Frankenstein meets zombie meets glow stick.
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a sick puppy. Brilliant, but sick. At the University of Zurich he created a serum that can bring dead tissue back to life. After a horrible incident in Switzerland he moved to New England to Miskatonic University. His roommate is Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). In his basement lab Herbert continues his reanimation experiments. Herbert brings Dan’s dead cat Rufus back to life. Dan’s fiancée Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) is horrified.
Dan tries to tell Barbara’s father Dean Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson) about Herbert’s success but the dean thinks both of them are crazy and kicks them out of school. Dan and Herbert sneak into the morgue and reanimate a corpse. The corpse comes back to life, but is violent. Dean Halsey walks in and the reanimated corpse kills him. Herbert kills the reanimated corpse. Not one for missing an opportunity, Herbert injects Dean Halsey with his serum and brings him back to life. Dr. Halsey returns to life but is now a zombie.
Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) is a professor and researcher at the hospital. He puts Dean Halsey in a padded cell next to his office. He then does a lobotomy on him. Dr. Hill realizes that Halsey is not sick but is actually a reanimated zombie.
Not one for missing his own opportunity, Dr. Hill goes to Herbert and attempts to blackmail him and get his reagent, notes and credit for the discovery. Herbert kills Dr. Hill and cuts off his head. He then reanimates both head and body. While Herbert is conversing with Dr. Hill’s head, Hill’s body comes up behind him and knocks him out. Dr. Hill’s body picks up his head, Herbert’s notes and his reagent and leaves. Now dead Dr. Hill has everything he wants. Every thing except Megan Halsey.
“Re-animator” was released in 1985 and was directed by Stuart Gordon and is generally thought of as a horror/comedy. It is based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft. Writers Gordon and Paoli had planned on closely following Lovecraft’s story but ultimately veered substantially. Actor David Gale's wife divorced from him shortly after this film's release. Reportedly due to the rather strange scene where his character sexually assaults Barbara’s character. The reagent Herbert uses is the fluid you find in glow sticks.
The special effects department went through twenty-four gallons of fake blood while shooting the film. Make-up effects artist John Naulin said that Re-Animator was the bloodiest film he had ever worked on. Usually he never used more than two gallons of blood on a film. The gurney used with Dr. Hill’s head on it came from the set of “Return of the Living Dead”. It already had the hole cut in it." The opening credits music is basically a tribute to “Psycho”.
“Re-animator” is probably one of the grossest movies. It is a combination of over the top special effects, gore, and most improbable sex scene I’ve ever seen. It is definitely of the horror movie genre. It’s a snowball going downhill. As it builds up speed, it increases in wild intense insanity. If you are partial to insanity, gore, disembodied heads, and just giving head in general, this is your movie. The film has also been cited by Freudian analysts as a sort of masturbation fantasy. Something to do with creating life without the help of women. I’m not sure I get that but, OK.