Posted on: October 17th, 2009 TEN of TERROR #5: Re-Animator
What would Halloween be without a gross-out, campy, out-of-left-field, cult horror film to quench our thirst for blood and giggles? I, for one, need this relief from serious fright-fests and frankly, grow weary of the Evil Dead films. There. I’ve said it. I’m tired of Ash fighting the deadites; we know it’s great but it’s lost its charm and subsequent cult status. Which is why I’m bringing in the Evil Dead replacement for TEN of TERROR #5… Re-Animator.
If you haven’t seen Re-Animator, you’re in for a sickly treat. Based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story, Herbert West: Re-Animator, the film stars the amazing Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, a young scientist obsessed with developing a formula to bring the dead back to life. When his studies take him from Switzerland to a medical school in New England, Herbert makes great advances in his development and is soon re-animating the dead. The film also stars Bruce Abbot, Barbara Crampton and David Gail and was directed by Stuart Gordon (Robot Jox, King of the Ants).
If anything, Re-Animator stays afloat on two elements. The first element being Jeffrey Combs’ performance as Herbert West. Echoing my sentiments for the man from my review of The Frighteners, Combs seems to pull his performances out from his the very pit of his existence. He creates these almost unsociable characters so flawlessly and believably that you almost don’t ever want to meet Combs himself out of fear that he’ll smell your neck and strangle you to death. In Re-Animator we really only get to see the surface of the Herbert West character, and only Combs’ performance could make us want to see more. When you really step back and think about it, West isn’t a hero, nor is he a villain; he’s just a scientist obsessed, so driven by this goal to re-create life that he cares not for the consequence. Combs created a character so unique and involved that you forget that he’s the fool that started the chaos; if anything you want more and end up rooting for the guy if only so you can watch him at work.
The second element that keeps this film watchable are the many “what the fuck?” moments littered throughout its 95 minute runtime. All of these moments are wonderfully smothered with buckets of blood and sinew and brain fragments. “Torture porn” films like Hostel need take a lesson from films like Re-Animator and Kill Bill; if you’re going to do excessive gore, it’s gotta be entertaining – surround your film with lightheartedness and fun and excitement, and you can pull off copious amounts of guts. The Saw movies aren’t entertaining because its just mindless gore with no payoff, nothing to keep us connected. For all intents and purposes, these films are just showing us shocking and horrendous imagery; we may a well be watching a real autopsy. But with films like Re-Animator or Dead Alive, even Evil Dead II, the excessive carnage is making us laugh and fits tonally in with the overall experience of the movie. I can have fun with a dude walking around holding his own head in Re-Animator, while I don’t have fun with a woman getting her rib-cage split open in Saw III. There’s just no payoff anymore if you’ve taken it that far just for that reason alone; Re-Animator sees those boundaries ahead and gives you a quick sampling before touching down on the ridiculous again. One scene in particular comes to mind that will surely make your date squirm, involving a re-animated severed head and a naked lady, is far more effective thanany of the torture devices in Saw or Hostel.
Director Stuart Gordon created a film that could very well serve as a bridge for new readers to venture into the mad and macabre world of H.P. Lovecraft, just as Sam Raimi has done with the Evil Dead films. Re-Animator as a movie captures the imagination of Lovecraft while steering it into a relatable time with relatable people. There are no Cthulhu or necronomicons here to bog down your modern-day mind, and yet the film is so wonderfully Lovecraftian at heart. It’s a shame this film hasn’t broken its cult status to become more of a seasonal favorite, as it fits perfectly on the shelf among other inspired works from John Carpenter, Clive Barker or Guillermo Del Toro.
The film was released on October 18, 1985 on a budget of $900,000 and has since grossed over $2 million. Reviews for Re-Animator have been consistently positive – mainstream critics such as Roger Ebert have praised the film’s high entertainment quotient and the film currently sits at a 92% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Re-Animator has spawned two sequels continuing the story of Herbert West and starring Jeffrey Combs, Bride of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator.
Definitely one of the sillier entries in TEN of TERROR, Re-Animator is an instant classic. If you’re a big fan of the Evil Dead films, or horror-comedy in general, get ye to a store and pick up a copy to watch with your friends. Re-Animator is the perfect warm-up or simmer-down to a long horror movie marathon.
Trivia
- In the morgue scene, the first re-animated corpse was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body double. I could recognize that bubble-butt anywhere.
- The original story by H.P. Lovecraft, entitled “Herbert West: Re-Animator”, was intended as a parody of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
- 25 gallons of fake blood was used during the film’s production.
- Director Stuart Gordon has stated he’d be interested in making a fourth film in the series called House of Re-Animator, which would see Herbert West in the white house, re-animating a long-dead vice-president. This, I can get behind.
That wraps up #5, TEN of TERROR #6 coming at ya in a heartbeat…
2 Responses to “TEN of TERROR #5: Re-Animator”
-
Ben Rankel Says:
October 18th, 2009 at 12:44 amI think some one beat Mr. Gordon to it and already re-animated Dick Cheney.
-
TEN of TERROR RECAP! « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more Says:
October 31st, 2009 at 10:33 am[...] #5: Re-Animator [...]