendulum (1991). Other works include Fortress (1992), and the screenplay for The Dentist (1996) and Body Snatchers (1993) . In 2001, Gordon returned to the H. P. Lovecraft territory with Dagon (2001), and in 2003, directed King of the Ants (2003) about a housepainter-turned-hit man, and brought the David Mamet play Edmond (2005) to the screen. While Brian Yuzna is also a gore and guts expert director , such as : Faust , Dentist 1 and ,2 , Society, Bride of Reanimator. Rating Re-Animator (1985) : 6.5/10 Decent and entertaining , acceptable and passable film , though contains some flaws and gaps .

Very loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's story "Herbert West: Re-Animator"

Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is new at Misketonic University in the (fictional) town of Arkham MA. He rooms with nice guy Dan (Bruce Abbott) but Dan's girlfriend Meg (Barbara Crampton) doesn't trust him. And evil Dr. Hill (the late David Gale) hates him. It seems West has a glowing green/yellow potion that brings the dead back to life...but they always come back in a foul mood. But he hasn't tried it on humans...yet...

Boy, do I miss the 80s! Back then they could make extremely gory, sick, violent, unrated films like this and get them to play at mainstream theatres. I saw this opening night in Boston back in 1985--it was unrated and no one under 18 was allowed in the theatre. The audience was quiet at first, but as the violence and gore escelated and the black humor kicked in, the audience came alive. People were screaming, yelling, laughing...just about everything! Especially during a sequence between Crampton and Gale which just went way over the boundaries of good taste. It was just great! The movie is fun on its own, but with the right type of audience it really comes alive.

The film has extreme gore...probably the goriest movie of its decade. It also has huge doses of black humor and the whole cast blessedly plays it straight...it they had winked at the camera once it would have destroyed the film.

The film also has a tight, well-written script (it runs 86 minutes), is well directed by Stuart Gordon and has a great cast--David Gale (sadly no longer with us) was fantastic as the evil Hill. Jeffrey Combs plays West just perfect--we see his obsession with the potion but Combs never overplays it. Abbott is somewhat bland but plays a very good hero. Crampton is just excellent as Meg--sexy, smart and very brave. Also Robert Sampson adds strong support as Meg's father.

Basically a must-see for any horror fan. Also a great score and I LOVE the ending! Don't miss this one!

Try to see the Special Edition DVD--it shows deleted scenes that flesh out the story more.

Lovecraft wasn't exactly known for his sense of humour and probably served as the template for the charmless nerd at the centre of this visceral, totally bonkers, grotesquely funny quickie.

Silly but entertaining.

Re-animator started reasonably well, with a fair amount of intrigue and suspense. It was even plausible, to a degree. After a point, however, it becomes rather silly, with things thrown in clearly just for shock and gross-out value. Plot becomes more and more implausible and ridiculous the longer the movie goes on.

Visual effects are okay (but for the over-the-top attempts to make things as unnecessarily gory as possible) but, strangely, the sound quality is quite poor. You'd think this is the one thing everyone gets right, but here it leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the time it sounds like the actors are talking from a distance away. Plus the stereo is all over the place, sound coming from the wrong side speaker at times!

Performances, from a cast of unknowns, vary from okay to abysmal.

A hit-and-miss movie. Not a must-see, but not a total waste of time either.

I bought this movie after reading a review, it must be one of the greatest horror comedies of all time! If you, like myself, thought that Evil Dead II was hilarious just go ahead and watch this one. Very sarcastic, probably the best Lovecraft movie.

After learning all he can learn in Switzerland, Herbert West comes to America to study life and death. Can death be overcome? West thinks so, and with his reagent serum he might just prove to the world how right he is.

"Re-Animator" ranks at the very top of my all-time favorite horror movies. For a guy who has seen probably one thousand horror films, that's quite the accomplishment. For me, the film is paced perfectly, has plenty of gore, a fair amount of nudity (and a scene of sexuality you won't find elsewhere), some black comedy and a simple plot premise (a variation on the Frankenstein story).

This is the film that gave Jeffrey Combs his place in cult film history. On the basis of this movie alone, he is sought after to appear in other horror films and appear at horror conventions. Sure, some of his other films are pretty good, and he had an impressive run on both "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "The 4400". But he will always be known as Herbert West. None of the other stars (David Gale, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton) has gone on to such a level of recognition.

The film has some flaws. The score, which is supposed to be an "homage" to "Psycho" sounds more like a blatant ripoff. And my biggest pet peeve is trying to find a complete copy of the film. I owned the longer, R-rated version on VHS. Now I own the shorter, unrated version on DVD (the Millennium Edition). I have yet to find one that combines the gore of the uncut version with the plot of the R-rated one (which I think really drives home the story and fleshes out the motives and power of Dr. Hill).

But the sheer fun of the film makes up for the flaws. Jeffrey Combs is clearly having plenty of fun, and the way they approach such things as the reanimated cat and the use of the reagent as an intravenous drug tells me they knew that the key was just letting a good time fly.

