Re-Animator (1985)

"I gave him life!"

Here's to some good schlocky fun!  *downs whiskey*  The 80s were a time of weird fashion trends, cheesy horror flicks, and good music.  It's a time in which I wish I had lived through, due to the sheer awesomeness of how life was like back then.  Gas was low and movies were cheese.  Maybe I would have loved this film even more if I had seen it back in the 80s, or when I was a child.  But Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is a great horror experience that nothing from that era can ever measure up to.  It's fun, unique, and pretty gory with it's kills....like really gory.  So much at times, you may be able to cringe if you at some of the gruesome deaths, like a freaking shovel decapitation.  So, yeah, this not for weak stomachs.  But, being the guy that I am, I didn't mind it cause it seemed very 80s.  Not like that's a bad thing.  Stuart Gordon, who did Robot Jox (only the initiated will understand), crafted a film that perfectly embodies the 80s at a whole: a fun, cheesy, unique, and weird time.

 

Based on the H.P. Lovecraft book of the same name, Re-Animator focuses on Dan Cain, a doctor in training.  He studies at some medical school, where he gets hands on experience, and places dead bodies in the mortician's room.  Oh, and he's also sleeping with the dean's daughter, so that's a win-win.  Enter Herbert West, or the Re-Animator if you would.  He joins the school after something bad went down in his Switzerland-based school.  Instantly, he proves himself a genius, knowing much more about the human brain that his teacher does.  He's also a condescending little rat, who pisses off the very same teacher he's smarter than.  Anyways, he finds an ad for a roommate rent, and guess who's home it is!?  It's Cain's!  He moves in and for a while, is very quiet.  That is until Cain walks in on him re-animating a dead cat, that attacks both of them.  What works well for the film is it's imaginative premise.  It's silly and unique and it's the clear driving force of this film.  It's a huge positive that helps it avoid yawning.

Of course, as I have said, the film is super, ultra cheesy.  However, it's not the Walmart brand cheese stick.  It's actually the good kind.  The fermented one....(sorry, got carried away).  It's dialogue has that cheese-filled goofy 80s vibe to it, but it enhances the film.  If I weren't watching it on an HDTV, I'm pretty sure I would've thought that I had entered the 80s full on.  Also, while the acting from the cast as a whole is not impressive, Jeffrey Combs is actually quite entertaining as the anit-hero (yes, he's not the true villain).  He reeks of cheese, but like I said, it works for the film.  It's not a film to be taken seriously, though it does quite possibly want to speak about something.  I felt like the film wanted to speak about something (good or bad I don't know) that goes on in the medical field.  Maybe too much medical practicing can turn someone into a psychotic re-animator.  Eh, I wasn't truly understanding what it wasn't trying to tell us, but oh well, I guess it needs a rewatch.

With all the positives there can be negatives with the film as well....and it's the same thing I was praising in the previous paragraph.  The cheese in this film can sometimes go stale, but not full on Walmart brand, no!  There are some lines of dialogue that can be a little over-the-top, namely the one scene of romance in the film.  It's not like a romance in a film can suck.  It's just the things they said to each other were just corny, rather than cheesy.  For a second, I thought this film would devolve into the Notebook.  Also, the characters seem to be able to cope with things much better than the average person can.  If someone killed my father and re-animated him, I'd be pissed off to the point of no return.  Yet, the character handled it pretty well in this film.  Also, the same goes for the cat.  I would kick that man out of my home if he did that.  It's just a little to gleefully cheesy at times.

Overall, Re-Animator is a good time for a Friday or Saturday night.  It's fun, campy, cheesy, and gory.  The deaths are a little over-the-top, but it helps in a film this creative.  Also, Cabin in the Woods, you know that film that came out in '12, ripped this film's final act off so bad.  You can see an obvious style in the final act that Cabin had as well, and quite honestly, that really helps this film.  Usually, when a film inspires another film, whether that other film is sub-par or not, it helps that film that came out first.  And considering it's a 20 year time difference, I'm pretty sure that it was coincidence.  However, enough with all this "borrowed" inspiration.  The Re-Animator is a perfect example of cheese done right, unlike the original Evil Dead.  It's humor at times may be too deadpan, but in the end, it really does make for a great film.

7/10