The mid-'80s were a Golden Age for schlock horror, with the boom in the home video market providing a hungry audience for low-budget thrills.One of the many diamonds in a mostly rough field was Stuart Gordon's liberal re-imagining of one of H.P.Lovecraft's lesser works (Lovecraft is on record as saying he hated his stories of Herbert West as they were written for money; "drivel written for the masses").
Re-Animator updates Lovecraft's original to modern times (well, the 1980s) and turns a Frankenstein parody into a darkly, darkly funny Grand Guignol farce.
The simple plot follows the arrival of Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) at Miskatonic University in Arkham, after an "incident" in Switzerland, where he rooms with fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), who is dating the dean's daughter, Meg (Barbara Crampton).
Unbeknownst to all, Meg is also an object of lust for creepy neuroscientist Dr Hill (David Gale), who eventually discovers that West - with the reluctant help of Cain - has been experimenting with a revolutionary re-agent that can give a form of zombie-life to recently deceased bodies.
Events spiral out of control, as they always do, leading to a crazy, climatic, gory zombipalooza in the University hospital's morgue.
As well as a quality script that brings a surprising amount of character to a blood-soaked B-movie, the effects are very inventive - as are some of sicker elements of humour: no one will ever forget the reverse-necrophilia scene where a re-animated corpse tries to get down with blonde-bobbed Meg.
There's also, thanks to Meg, a lot more female flesh on display in this 86-minute film than I recall seeing in the sequels.
Of course, I can't really pass comment on this film without singing the praises of Jeffrey Combs.
This was the film that made him a B-movie star and while he may not have the same instant name recognition as Bruce Campbell I'd put them on very similar levels as comedy horror legends.
While Campbell has the square-jawed hero role down pat, Combs is the man to call if you want a single-minded, amoral, mad scientist.
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Ah, yes - a truly classic film of the genre.
I cut my teeth, as it were, on the horror movies of the 80's, and this is one of my all-time favorites. I don't think a Saturday night passes that I don't look at the movies being run on the SciFi channel and lament to my fiancee about how much better the B-horror movies of the 80's and early 90's were than the crap that gets pumped out nowadays. Even the worst of the Re-Animator series is a thousand times better than most of today's direct-to-DVD horror. IMO.
I have to admit, though, this isn't my favorite Jeffrey Combs rol. For that, I have to refer to the role of Agent Milton Dammers in The Frighteners. Herbert West is a close second, however...
Who could forget Milton Dammers? A great role! What I like about Combs is his ability to pop up in all kinds of genre work - but his association with Lovecraft will always hold a special place for me.
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