A medical student who has invented a reagent which can re-animate deceased bodies causes mayhem.
Loosely based on the 1922 H. P. Lovecraft serial novelette 'Herbert West-Reanimator' director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna deliver an impressive mix of humour and horror. There's a reanimated cat, severed heads and zombie like shenanigans.
Jeffrey Combs offers a memorable intense mad scientist but never spoofs Herbert West. The main cast including David Gale, Barbara Crampton are on form delivering deadpan jokes in this comic-like surreal horror with a perverted, gratuitous tone. Notable is Bruce Abbott as Dan Cain whose dry down to earth character works in the outlandish situations that West puts him in. The overlapping genre piece has some under the skin horror too, Gale's Dr. Carl Hill infatuation with with Crampton's Megan Halsey is uncomfortable viewing. This is countered by outrageous shock experiments with dead tissue.
Stuart Gordon's offering deserves its cult status but does suffer from budget limitations, evident in the flawed TV like sets and at times stilted editing and camera work. This aside, the effects and setup pieces for the most part work.
Overall, Re-Animator is fast pace, delivering a good deal of gore and practical effects, a must for wacky horror film lovers.
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