Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Category: New Classic
Plot Tags: mad scientist, dead come alive, dark humor, splatter/gross
Original release: October 18th, 1985
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Written by: Stuart Gordon, William Norris
Based on: Herbert West, Re-Animator by H.P. Lovecraft
Produced by: Brian Yuzna
Distributed by: Empire Pictures
So nothing will ever get to the volume of grossness/awesomeness that Peter Jackson's 'Dead Alive' did. That one sort of stands alone. However, there are many off the wall/gross/weird type films that employ grossness in spurts intermixed with a strange story. Poultrygeist and Black Sheep are a couple I can think of but the big daddy of this type is Re-Animator. Based on the story by H.P.Lovecraft, Re-Animator tells the story of Dr. Herbert West (a brilliant Jeffrey Combs), an obsessive, twitchy and all together entertaining kook who brings his studies of the re-animation of dead flesh in Germany to a college setting in the states. He takes up residence with medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and by extension his girlfriend (the dean's daughter) and their cat. He begins conducting experiments in the basement and after a questionable set of circumstances, quasi brings Dan's dead cat back to life - sort of:
Dan: You can call, or write a note. (reacting angrily to West telling him after the fact about his dead cat)
Herbert West: I was busy pushing bodies around as you well know and what would a note say, Dan? "Cat dead, details later"?
The inherent issue is that the re-animation of dead flesh is tricky (birth is always painful, West says) and it seems to create a sort of mindless rage in the newly-not-dead-anymore-thing. This is particularly amusing with the cat, as he is in parts on the desk. Nothing too menacing about a creature not fully assembled coming back to life. Upon letting the dean know about the experiments, both Dan and West and expelled. This only magnifies their efforts and upon sneaking into the school, they try to reanimation stuff on a body in the morgue. Things go awry. The Dean is killed and then promptly brought back to life. There is confusion about his condition and he is institutionalized. All the while West and Dan are trying to get a handle on the experiments, controlling who knows what and dealing with an increasingly interested professor at the school. His interest seems to come from being proven wrong by West's German mentor but his (the professor at the school) motivations aren't really revealed until the final act.
Many more things happen leading to the conclusion of this chapter of the story. It is often quite icky. However, it is often quite funny too. The underpinning of humor never gets too campy but the film as a whole doesn't ever get deadly serious either. This is a great thing. I found myself giggling at the sight gags and fun ways they play against the gruesome imagery and story (how do you keep a severed head standing up in a pan versus rolling to its side? you'll find out) to keep things moving and keep the viewer comfortable. I think if the whole tone was all serious, no humor, West's fierce determined nutty-ness would get a little old but with that little valve release, his performance is classic.
I don't want to give away more than I have so I'll just close out by saying that this movie is pretty great if you can stand the really gross, splattery way it often goes. Considering the dinky budget and all else, they did a great job with a film that holds up amazingly well 26 years later.
No comments:
Post a Comment