Re-Animator (1985)

By Struckworld • April 6, 2011

Plot: Herbert West is a weird college student, who figures out how to bring dead bodies back to life. But after he Brings in fellow Classmate Dan, Dan’s life begins to fall apart, but Herbert won’t quit until he gets his invention right. Then the stuff gets into the wrong hands, and Herbert and Dan must stop this man from his evil plan.

My Review: Okay, I’m going to say this up front. If you haven’t seen this movie, SEE IT. It’s one of the greatest horror films, from the 80s. Now, let’s start.

So we start out in Switzerland, where the dean of this medical school comes to see what’s going , on because someone is screaming in the room. School security is there with him, after a couple of knocks at the door and the door not opening they kick down the door. There they see Herbert West who had just injected his teacher with the Re-Animation juice. Turns out he accidently overdosed the man, and the man’s eyeballs explode. Then the opening credits start.

Then after the credits we meet Dan, we are in america now. Dan has a lovely girlfriend named Megan. Dan and Megan are in love, and are going to get married as soon as Dan graduates. Dan meets Herbert West, who is a new student to the school. We also meet Dr. Hill a creepy teacher who has a thing for Megan. Weird huh? Well anyways Herbert doesn’t like Dr. Hill because he does not approve of his therory on the brain.

After a night of love making, Megan has to return to her father’s house leaving Dan alone. Dan gets a knock at the door, and finds Herbert at his door. Herbert needs a place to stay, and pays Dan a lot of money. One night while Dan is sleeping, he hears weird noises in his basement. When he comes down to investigate, he finds Herbert running around and screaming in pain. Turns out Herbert had re-animated a dead cat. Herbert convinces Dan with this experiment, that this stuff is indeed true and that they can get famous. But they just need to master one thing, the human body.

So one night, Herbert and Dan sneek into the morgue. They successfuly get in there, but the experiment doesn’t go well. The human they experimented went crazy and tried to kill them. While this is going on Megan’s dad (Dean of this medical school) found out about what they’re doing. So he is on his way up while they are getting attacked. When he gets up there, the crazy dead man kills him. But Herbert brings him back to life before the police find him.

So, Megan’s dad is crazy now. Dr. Hill is trying to come on Megan, but it ain’t working. So Dr. Hill suspect’s Herbert has something to do with Megan’s father, so he pays him a visit. When Dr. Hill arrives in Dan’s Basement (Hebert’s Laboratory). Dr. Hill finds out what Herbert’s Re-Animation Juice does, and wants to take it and use it as if he invented it. But that doesn’t sit well with Herbert, so he cuts Dr. Hill’s head off. But it doesn’t end there, when Herbert wonders what happens if you inject the juice into parts? So he injects it to Dr. Hill’s headless body and Dr. Hill’s head. Well after a certain amount of time it works! And Hill’s headless body knocks out Herbert, and takes his Re-Animation Juice and heads to the morgue. At the morgue he starts building on his own army of Dead Bodies, he also captures Megan for his own night of love. I’ll leave you there.

Gore/FX: Wonderful! The special effects and all. The gore is spectacular, and will please any Gore Fan. There’s a bonesaw that bursts out of a man’s chest, and someone cuts open someone’s head and pulls out the brain. And plenty of more scenes with gore.

Sexual Content: There’s a lot of nudity in this one. There’s a sex scene, and a girl is nude for a good 2 minutes.

Acting: This is also great. Jeffery Combs gives an amazing performance as Herbert West. David Gale gives a creepy ass performance playing as Dr. Hill.

Overall: This has to be one of the best horror films of the 80s. They got it right with almost everything. The score is great with the violins, even though the theme is a different version of the theme from Psycho. Stuart Gordan does a wonderful job of setting up suspense. See this at all costs!

My Rating: