“Birth is always painful”
(In Memory of David Gale [Dr. Carl Hill] 1936-1991)
1985 was a good year for zombie films. Romero released the final chapter in his original trilogy, Russo put out Return of the Living Dead that would spawn four sequels over the next twenty years, and the cult classic H. P. Lovecraft’s Reanimator came out which would also be the beginning of a trilogy. In truth, I saw the third installment, Beyond Reanimator on FEARnet years before I would see Reanimator. I love this film for so many reasons and if there was ever a B-movie to be put on a pedestal at the same level of Romero’s films. I highly recommend reading H. P. Lovecraft’s short story before seeing the film. You can read it here: http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hwr.asp
To begin with, this is based off an H. P. Lovecraft story, which is fantastic in itself. There is so much I want to say about this film and I just hope to remember it all. The movie was created by Stuart Gordon who previously had only done theatre work and had created his own theatre company called the Organic Theater. In fact, all the actors were primarily theatre actors, which gave the film a very nice touch. Because they were all used to theatre, Gordon had them to rehearsals the whole week before shooting started. Now typically, movies do not have rehearsals but it worked well. Originally, Gordon wanted to do the piece as a miniseries with half an hour on each chapter of the short story that was very true to the story, set in the right time and all that. However, no one would pick it up so Gordon went on to make it a modern movie. Most times this is the only critique people have of the film: it is not true to the original story. However, I still love it and it is true enough. The only thing that really matters is Herbert West (the Reanimator) and Jeffery Combs nailed it! He is such a brilliant actor and a fantastical character actor. Everything I have ever seen him in (or heard when he does voice over’s) he is wonderful. One of my favorite films of his (aside from this one) is The Frighteners, which I highly recommend. Jeffrey Combs is Herbert West in the movie.
The opening credit sequence is another fun thing. The pictures are all neon colored illustrations from Grey’s Anatomy and the music, by Richard Band, was a tribute to that music of Bernard Hermann’s score for Psycho.
The plot of the movie is the same as that of the short story. The story is told by Dan Cain and the movie also follows Cain rather than West. West is a brilliant young medical student who dabbles in experiments of a Frankensteinian nature. His intentions are pure but he is a bit pretentious, arrogant, and his morals are off-kilter to those of accepted society. In the story West is more of an anti-hero, not a villain per se but someone who you do not like but sympathize with. In the movie, is the flat out protagonist and at the very least, the lesser of two evils as we discover the real villain is someone else. You will not see me giving away any spoilers in this review. The movie also added in a love interest for Cain, which is also not common with Lovecraft. His stories never really have any female roles and for those of who have read any Lovecraft you know that Lovecraft hates humanity.
The movie is scary, gross, and at times a bit disturbing but it also has some comedic moments as well. My favorite part comedic part is when we find out that the villain has bags of his blood type stored in the fridge in his office for just certain occasions like the one the movie presents us with.
What else can I say? The stuff they used for the Re-agent is actually the stuff in glow sticks, they just cut a bunch open and poured the stuff into the bottles West has.
There really is not much to say about the plot because it is very straightforward and it is a splatter flick so there is not a lot going on. There is the ethical question of “what would you do?” which gives the film more redeeming value.
Even though you would think that when it was first released there would be many critics damning it for so much gore and such a high gross factor when in fact, almost all the reviews were in favor of the film. It even won several awards: Stiges Catalonian Film Festival in 1985 for Best Film went to Gordon, Fantafestival in 1986 was awarded both Best Film (Gordon) and Best Special Effects (Anthony Doublin), and Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in 1986 for a Special Mention for Horror (Gordon).
The film has so many good qualities. The chemistry between the actors is fantastic; the acting quality is high (especially for a B cult movie) thanks to their theatre approach. The effects are old gags but so convincing, the story is fun and interesting. Everyone who worked on the film is amazing and knew what they were doing. I really have not one complaint about this film
I know they are not typical zombies but they are dead, most have lost most if not all of their humanity, intelligence, personality, and memories, and they are violent and will take a bite out of you. Yes you can kill them anyway you like but they are still zombies in my eyes. The story came out after Frankenstein but way before Romero and so I have no problem calling them zombies
I therefore give Reanimator 4 1/3 stars out of 5.
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