A mad scientist named
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) enroles to a
University in the States at the Misatonik
University after his return from Austria.
He has invention of a reanimation potion
to revive the dead with their tissue.
Next, he moves in with a student there
named Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and his
fiancee Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton)
as Megan has a bad feeling about this
nutty fellow plus her cat doesn't seem to
like him. Later on she finds her cat dead
in his fridge which he claimed was an
accident.
After West resurrects their dead cat with
his potion it behaves wild and menacing.
Dan realises that the two of them can
make lots of money by reviving the dead
but the dead turn out to be vicious and
deadly.
Megan's father Dean Allen Halsey (Robert
Sampson) is accidentally killed by one of
the re-animated corpses and so he's
re-animated himself and goes wild.
Megan demands to find out what's going on
with all the mess that's behind Herberts
evil doing's but yet this can put her in
a dangerous position.
There's a good
beginning with a swiss doctor, a swiss policemen and psycho
wards entering a hospital and breaking
into a door along with a nice shot on Herbert West resurrecting a corpse
and his head turned staring at the camera
telling him what he's done showing full
of insanity and excitement. All of this
looked like a beginning of a trailer
though.
A good scene between Dan Cain and Megan Halsey making out in bed and joking around. Plus
there's many great funny shots on the cat
jumping on their bed for attention.
A good moment with Dr. Carl Hill instructing a class with a corpse and Herbert just staring aggressively at him plus a
good argumentive discussion between the two
of them showing great intensity.
There's a good conversation between Megan Halsey acting anxious towards Dan about their roomate and fearing that he's
crazy which looked energetically done
plus good shots on her walking the
hallways calling for her cat and then a
good shot on a refrigerator door open
with a dead cat and her freaking out and
crying.
A nice shot on Dan rising up from his bed disturbingly
awakened by a cat screeching. Plus
there's nice struggling moments with both him and Herbert against the re-animated cat attacking
which offers a few good laughs.
There's a good conversation between Carl and Dean Allen Halsey at a dinner
table having a discussion about Herbert West living with both Dan Cain and Megan Halsey with the dangers of this person which
looked dark and impressive and at the
same time comedic. There's especially a
great close up shot on Carl expressionless and speaking coldly along
with a fireplace blazing offering both
the horror and dark comedy together with
all of this.
A nice energetic moment with Dan, Herbert and Megan in a lab re-animating a corpse and then
suddenly this corpse springing to
life and running around the room and
causing damage. There's also a good shot
of him breaking down a door with Dean being crushed by the door.
A good shot on Dean being re-animated with his arms springing
up and trying to strangle Herbert as well as Megan crying and
screaming intensely at what her father
came to be which looked entertainingly
intense.
A good moment with a close up
shot on Carl acting
expressionless again and talking to Megan by telling her she can talk to him and
consider him a friend with a sudden jump
on Dean banging his head on a
window in a quiet room trying to get to
them.
Good shot on Dan injecting formula in Herbert's arm
with a nice close up shot on him reacting to it.
A great moment with Carl looking at a corpse about to be
re-animated speaking crazily and
obsessive with a good shot on Herbert in the background picking up a shovel and
striking it at his head. Plus there's a
good shot on him heaving the shovel and
acting menacing.
Great scenes between Herbert and Carl now as a decapitated
head having corny and wicked discussions
with a great shot on a headless body
creeping up behind Herbert.
Good shots on Megan tied down and getting stripped by corpses about to do evil
deeds along with many struggling moments
on Dan and Herbert battling these corpses.
Bottom line is that this is a film
loosely based on a story by H.P.
Lovecraft and it's quite original
with what goes on with the corpses coming
to life. Yet it seems to borrow a touch
of Frankenstein but in a comedic way. The
film can offer a few laughs with the
re-aniamted cat screeching which makes up
for the tragedy on what happened to this
poor creature.
There's alot of great scenery with the
re-animated corpses springing to life and
attacking as well as running around along
with a headless one which kinds reminds
me of the dark comedy of Return
of the Living Dead. Of course
these two came out during the same year.
It was a popular time when alot of dark
comedy was blending with horror films.
The film is very influential and alot
imitated the flick. I hated it at first
but gave it another chance since it
became a cult classic and I liked it a
bit better. I guess I found the story a
little too corny at first and it still
seems that way which didn't appeal to me.
At the same time I liked the effects and
the originality to the flick.
Of course we have an ending moment which
left a door open for a sequel which was
of course Bride of Re-Animator.
The acting is
quite hokey but yet intentional for a
story like this. Otherwise well done.
Lead actor Jeffrey Combs (Herbert West) really
knew how to behave crazy and eccentric
with what he is doing and bringing alot
of comedy and horror into his character
nicely as a mad scientist. He can really
portray a nice comedic type of
Frankenstein with all that he did in the
film along with showing strange facial
expressions too as well as nice wicked looks too when he acts menacing.
Bruce Abbott (Dan Cain) really knew how to act
romantic and charming in his role plus
bringing alot of characteristic wit to
his part which was another bonus. He also
showed great energy with his aggressions
and battles against these re-animated
corpses too. does well by pulling the bed sheets over
his head and walking towards his onscreen wife which
looked like a realistic
husband fooling around.
Barbara Crampton (Megan Halsey) acted very natural
in her role as the fiancee in the film
and brought a good characteristics along
with nice intense crying and freaked out
actions for when she had to do all of
this.
David Gale (Dr. Carl Hill) really stole the film as
an instructor, with his expressionless
and wicked, obnoxious and insane attitude
as he came across quite intimidating with
his actions and can portray a great
horror character in this one as well as
reminding you of those old fashioned
types of horror films. Plus he was quite
funny too with all he had to do in the
film. He was a gifted character actor
without a doubt.
Robert Sampson (Dean Allen Halsey) performs well after
being re-animated acting like a ball of
energy by acting crazy and insane and
beforehand had a nice calmness to his
part in the film proving his versatality
in the film. he
reacts well to the intense pain while being crushed against a door.
There is a brief
butt and breast shot on Barbara
Crampton's character after a sex
scene when she puts on her clothes.
There is also a naked corpse that came to
life.
Barbara has her breasts fully
exposed later on in the film after a
zombie rips her top off.
There's a mangled
cat (Sick but it looks totally fake)
A corpse is shown at a class with a
corpses brains being exposed.
Bloodied corpses.
There's a bloodied decapitated head as
well as showing the decapitated body
where the head once was.
There's some great high
pitched synthesizer screechy type of
playing when a body is resurrected which
sounded perfect for the scene. We hear
the odd low drum beating. There's lots of
great strong classical music with some
odd sounds of some flute playing with the
violin music of course too. Plus the
score for the opening and parts of the
film sounded very much like the theme
song from Psycho mixing
some updated sounds to it. Richard
Band whom is best known for his
composing in many indepdent low budget
horror flicks with Full Moon Pictures
composed the music for this and hats off
to him for a great job with it.
Swiss
Woman Doctor: You killed him!
Herbert West: No, I did not. I
gave him life.
[Re-re-animating
the dead cat in the basement]
Herbert West: Don't expect it to
tango; it has a broken back.
Herbert
West: Who's going to believe a
talking head? Get a job in a sideshow.
[Visiting
the morgue]
Dan Cain: What if we get caught?
Herbert West: What'll they do?
Embalm us?
Herbert
West: I must say, Dr. Hill, I'm VERY
disappointed in you. You steal the secret
of life and death, and here you are
trysting with a bubble-headed coed.
You're not even a second-rate scientist!
Dan
Cain: He's dead?
Herbert West: Not anymore. |