The people involved with this film (Combs, director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna) went on to make a variety of other Lovecraft-inspired films. So I guess I have to thank the success of "Re-Animator" for giving them the chance to pursue these other projects (even the less wonderful ones like "Necronomicon" or "Dagon" (which many people like but I wasn't impressed)).

If you're a horror fan and haven't seen this, shame on you. You simply cannot have an in-depth conversation on horror without this film coming up. I urge you to check it out and decide for yourself. Can thousands of horror fans be wrong on this one? When have they steered you wrong before?

Saw this in the early 90s on a VHS. Revisited it recently on a DVD. To b honest, i didn't njoy this then n found it to b boring n comedic now. It was a low-budget film n definitely a different flavor of zombie film. The plot- Combs is a medical student obsessed with body reanimation. He teams up with another student, so the two of them can continue their experiments. Director Stuart Gordon managed to show good decapitations, reanimated cats, fingers bitten off, drills bored through the chests of corpses and attacks by zombie but all in a very comedic tone. He was not able to create any tension or suspense. Barbara Crampton's topless scene was a small treat in this otherwise non horror black comedy.

In Austria, the medical student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) develops a serum to resuscitate the dead while working with a famous scientist that mysteriously dies. Herbert travels to Massachusetts and his application is accepted by the Miskatonic Medical University Dean Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson); then he moves to the basement of the house of Daniel 'Dan' Cain (Bruce Abbott), a medical student that is seeking a roommate to share his expenses and that is in love with Alan's daughter Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton). When Megan's cat disappears, she finds it dead in Herbert's refrigerator. Later, Daniel hears a cat and Herbert screaming and he sees the cat alive violently attacking Herbert and they kill the animal again. Herbert invites Daniel to work with him, but Megan sees the bizarre experiment and tells her father that expels the students from the University. But Herbert and Daniel go to the morgue to find a corpse to revive and they are surprised by the dean that is murdered by a resurrected man. Herbert injects the re-animating fluid in Alan that revives but the envious and greedy Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) wants his formula to become famous.

"Re-Animator" is one of my favorite cult-movie and I have just watched it again at least for the sixth time (last time I saw it was on 21 March 2000). This funny and gore B-movie has excellent special effects and made Jeffrey Combs worshiped for the rest of his career. Barbara Crampton is very beautiful and the scene in the laboratory with she naked and Dr. Carl Hill beheaded is one of the funniest I have ever seen. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Re-Animator"

Note: On 26 August 2012, I saw this film again, now on DVD.

Note: On 25 June 2015, I saw this movie again.

Hmmm, why would an UNRATED version of a movie be SHORTER than the RATED version? (My excuse is that this is the only version my local Blockbuster stocks, so there.)

Incredible makeup effects, a clever storyline, and an unbridled, off-the-radar sense of macabre humor make "Re-Animator" a slapstick treasure of the genre (it's far better than Sam Raimi's hopelessly overrated "Evil Dead"). Jeffrey Combs is brilliant as the Norman Bates-ish Herbert West, a medical student who's invented a serum that brings the dead back to life...sort of.

This version of the film is somewhat choppy, and the gore scenes are fairly obviously trimmed (the 'head-on-a-stick' scene isn't included), but I still found it absurdly entertaining. Off I go to find the special edition DVD... 3.5 stars out of 5

A small-time Massachusetts medical school is turned upside down when a creepy new student begins experimenting with a neon green anti-death serum. The toxic goo gets the job done, but its subjects (culled in secret from the basement morgue) are cranky about their interrupted dirt nap and prone to fits of stumbling violence. OK, they're basically zombies.

If you happen to be seeking the perfect example of '80s horror, this checks all the boxes. Spaghetti-chunk special effects with high hopes but a basement budget? Yes and yes. Hammy acting, flat delivery and low-rent production values? Oh yeah. Gratuitous nudity? We've got tits aplenty. A reckless lack of good decisions and wildly amplified repercussions? Man, you don't even know.

Re-Animator is a ride, all right. The first two acts embody most of the worst stereotypes of the genre, plodding through eye-rolling plot details and steep mounds of bad exposition, but the home stretch validates everything. That climax is completely bananas, a delicious string of one-ups and double-downs that swings for the fences and hits like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. It's rare to be so shocked and delighted by a movie this out-of-date. Most of it ain't good, but the best bits are downright incredible.

I don't get the high score and praise for this film. I can only assume it was good for its time. if so, it hasn't aged well at all. in fact I think I might have liked it more if it was made in the 50's and was black and white. the acting is bad, the script is basic, the direction is mediocre. it might be considered as a parody but its not funny or clever enough to pull it off. a waste of time. a relic, thats how i'd describe it, I switched off after an hour because it was that bad.

I think it might have gotten its high score by just being gore laden. if so, it was a gimmick because there's nothing else about the film thats recommendable.