- Re-Animator
Infobox Film
name = Re-Animator
caption = Theatrical release poster
director =Stuart Gordon
producer =Brian Yuzna
writer =H. P. Lovecraft (short story)
Stuart Gordon
William Norris
starring =Jeffrey Combs Bruce Abbott Barbara Crampton
David Gale
music =Richard Band
cinematography =Mac Ahlberg
distributor =Empire Pictures
released =October 18 ,1985
runtime = Theatrical cut
95 min.
Unrated cut
86 min.
country =United States
language = English
German
budget = $900,000
gross = $2,023,414
followed_by = "Bride of Re-Animator "
website = http://www.re-animatorfilms.com/Re-Animator.cast.html
amg_id = 1:40416
imdb_id = 0089885"Re-Animator" is a 1985
horror film directed byStuart Gordon and based on theH. P. Lovecraft story "" and first of the "Re-Animator" series. It starsJeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West, a medical student who transfers from a school inEurope to themedical school ofMiskatonic University to continue developing a formula to revive the dead. His testing of the agent leads tounintended consequence s for West and his new roommate, Dan Cain. The movie has since become acult film , driven by fans of Combs, extreme gore, and successful combination of horror and comedy. It currently has a score of 92% on critic siteRotten Tomatoes .Plot
After being expelled from the Zurich University Institute of Medicine in
Switzerland , Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs ) arrives at Miskatonic University inNew England in order to further his studies. He rents a room from fellow medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott ), and converts the building's basement into his own personal laboratory. Cain, meanwhile, is secretly dating Megan (Barbara Crampton ), daughter of school dean Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson ).There is an instant animosity between West and faculty member Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale). Hill's theory of
brain death bears a remarkable resemblance to that of West's mentor, Dr. Hans Gruber (Al Berry), a professor in Zürich. In the opening scene, West brings this dead professor back to life with horrific side-effects; a result, as West explains, of having given Gruber an overdose of his re-agent. Undaunted, West continues his personal research at Miskatonic, soon re-animating Dan's dead cat, Rufus. Upon Dan's discovery of this, West quickly recruits him as his partner.Soon the two sneak into the morgue to test the re-agent on a human subject. The corpse revives and goes on a rampage, attacking both West and Cain before escaping into the autopsy room. Dean Halsey stumbles upon the scene and, despite attempts by both West and Cain to save him, is brutally killed by the re-animated corpse. Armed with a bone saw, West finally manages to dispatch that which he's only just brought back to life. Hardly fazed by the violence and excited at the prospect of a fresh dead subject to work with, West injects Halsey with the re-agent. Halsey returns to life, but in a zombie-like state.
Dr. Hill discovers West's work, imprisons and eventually lobotomizes Halsey, while forcing West to continue the research so that Hill can take credit for the serum's discovery. West kills Hill, decapitating him with a shovel, then re-animates both his head and body. Hill knocks out West and escapes, carrying his head, stealing the serum and sending the lobotomized Halsey out to kidnap Megan.
Cain and West track Halsey to the morgue where they find Hill
molesting a restrained Megan. Cain frees Megan while West distracts Hill. Hill reveals that he has re-animated and lobotomized several corpses so they will do his bidding. However, Megan manages to get through to her lobotomized father, who fights off the corpses long enough for Cain and Megan to escape. In the ensuing chaos, Halsey is torn to pieces by the other corpses and West injects Hill's body with what he believes is a lethal overdose of the serum. Hill's body takes on a horribly monstrous new form and attacks West, who screams out to Cain to save his work before he continues fighting with Hill. West appears in the next sequel, but it is unclear on how the fight ended.As Dan and Megan run from the morgue, Megan is attacked by one of the re-animated corpses and killed. Dan takes her to the hospital emergency room but is unable to revive her. He injects her with West's serum. Just after the scene fades to black, Megan screams.
