For the last review I wanted to write about something special, and it just so happened that this film sort of fell into my lap. Screened.com; a website which I frequent, was doing a sort of mystery science theatre 3k thing, where they would watch a film and commentate on it while it was on. So, I got all set up at midnight for the showing, laptop ready to watch the justin tv stream of the screened.com guys and then my TV to put on the main feature. And so, I settled down, got a bowl of popcorn and readied myself to watch "Re-Animator".Herbert West is a medical student who has discovered something that will change the world forever; a liquid that can regenerate dead tissue, in essence bring the dead back to life. He enlists the help of his house mate to aide in his experimentation. It all starts off with the reanimation of a dead cat; and to be honest that could have gone better. It isn't long before things are cranked all the way to 11 and Herbert starts trying to bring back things other than cats!
In my experience, horror comedy is a very difficult genre to master. Not only that, but it is an mammoth task to base the source material on a famous writer's work; in this case H.P. Lovecraft. However, "Re-Animator" just works on every level it tries. It succeeds in being gloriously camp and hilarious withour making a mockery of the orignal story and yet still manages to be frightfully gory. It even has moments that will give you a good old fashion scare. From headless corpses to re-animatedcats, it maintains a steady story line and keeps you interested, which can sometimes be difficult to do.
Despite being 25 years old now, this film still has a great amount of punch considering it is quite out of date. I think it more thank likely that it just adds to the films charm; the special effects are fantastically absurd and the best part is, no CGI!
To say that this film is a classic would be a gross understatement. What you have in "Re-Animator" is a film that despite being little bit dated still seems to achieve the same effect after a quarter century. In a nut shell, you have a truly timeless horror film. I can't force you to watch anything, but if I could you can be damn sure that this would be on my list. It's funny, a little bit camp, bloody, crazy and a whole plethora of other descriptives. Don't just take my word for it though, give it a watch and enjoy it for yourself.
It seems like only yesterday since I decided to start on "The Road to Halloween". I am not going to lie here people, it has been a long and difficult journey. If it weren't for my love of horror films and the help of a friend, I doubt I would have made it to the end. And yet, here I am on the 31st of October preparing to write about my final review for the month. I just want to thank my girlfriend for her understanding and patience, Kevin Brown for his continued support, all of the people who read my reviews and all the people involved in all the films I have watched. I hope you have all enjoyed this month as much as I have, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you a Happy Halloween!
Rating 5 out of 5
See it if you liked:
Bride of Re-Animator
Beyond Re-Animator
What does IMDB say?
Review by Stephen King
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