'Re-Animator (1985)' is a strange and sometimes uncomfortable picture practically the perfect place for the practical special effects work splattered across the gooey, slimy scenes that mix straight horror with slight surrealism to off-putting yet successful effect. It's cheesy yet charming, ill-conceived yet somewhat justifiable, hard to place yet strangely enjoyable and, while it's certainly not a classic by any standard other than 'cult', it isn't a bad watch if you want some whacky weirdness and a good bit of blood. 6/10

It's hard to find words to describe how much I love Re-Animator. It is just twisted and gory and deeply dark and hilarious. A masterpiece, really. Even with its main song sounding like a dead ringer for the Psycho theme (the composer, Richard Band, admitted to being heavily influenced by Bernard Herrmann's famous score).The story itself is not that complicated — it's loosely inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West – Re-Animator". It opens up with Herbert West (played with such perfect, calculated intensity by Jeffrey Combs) at the University of Zurich, re- animating his dead professor, Dr. Hans Gruber (yes, he shares a name with the villain in Die Hard, which was released a few years later). Accused of killing him (again), he exclaims "I gave him life!".He's now back in America at the fictional Miskatonic University, located in Massachusetts. He immediately starts clashing with Dr. Carl Hill (played by David Gale) on the topic of brain death. But when he starts renting a room from fellow medical student Dan (played by Bruce Abbott), he can get back to work on his reanimating reagent, including trying to show its effectiveness by practicing on Dan's fiancé Megan's (played by Barbara Crampton) cat.Dan: "Why does it make that noise?" Herbert: "Birth is always painful."Dan tries to pitch this theory to Dean Halsey, who also happens to be Megan's father, but him and West are quickly barred from school for their apparent madness. They can't resist further experimentation, so naturally they break into the school's morgue to try it out some more. The hilarious and oftentimes graphic chaos that ensues from here on out is just… unbelievable. Dean Halsey (played by Robert Sampson), lurching around in a straitjacket after his accidental killing and reanimation is unforgettable. Dr. Hill, who is just sketchy right from the get-go, naturally takes full advantage of the situation and attempts to blackmail West and take credit for his idea. West quickly kills him and then realizes his once-in-a-lifetime chance to reanimate such a freshly dead corpse.West chopping off Dr. Hill's head with a metal shovel and then immediately being annoyed when it won't sit up in the metal dish is just morbid humor gold. When Hill's head wakes up after being injected and hisses "Wessssssst, you bassssstard" as his body lumbers behind him… brilliant. Then we get to see Hill walking around carrying his own head with him, feeding himself pouches of blood, sneaking into the morgue in his ridiculous disguise… oh man, so good.There is, of course, the one scene that almost everyone knows whether they've seen the movie or not — the severed head rape scene. It's… shocking, to say the least, but honestly not as bad as I expected, if for no other reason than it is fairly quick. But the implications of the whole thing — Hill's disturbing obsession with Megan, him employing Megan's own father to procure her for his own sick fantasies (Dean Halsey is both re-animated and lobotomized at this point, but still) — are disgusting.But the ending — which I, amazingly, won't spoil for you — is one of my favorites of all time. Seriously, watch this movie NOW.

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.

Re-Animator is a low budget, silly, gore filled, schlock horror comedy. In fact I think the director was hoping to make a serious adaptation of a H P Lovecraft story and decided to send it up as a campy horror comedy based on the Frankenstein/zombie genres and somehow it succeeds. A dismembered head trying to give fellatio to a naked, bound woman will forever be etched in my memory!Bruce Abbott plays the rather wooden lead, Dan Kane, a well meaning doctor who is roped in by Jeffrey Comb's Herbert West who is experimenting with a serum to bring the dead to life. Barbara Crampton plays the sexy girlfriend of Kane who is also the daughter of the hospital principal. David Gale plays a rival doctor who also wants to experiment in reviving the dead and has a sleazy eye on Crampton as well.The film in some ways makes little sense, dismembered bodies moving and attacking people. Yet its a hoot as well as unnerving. Its a classic of 80s horror-comedy.