Policemen break into the office of University of Zurich professor Dr. Hans Gruber (Al Berry, different Hans Gruber), where it appears that student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is attacking Gruber. Pulling West away, the bloodied doctor jumps up, his eyes bulge and explode, and he falls dead. Accused of killing Gruber, West exclaims, "I gave him life!"
Thus begins the insane Re-Animator (which celebrates its 37th anniversary today), the cult classic based loosely on H. P. Lovecraft's 1922 short story Herbert West - Reanimator. After the opening credits (with a theme reminiscent of the iconic Psycho and Halloween scores), the film picks up with West appearing at Miskatonic University to resume his medical studies. He rents a room from fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and converts the basement into a laboratory. Soon, it's revealed to Cain that West has created a reanimating reagent, using it to bring Cain's dead cat to life. What follows is a bizarre chain of events that includes murder, reanimated corpses, madness, and - in what is the film's creepiest scene - an aborted sexual assault of the heroine by a severed, reanimated head.
Campy Fun
The first two-thirds of the film is campy, to be sure, but nothing that one would necessarily call classic. The dialogue is appropriately B-grade, as is the delivery (personal favorite? "I want so much to hate you", a deliciously melodramatic line from Cain's girlfriend Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) to him). The makeup effects are actually quite good, with nothing that screams obviously fake that takes the viewer out of the moment. The reanimated cat looks like something you'd pick up at a pop-up Halloween store, grotesquely funny.
The Acting Is Something to Be Desired
As far as the acting is concerned, it's not great, but no one comes into a movie like Re-Animator and expects Oscar-worthiness (and if you do, you seriously need to watch better movies - take one Citizen Kane and come back in the morning). Combs plays West as a super intense, over-the-top, mad scientist type. Abbott is serviceable as the protagonist, drawn into West's world. Barbara Crampton isn't tasked with much more than screaming and playing the damsel in distress. Based on that, she succeeds, but if she were killed off during the first five minutes, let's just say she wouldn't be missed. It's David Gale's all-in performance as Dr. Carl Hill that cements Re-Animator's status as a cult classic. After showing up at West's laboratory, Hill attempts to blackmail West into surrendering his notes and the reagent in order to claim them as his own. West knocks him out with a shovel and proceeds to decapitate him, then reanimates both the head and the body separately. This is when the character actor comes to life, ironically enough, delivering a brilliantly campy villain for the last third of the film.
The Final Act Is Peak Schlock
And that last third is schlock gold. It starts with Hill's body knocking West out, rescuing Hill's head, and making off with West's notes and stock of reagent. The body lumbers back to Hill's office, and the next scene is easily the funniest part of the film. The body walks towards the office door and nods at the security guard, having crafted what can only be described as a child's paper-mâché rendition of their own head. It immediately brought to mind a scene from fellow cult classic Amazon Women on the Moon, where a doctor tries to pass a Mr. Potato Head off as a couple's newborn son. After entering the office, the body opens the bag Hill's head is in, and the head gasps for air before complimenting himself on a job well done. Now, go back and read that again. A reanimated, decapitated head, in a bag, gasps for air. Why? Because the head lung needs oxygen? It's absurdity at its best, a quick little moment that perfectly represents the frantic back third.
Re-Animator Isn't Perfect
The one glaring miscue, especially looking back on the film today, is the aforementioned sexual assault. Before West and Cain appear to challenge Hill, Alan Halsey brings his unclothed, unconscious daughter in and places her on a table. Hill's body straps her down, picks up his head, and holds it over her as she awakes. He laughs maniacally and sinisterly stutters how he's always admired her beauty, as his head is brought down to her chest. Hill-head licks her breasts, and the body starts bringing the head down to her.. lower body.. stopping only when West and Cain show up. It's gratuitous in every sense of the word, presumably played for the spectacle of a bloody, severed head going down on a young, naked woman alone. There's nothing before or after it that even suggests the film going there, other than Hill's obvious attraction to Megan. It's especially troubling that her own father, mind-controlled or not, is the one that kidnaps her for that purpose. The scene adds an element of uneasy creepiness that is completely unnecessary.
So, all that said, Re-Animator is worth the watch for fans of schlock horror, especially the last third and for David Gale's performance. It's only the assault scene that leaves a bad taste in the mouth, so consider this fair warning that it may prove triggering for some.
Rating: B
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