Cast
*
Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West
*Bruce Abbott as Dan Cain
*Barbara Crampton as Megan Halsey
* David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill
*Robert Sampson as Dean Alan Halsey
* Al Berry as Dr. Hans GruberProduction
The idea to make "Re-Animator" came from a discussion Stuart Gordon had with friends one night about vampire movies.cite news | last = Brody | first = Meredith | coauthors = | title = We Killed 'Em in Chicago | work =
Film Comment | pages = 70 | language = | publisher = | date =February 1987 | url = | accessdate = ] He felt that there were too manyDracula movies and expressed a desire to see aFrankenstein movie. Someone asked if he had read "Herbert West: Re-Animator" by H.P. Lovecraft. Gordon had read most of the author's works but that book had been out of print. He went to theChicago Public Library and read their copy.Originally, Gordon was going to adapt Lovecraft's story for the stage but then writers Dennis Paoli and William Norris and Gordon decided to do it as a half-hour television pilot. The story was set around the turn of the century and they realized that it would be too expensive to recreate. They updated it to the present day in Chicago with the intention of using actors from the Organic Theater company. They were told that the half hour format was not salable and so they made it an hour, writing 13 episodes. Special effects Bob Greenberg, who had worked on
John Carpenter 's "Dark Star", repeatedly told Gordon that the only market for horror was in feature films and introduced him to producerBrian Yuzna . Gordon showed Yuzna the script for the pilot and the 12 additional episodes. The producer liked what he read and convinced Gordon to shoot the film inHollywood because of all the special effects involved. Yuzna made a distribution deal withCharles Band 'sEmpire Pictures in return for post-production services.Yuzna described the film as having the "sort of shock sensibility of an "Evil Dead" with the production values of, hopefully, "
The Howling ".cite news | last = Fischer | first = Dennis | coauthors = | title = A Moist Zombie Movie | work =Fangoria | pages = 44 | language = | publisher = | date =August 1985 | url = | accessdate = ] John Naulin worked on the film's gruesome makeup effects and worked from what he described as "disgusting shots brought out from theCook County morgue of all kinds of different lividities and different corpses".Fischer 1985, p. 45.] He and Gordon also used a book of forensic pathology in order to present how a corpse looks once the blood settles in the body creating a variety of odd skin tones. Naulin said that "Re-Animator" was the bloodiest film he had ever worked on. In the past, he never used more than two gallons of blood on a film. On "Re-Animator", he used 24 gallons of blood.The biggest makeup challenge in the film was the headless Dr. Hill zombie. Tony Doublin designed the mechanical effects and was faced with the problem of proportion once the 9-10 inches of the head were removed from the body. Each scene forced him to use a different technique. For example, one technique involved building an upper torso that actor David Gale could bend over and stick his head through so that it appeared to be the one that the walking corpse was carrying around.
Reaction
"Re-Animator" was released on
October 18 ,1985 in 129 theaters and grossedUSD $543,728 on its opening weekend. It went on to make $2 million in North America, well above its $900,000 budget.cite news | last = | first = | coauthors = | title = "Re-Animator" | work = Box Office Mojo | pages = | language = | publisher = | date = | url = http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=reanimator.htm | accessdate = 2008-08-27 ]It was well-received by critics, earning mostly positive reviews with a 92% rating at
Rotten Tomatoes .Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "I walked out somewhat surprised and reinvigorated (if not re-animated) by a movie that had the audience emitting taxi whistles and wild goat cries".cite news | last = Ebert | first = Roger | coauthors = | title = "Re-Animator" | work =Chicago Sun-Times | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =October 18 ,1985 | url = http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19851018/REVIEWS/510180303/1023 | accessdate = 2008-08-27 ] In her review for the "New York Times ",Janet Maslin wrote, "Re-Animator" has a fast pace and a good deal of grisly vitality. It even has a sense of humor, albeit one that would be lost on 99.9 percent of any ordinary moviegoing crowd".cite news | last = Maslin | first = Janet | coauthors = | title = "Re-Animator" | work =New York Times | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =October 18 ,1985 | url = http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9E04EED91E39F93BA25753C1A963948260&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes&oref=login| accessdate = 2008-08-27 ] Paul Attanasio, in his review for the "Washington Post ", praised Jeffrey Combs' performance: "Beady-eyed, his face hard, almost lacquered, Combs makes West into a brittle, slightly fey psychotic in the Anthony Perkins mold. West is a figure of fun, but Combs doesn't spoof him".cite news | last = Attanasio | first = Paul | coauthors = | title = Captivating Cutups | work =Washington Post | pages = D8 | language = | publisher = | date =October 25 ,1985 | url = | accessdate = ] In his review for the "Los Angeles Times ", Kevin Thomas wrote, "The big noise is Combs, a small, compact man of terrific intensity and concentration".cite news | last = Thomas | first = Kevin | coauthors = | title = "Re-Animator" | work =Los Angeles Times | pages = 11 | language = | publisher = | date =October 25 ,1985 | url = | accessdate = ]
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