Blast from the Past: 40 Years Ago
Stuart Gordon made such low-cost, body-horror pictures “Re-Animator” and “From Beyond” back-to-back in the mid-1980s.
Re-Animator is the first collaboration between Gordon, Combs and Crampton, the second being From Beyond, released in 1986.
Casting Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and the same ensemble on both projects, Gordon adapted a classic pulp story by writer H. P. Lovecraft for his Frankenstein-esque mad-scientist debut.
Gordon was involved in the Chicago-based Organic Theater Company, whose “Warp” trilogy flopped on Broadway.
He intended “Re-Animator” to be more serious, but, in the end, couldn’t resist the gore expected of the genre: serum that glowed green, disembodied head, and plenty buckets of blood.
Re-Animator (aka H. P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator) is loosely based on the 1922 H. P. Lovecraft serial novelette “Herbert West–Reanimator.”
Grade: B-
| Re-Animator | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
Jeffrey Combs plays Herbert West, a medical student who has invented a reagent which can re-animate deceased bodies. He and classmate Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) begin to test the serum on dead human bodies.
In the process, they come into conflict with Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale), who is infatuated with Cain’s fiancée (Barbara Crampton) and wants to claim the invention as his own.
Originally devised by as stage production and later half-hour TV pilot, the script was revised to become a feature film.
Imitially, the film was released without rating from the MPAA, but was later edited to obtain R rating.
It garnered its largest audience through the unrated cut’s release on home video.
Horror Franchise
It’s the first film in the Re-Animator series, followed by Bride of Re-Animator in 1990, and Beyond Re-Animator in 2003.
Released to mostly positive reviews, Re-Animator has since been considered a minor cult film of the zombie genre.
Credits:
Directed by Stuart Gordon
Screenplay by Dennis Paoli, William J. Norris, Gordon, based on “Herbert West–Reanimator” by H. P. Lovecraft
Produced by Brian Yuzna
Cinematography Mac Ahlberg
Edited by Lee Percy
Music by Richard Band
Production: Re-Animator Productions
Distributed by Empire International Pictures
Release date: October 18, 1985
Running time: 86 minutes
Budget: $1.3 million
Box office $2 million
