After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.
A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. But when the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms.
Everyone's favorite mad scientist Herbert West is currently in jail after having state's evidence turned against him by his former assistant, Dan Cain. While being led away, some re-agent ... See full summary »
Director:
Brian Yuzna
Stars:
Jeffrey Combs,
Tommy Dean Musset,
Jason Barry
When two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.
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There is panic throughout the nation as the dead suddenly come back to life. The film follows a group of characters who barricade themselves in an old farmhouse in an attempt to remain safe from these bloodthirsty, flesh-eating monsters.
Two siblings and three of their friends en route to visit their grandfather's grave in Texas end up falling victim to a family of cannibalistic psychopaths.
A medical student and his girlfriend become involved in a bizarre experiment into reanimating the dead conducted by the student's incorrigible housemate in this campy sendup of an H.P. Lovecraft story. The emphasis is on humour but once the dead walk, there is gore aplenty.Written by
Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca>
Lovecraft never really liked his Re-animator stories and wrote them only because he got five dollars per installment. See more »
Goofs
The university where all the action takes place is "Miskatonic". When West is reanimating the dead cat Rufus, there is a close-up of a bottle of chemicals from the university, spelled "Misketonic", with an 'e'. See more »
Quotes
Herbert West:
[Hits Dr. Hill over the head from behind, with a shovel. Then, while decapitating him by driving the blade of the shovel through his neck:]
Plagiarist!
See more »
Alternate Versions
Laserdisc version includes 20 minutes of additional footage, including a never-before-seen dream sequence. See more »
Very loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's story "Herbert West: Re-Animator"
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is new at Misketonic University in the (fictional) town of Arkham MA. He rooms with nice guy Dan (Bruce Abbott) but Dan's girlfriend Meg (Barbara Crampton) doesn't trust him. And evil Dr. Hill (the late David Gale) hates him. It seems West has a glowing green/yellow potion that brings the dead back to life...but they always come back in a foul mood. But he hasn't tried it on humans...yet...
Boy, do I miss the 80s! Back then they could make extremely gory, sick, violent, unrated films like this and get them to play at mainstream theatres. I saw this opening night in Boston back in 1985--it was unrated and no one under 18 was allowed in the theatre. The audience was quiet at first, but as the violence and gore escelated and the black humor kicked in, the audience came alive. People were screaming, yelling, laughing...just about everything! Especially during a sequence between Crampton and Gale which just went way over the boundaries of good taste. It was just great! The movie is fun on its own, but with the right type of audience it really comes alive.
The film has extreme gore...probably the goriest movie of its decade. It also has huge doses of black humor and the whole cast blessedly plays it straight...it they had winked at the camera once it would have destroyed the film.
The film also has a tight, well-written script (it runs 86 minutes), is well directed by Stuart Gordon and has a great cast--David Gale (sadly no longer with us) was fantastic as the evil Hill. Jeffrey Combs plays West just perfect--we see his obsession with the potion but Combs never overplays it. Abbott is somewhat bland but plays a very good hero. Crampton is just excellent as Meg--sexy, smart and very brave. Also Robert Sampson adds strong support as Meg's father.
Basically a must-see for any horror fan. Also a great score and I LOVE the ending! Don't miss this one!
Try to see the Special Edition DVD--it shows deleted scenes that flesh out the story more.
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Very loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's story "Herbert West: Re-Animator"
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is new at Misketonic University in the (fictional) town of Arkham MA. He rooms with nice guy Dan (Bruce Abbott) but Dan's girlfriend Meg (Barbara Crampton) doesn't trust him. And evil Dr. Hill (the late David Gale) hates him. It seems West has a glowing green/yellow potion that brings the dead back to life...but they always come back in a foul mood. But he hasn't tried it on humans...yet...
Boy, do I miss the 80s! Back then they could make extremely gory, sick, violent, unrated films like this and get them to play at mainstream theatres. I saw this opening night in Boston back in 1985--it was unrated and no one under 18 was allowed in the theatre. The audience was quiet at first, but as the violence and gore escelated and the black humor kicked in, the audience came alive. People were screaming, yelling, laughing...just about everything! Especially during a sequence between Crampton and Gale which just went way over the boundaries of good taste. It was just great! The movie is fun on its own, but with the right type of audience it really comes alive.
The film has extreme gore...probably the goriest movie of its decade. It also has huge doses of black humor and the whole cast blessedly plays it straight...it they had winked at the camera once it would have destroyed the film.
The film also has a tight, well-written script (it runs 86 minutes), is well directed by Stuart Gordon and has a great cast--David Gale (sadly no longer with us) was fantastic as the evil Hill. Jeffrey Combs plays West just perfect--we see his obsession with the potion but Combs never overplays it. Abbott is somewhat bland but plays a very good hero. Crampton is just excellent as Meg--sexy, smart and very brave. Also Robert Sampson adds strong support as Meg's father.
Basically a must-see for any horror fan. Also a great score and I LOVE the ending! Don't miss this one!
Try to see the Special Edition DVD--it shows deleted scenes that flesh out the story more.