Horror Movie Reviews: Re-Animator

 Re-Animator is such a classic movie that I forgot all about it, maybe I banished it from my childhood because it freaked me out at the time or maybe I actually did forget about it, so I bought a copy from Amazon and it didn't disappoint with it's tongue in cheek horror and an early 1985 turn from actor Jeffrey Combs who plays the quite possibly insane Herbet West.

The story is about a scientist (West) who has been conducting research in Switzerland and had tested his latest serum on his Research partner Dr Gruber who after being administered the serum, his eye balls pop out and he dies. Awhile later he manages to enrol as a student of medicine at the local hospital where there are an array of fresh test subjects to experiment with his re-animating serum which will bring the recently dead back to life.

After first testing out his newly created serum on his landlords girlfriends cat, with very bad results as the cat turns vicious and then is thrown against a wall and it's brains splatter all over the wall. In a bid to prove that his serum works he shows his new landlord who also works at the local hospital as a training doctor and injects the cat again to bring it back to life, alhough it has a broken back and it howls and screams (not nice if you are an animal lover)

The effects are brilliantly handled especially a decapitated doctor who quite funnily carries his head around with him, whilst his body bumbles around experimenting on some bodies to try and take over Wests work and claim his re-animator serum as his own discovery.

Re-Animator had 3 sequels I think Re-Animator 2, Bride Of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator and it was based on an old H.P Lovecraft tale and in the DVD that I bought there are loads of extras on it, because it's the 2 disc collection and once I've watched all the extras I'll add them to this movie review.

Some of the film as I mentioned before is directed in such a way that you simply cannot take it all serious and that for me is the movies charm, the music in places make it seem like a Danny Elfman score that just reassures you that this is all a fun filled horror film and something to please the true horror fans. Re-Animator has a cult classic status even today and will do forever.

Even though there are a few dead arses appearing throughout the movie, the movie remains a classic and all the memories of me watching this film when I was 8 years old have gone, because it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Buy the movie now!