Hello again, my spooks. This week, I’ll be reviewing Re-Animator (1985)! I went into this film completely blind, as in I really, honestly, truly had no idea what I was about to watch. My friend and I went out for a Thai dinner and talked about horror over some delicious duck and chocolate cake, and when he tried to ask me if I knew “about that one scene in Re-Animator where-“…I cut him off. I didn’t want to judge, and it was an awesome decision.

All I knew about this film was that it’s based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft (insert swoon here), and that Jeffery Combs is a psychotic medical student that brings dead things back to life. For those of you that have never seen the film, there’s the synopsis for you! To be honest, I would typically give a little more, but there are so many things about this film that I don’t want to give away by giving you a full play-by-play of how the film goes. You really just need to watch it for yourself.

I’m truly a gore-hound. I am in love with watching people get torn apart. I think it’s awesome when someone’s head explodes. Re-Animator does not skimp on the pure beauty that is insane amounts of gore.

It also does not skimp on attractive men. Herbert West, will you marry me? Adorable medical intern, will you marry me? Professors…not so much. It’s fine, what he doesn’t gain in looks, he makes up for in his “head” skills, if you know what I mean…

This is also one of the strangest films I think I’ve ever seen. Once you get past the fact that the film is paying homage to the horror classic Psycho by using the same music, and you get past the fact that it’s a cheesy 80’s horror, it’s really strange, disturbing, and actually pretty gross. There are some scenes that made me cringe big-time (and you’ll cringe through the whole film if you don’t like needles), and there are copious amounts of laughable weirdness. See above statement about the professors. If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what scene I’m talking about.

While the film is noticeably 80’s (it’s fun, campy, and the VFX are slightly derpy), the storyline is great and really doesn’t leave much to be desired. I didn’t, at any point, feel like anything was missing. As far as rewatchability goes for this film, I would watch it again tomorrow! It’s AWESOME. So much awesome.

Story/Concept: 2
Direction/Style: 1
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Rewatchability: 2
TOTAL: 7/10

I need to know if you guys have seen Re-Animator, an I need you to tell me what you thought of it. Because I’m honestly sad that no one has forced me to watch this before now.

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Taylor Krauss

Taylor has been a horror fan for as long as she can remember, begging her parents to let her see The Exorcist at the tender age of just five years old. Since then, she has developed a lifelong obsession with all things strange, paranormal, and creepy. If you find her doing something other than watching a horror film, she’s probably raging as a dwarf barbarian playing Dungeons and Dragons (obsessively…it’s a problem), quoting Lord of the Rings incessantly, or trying to become Dana Scully.

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