Night 1: ‘Re-Animator’ (1985)
This is part of the ‘31 Nights of Horror Classics’ series, which I’ll be doing for Halloween 2017. Every night of this month I’ll be watching a horror film made before the 90s and I’ll be posting a short review here.
From ‘What the f… am I watching?’ to ‘That was f-ing awesome!’, this film is definitely a rollercoaster of emotions. A gory, crazy, rollercoaster of emotions!
Re-Animator tells the misadventures of two promising medical students, whom start experimenting with life and death without supervision. Unfortunately, this will have dire consequences for both.
In many ways, Re-Animator is like Pet Sematary on steroids, and many of the story beats will sound familiar to those familiar with that story. Granted, I’m not acquainted with Lovecraft’s classic tale, but since it was written before King’s novel I can guess it was a source of inspiration. From a poor cat being brought back to life, to a lesson that goes unlearned by the end of the story… the two flicks share quite a few similarities.
However, Re-Animator is heavier on bloodshed. And unlike the creepy and sophisticated resurrection of the family members in Pet Sematary, in Re-Animator we get mindless, sturdier monsters that are more akin to zombies, but equally terrifying.
Indeed, Re-Animator has some great scary images and sequences that will make your skin crawl. Visually, it’s also one of the most interesting films of its time, with truly unsettling yet subtle framing and long sweeping movements, which help create an odd and disturbing atmosphere.
It’s also surprisingly funny! Especially during the last act of the film, when the level of absurdity is amped to eleven. Some of the gags regarding a split Dr. Hill (David Gale), for example, are quite effective, although also spine chilling.
Which brings me to the actors. From the villainous Dr. Hill and Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) to our young heroes, Dan (Bruce Abbott) and Megan (Barbara Crampton), the talent delivers mostly solid performances. However, as could be expected from a film like this, you will find your over-the-top moments and extremely sloppy scenes.
Where the film falters is in its weak female protagonist. Although Megan starts out as a very savvy girl –she actually notices West’s odd behavior long before Dan-, she ends up becoming an annoying ‘damsel in distress’ by the end of the film. And in a particularly uncomfortable scene I actually found myself yelling at the screen: ‘What are you doing?! Untie yourself! You have a perfectly functional free arm right there!’. Lucky for me, Dan and Herbert came to the rescue just in time!
Still, she is not the only one to make some truly questionable choices. The level of stupidity of some of them is simply off the charts! And although the narrative has some really great payoffs as well as some surprising twists and turns, some inexplicable developments do threaten the story’s integrity (for example, an intestine that jumps out of a body to ‘grab’ someone nearby, or some mysterious powers that come out of nowhere).
By the end, you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen –especially if you’ve made the connection with Pet Sematary. Yet, after learning there are two sequels, I might have to watch them and see if the story took a different direction after the events of this one.
Overall, however, Re-Animator is a great flick to watch on a Halloween night. That is, if you are not against some good old-fashioned blood, guts, and a lot of craziness!
Grade: 6/10 — Funny. Scary. Gory!
Scare Factor: a few jump scares. Scary images.
Gore/Violence: a lot of blood. Some guts and violence.
Nudity/Sexual Situations: a lot of naked people. Some sexual scenes, including an almost-rape.
Next up: ‘Les Diaboliques’ (1955)
