Reanimator is a 1986 horror film based on a HP Lovecraft short story, directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Abbott.
A classic gem of B-grade schlock horror, Reanimator is one of the best examples of the genre and stands the test of time remarkably well.
Med student Dan Cain (Abbott) advertises for a roommate, only to have the mysterious Dr Herbert West (Combs) answer the ad. Despite Dan’s girlfriend Megan’s (Barbara Crampton) objections, Dan is persuaded by the wad of cash West shows up with.
Megan objects for good reason – no sooner has West stepped through the front door, he asks to see the basement, and after seeing it, says “yes, this will do nicely!” I’ve interviewed a lot of house mates, and I can safely say anyone getting excited by a basement would immediately be scratched off the ‘maybe’ list.
West has come to town to study death at Miskatonic Medical Hospital. Dan doesn’t really like death. This is evident by his stubborn attempts to revive someone at the start of the film. So when West declares he’s ‘beaten’ death, Dan is understandably intrigued. You just know the two are going to get along, that it’s all going to end badly, and that it’s going to be ridiculously awesome.
Not one to do things by halves, West demonstrates his victory over mortality by reanimating Dan’s cat. Twice. Not only does the unfortunate feline die once, West injects it with his glowing green reanimator juice only to have it go nuts and try to kill him. So he kills it again and then reanimates it a second time to prove to Dan that his serum works. This movie is extremely messed up.
Director Stuart Gordon wisely keeps the film brisk and steers it way off into ‘absurd’ territory, thus keeping the emphasis on humour. Lovecraft intended his short story to be a bizarre parody of Frankenstein, so it makes sense that this adaptation aims to be humorous. Whether you find it so or not depends on your sense of humour. Personally, I just can’t go past a film that features a severed head going down on a woman. That’s right up my alley.
The film is undoubtedly demented, even by today’s standards. But it’s not nearly as bizarre as it could have been – they left out the bit from the short story where a giant reanimated black guy shows up at their front door gnawing on a baby’s arm. That’s probably a bit much, even for me.
Anyway, West thinks big, and requires ‘fresh’ specimens to conduct his experiments on. In fact one of the film’s best moments for me is the way he complains that a corpse they used wasn’t fresh enough. The way he slithers the word "fresh" is just fantastically unhinged.
This insatiable need for fresh corpses of course leads him to the hospital morgue and into trouble. Because while his serum works, the subjects return from death a little bit worse for wear.
One of the most bizarre and funny bits in the film is where the Dean (Megan’s dad) is reanimated, but no-one except Dan and West know he’s a reanimated corpse, so they just figure he’s gone crazy. This leads to a scene with a zombie in a strait-jacket confined to a padded cell. Again, right up my alley.
No discussion of this film would be complete without mentioning David Gale who plays West’s nemesis Dr Hill and who spends half the film carrying around his own head. Gale brings a weirdly Shakespearean gravitas to this bizarre role and his slimy demeanour throughout the film, particular his unwanted attention towards Megan, is just a joy to behold. He’s deliciously evil and makes a superb villain.
This also brings up another favourite moment of mine – Dan’s weird description of Dr Hill’s obsession with Megan– he tells West that Dr Hill has a file on her, filled with hair clippings and other things, and that he thinks Dr Hill has projected “some sort of psychotic need” onto her. I love West’s reaction to this; it’s sort of bemused condescension. Really, Jeffrey Combs is an extremely underrated actor.
Stuart Gordon ignores the links to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, and I think that’s a good thing. It would have made the story needlessly complicated. As it stands, we’re just left with the notion that reanimating dead people is probably not the greatest idea and that death is inevitable and we shouldn’t play God. Works for me. This is 90 minutes very well spent.
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