Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Conducting clandestine experiments within the morgue at Miskatonic University, scientist Herbert West reveals to a fellow graduate student his groundbreaking work concerning the re-animation of fresh corpses.
Re-Animator is a cult classic that earns its reputation through sheer audacious energy and a wildly distinctive tone — gleefully transgressive black comedy horror that commits completely to its Lovecraftian premise with anarchic glee. Jeffrey Combs's Herbert West is an iconic, singular screen creation, driving the film with manic intensity. The cinematography is functional genre work, competent but unremarkable. The plot is serviceable pulp, escalating absurdly but not with great structural sophistication. The ending is memorably gonzo but somewhat chaotic. Novelty is the film's true strength — there is simply nothing quite like it in the horror canon, blending mad-scientist schlock, splatter comedy, and H.P. Lovecraft with a completely unique voice.