Re-Animator

1985
Unrated
1h 24m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

74K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:56

1 Video

99+ Photos

Body Horror Dark Comedy Zombie Horror Comedy Horror Sci-Fi

After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

74K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 4 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 1:56

Re-Animator

Photos140

+ 132

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The special effects department went through twenty-four gallons of fake blood during the shoot, makeup effects artist John Naulin said that Re-Animator was the bloodiest film he had ever worked on. In the past, he had never used more than two gallons of blood on a film.

Goofs
Bone saws, like cast cutters, don't rotate, they vibrate.

Quotes
Herbert West: Who's going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow.

Alternate versions
Although never classed as a video nasty the film has a very checkered history of censorship problems in the UK. The original cinema and 1986 video releases were cut by 1 minute 51 secs by the BBFC and many scenes were edited - most notably to the stabbing of a zombie with a bone-saw, a shovel decapitation, a scene of a head being squeezed, and a sequence where a woman is stripped, strapped to a trolley and forced to fend off the sexual advances of a severed head. The 1999 Tartan release lost 2 minutes 20 secs of footage and, although the saw attack and head squeezing was waived, the decapitation and sexual assault scenes remained cut. The latter had been pre-edited by the distributors using a slowdown technique and the entire second half of the assault sequence was completely missing. The 2001 Tartan re-release was slightly less cut and finally had the shovel decapitation scene restored, though 1 minute 49 secs remained cut from the female assault sequence. The film was finally passed fully uncut by the BBFC for the 2007 Anchor Bay DVD release. Since this 2007 release, all subsequent worldwide releases of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray have included the complete, uncensored version of the film.

Connections
Edited into Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)

User reviews306

Review

Featured review

Modern Horror Classic

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.