Review #211: Re-Animator (1985)

This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #66: Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator is an adaptation of an H. P. Lovecraft story, about a medical student named Herbert West who is on the brink of discovering how to bring the dead back to life. (Though, that's misleading... this film is "about" his roommate, Dan Cain, who gets caught up in West's shenanigans, but I think we all know who we're watching the movie for.)

Despite never having seen this film until today, I'm pretty familiar with the story. It's a popular horror film, it's a popular Lovecraft story, and parts of it have bled into (no pun intended) lots of other media I've consumed. The story is well-worn territory by this point, but the movie stands on its own- Jeffrey Combs' portrayal of Herbert West is fantastic, as were the others. The special effects in this film are just plain jaw-dropping, and it moves at a nice pace- it was over before I knew it, and I wanted more!

The characters all feel fully-realized and you get the impression there's a lot more backstory and worldbuilding that you're just seeing the outermost layer of (as you would expect from something based on a book) but I never really felt like anything was missing or was sacrificed for the sake of telling the story. (Maybe there was a lot they left out, but if so, it wasn't obvious.) There were a couple things I wish had been expanded on just a bit- like the nature of how West's reagent was created, for example- but that felt like it was intentionally left out as it was beyond the scope of this story. (And there's a ton of sequels so I imagine it's explained somewhere in one of those.)

I can't really think of anything specific I disliked about Re-Animator- which is usually what I spend most of my time doing in these reviews- and there was so much to enjoy in here! The whole movie was fun from beginning to end, but the last thirty minutes is really where it shined brighter than the rest. The climax was so over-the-top and it took me by complete surprise.

I feel like my thoughts are a bit less focused than usual, but just know that this is a great film and you should go watch it!

Overall Rating: 9/10 Glowing Syringes

Special Effect Trivia: Apparently, the effect of the glowing reagent was created by simply using liquid from a glow-stick!