ReAnimator
Horror movies in the 80s was a grand time, as we saw one classic film (and franchise) after another, with the irony being that many of these âclassicsâ of the era were actually quite derivative of prior classics that had come before them, yet still had enough squeamish verve and insanity to satisfy audiences wanting more, but even better were the efforts that daringly tried to do something fresh and original amid all the carbon copies, and this 1985 release which shocked the world upon its premiere managed to do just exactly that. Its director, Stuart Gordon, had an extensive background in experimental theater, and the story was actually loosely adapted from one that was written way back in the 1920s by none other than H.P. Lovecraft, a man who created an entire literary mythos built around ancient hidden gods and monsters, but with this story is said to have almost tossed it off as kind of a joke not to be taken too seriously. Still, it remains to this day the most popular cinematic adaptation of Lovecraftâs work (and having his name on the poster certainly didnât hurt ticket sales any) and getting all of this done on a mere $900,000 budget definitely came off as being an impressive feat of filmmaking audacity, even as Gordon himself descended from this high water mark debut to more and more obscure, low budget genre trifles. The basic idea at its core here of what made the film so original (and still does today) is that unlike the usual horror trope of having one main villain whom the other characters must deal with, Gordon came up with the concept of not only having TWO major antagonists on hand, but also by putting them in direct conflict with each other as the driving force of the whole story, with the other major characters being caught in the middle of their dispute to be used as either pawns and / or victims. The first villain (and stalwart of the franchise that was to come) is Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, an obviously insane yet brilliant fellow who has come to matriculate at a little medical school in Massachusetts, but who also carries with him a shadowy past working in Europe in the field of forensic pathology, having studied with a world renowned expert in the field who had just recently died under mysterious circumstances. Turns out that West has managed to develop a glowing green serum that when injected into the brain stem of a recently deceased corpse, causes it to come back to life albeit as either a grotesque zombie or at best, a seemingly severely mentally ill lunatic capable of wanton acts of violence. West himself is clearly a socially awkward type consumed with his work, obsessed with restoring life to the dead but yet still holding an arrogant contempt (as is evident by his personality) for almost all other forms of life whether they be animal or human, seeing the only real value in any of them as just being more test subjects for his gruesome experiments, and as wonderfully played by Combs comes across as being completely off his rocker while still maintaining a focused, single minded commitment to perfecting his work. Upon arriving at the university, he comes into conflict with David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill, another world renowned pathologist who specializes in the workings of the brain and specifically, the source of the willpower in the human mind. Despite him being referred to as a âhuman grant machineâ at the university due to what is considered (except by West) to be his groundbreaking work in that field, he also carries what can be mildly called a very perverted obsession with the (much younger) beautiful, blue eyed, blonde haired daughter of the Dean (Barbara Crampton), and upon learning of the breakthrough that West has made with his reanimating serum, conspires to steal it outright from him and claim all the credit for it as his own, even eventually hatching a plan to control the minds of the reanimated dead for his own nefarious means, and Gale also does a wickedly delightful job here, playing a guy who uses his highly respectable status to get himself some face time with the young, blonde object of his insatiable lust while in addition becoming completely incredulous that a mere med student like West could not only have made the discovery of a lifetime, but to have him also be audacious enough to openly challenge his teachings during a class session in front of the other students. As director, Gordon is thankfully unafraid to include copious amounts of gruesome gore and overt sexuality (leading to the film carrying the rare Unrated label from The MPAA), but the little rivalry we have here soon spills over into having its own body count, including The Dean himself (Robert Sampson), who is reanimated into being that of a bestial maniac which was a far cry from his once respectable veneer. The most interesting side character though is Bruce Abbottâs Dean Cain, Westâs fellow student and roommate who finds himself forming a shaky alliance with the young madman, having been drawn into helping him by his own reluctance as a potential young doctor in allowing patients to die after others have decided that âeverything has already been done for themâ, thus laying his own life and future career on the line to help West because he actually does feel that the concept of reanimating the dead might really have some genuine merit to it all while maintaining a relationship with Crampton and watching West show very little himself in the way of any kind of human emotion when it comes to him going about his own business. But as the stakes get raised and the Hill character proves to be even more ruthless than West, all Hell really does break out when Hill not only takes control of the serum, but utilizes a form of lobotomy on the reanimated dead to make them do his absolute bidding, with his (rather hilarious) top priority being to send the now blood drooling, feral Dean (described earlier in the film as being âthe worldâs last Puritanâ in how protective he is of his little girl) to go kidnap his own daughter and bring her back to Hill and then mindlessly look on for what easily remains to this day the most gruesome, macabre ârapeâ scene in the history of cinema (one which became so iconic in its own right that it was even openly referenced in a future Best Picture Oscar Winner like American Beauty). Ironically despite all this, the most controversial aspect of the film may very well be in its music score by Richard Band, which seemed to directly plagiarize the one written by Bernard Herrman for that of Alfred Hitchcockâs Psycho (especially during the opening and closing credits) all while the composer himself continually insisted that it was a âhomageâ. Even more interesting is the fact that even with this filmâs enormous popularity (which continues to this day) which managed to spawn a trilogy (with Combs, Abbott, and Gale all returning for Part 2), the sequels have somehow become all rather obscure, hard to find oddities and mainly have only been seen by the true diehard fans who actually made the effort to seek them out, and there was even a Part 4 that was long in development with a proposed storyline of West now being recruited to reanimate the suddenly deceased President Of The United States who was to have been played by Oscar Nominee William H. Macy(!). That all being said, the reason for the originalâs undying longevity lies perhaps not only in the energy of the actors on hand, but also with the level of energy in the directing and pacing of Gordon himself, who supposedly used his experimental theatre abilities to map out ultra bizarre setpieces and then see them become realized on screen, always knowing that their unique, over the top nature would result in a following catching on and lending the film a level of popularity that even today makes it stand out when leading horror film historians look back upon that glorious decade of excess in the field of cinematic scares (and laughs, as it did precede Evil Dead 2 by a couple of years), embodying a twisted sense of humor along with its two top notch bad guys battling each other in an absolutely insane game of human chess, thus proving that the best and weirdest material can always shine the brightest given the right actors and the perfect stylings being put on by a director who clearly and brilliantly knew exactly what he was doing every demented step of the wayâŚ
9/10