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IMDbPro

Re-Animator

  • 19851985
  • UnratedUnrated
  • 1h 24m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
64K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,313
661
Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator (1985)
Trailer For Re-Animator
Play trailer1:56
1 Video
99+ Photos
ComedyHorrorSci-Fi
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.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.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.
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
64K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,313
661
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Stuart Gordon
    • Writers
      • H.P. Lovecraft(story "Herbert West, Re-Animator")
      • Dennis Paoli(screenplay)
      • William Norris(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Jeffrey Combs
      • Bruce Abbott
      • Barbara Crampton
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Stuart Gordon
    • Writers
      • H.P. Lovecraft(story "Herbert West, Re-Animator")
      • Dennis Paoli(screenplay)
      • William Norris(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Jeffrey Combs
      • Bruce Abbott
      • Barbara Crampton
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 277User reviews
    • 214Critic reviews
    • 73Metascore
    • Awards
      • 4 wins & 4 nominations

    Videos1

    Re-Animator
    Trailer 1:56
    Re-Animator

    Photos132

    Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator (1985)
    Jeffrey Combs and David Gale in Re-Animator (1985)
    Quad Movie Poster, 40 x 30
    Jeffrey Combs and David Gale in Re-Animator (1985)
    Jeffrey Combs and David Gale in Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)
    Re-Animator (1985)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Jeffrey Combs
    Jeffrey Combs
    • Herbert West
    Bruce Abbott
    Bruce Abbott
    • Dan Cain
    Barbara Crampton
    Barbara Crampton
    • Megan Halsey
    David Gale
    David Gale
    • Dr. Carl Hill
    Robert Sampson
    Robert Sampson
    • Dean Halsey
    Gerry Black
    • Mace
    Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
    Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
    • Dr. Harrod
    Peter Kent
    Peter Kent
    • Melvin the Re-Animated
    Barbara Pieters
    • Nurse
    Ian Patrick Williams
    Ian Patrick Williams
    • Swiss Professor
    Bunny Summers
    Bunny Summers
    • Swiss Woman Doctor
    Al Berry
    Al Berry
    • Dr. Gruber
    Derek Pendleton
    • Swiss Policeman #1
    Gene Scherer
    • Swiss Policeman #2
    James Ellis
    • Psycho Ward Guard #1
    James Earl Cathay
    • Psycho Ward Guard #2
    Annyce Holzman
    • E-R Patient Corpse
    Velvet Debois
    • Slit Wrist Girl Corpse
    • Director
      • Stuart Gordon
    • Writers
      • H.P. Lovecraft(story "Herbert West, Re-Animator")
      • Dennis Paoli(screenplay)
      • William Norris(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The special effects department went through twenty-four gallons of fake blood during the shoot, Naulin said that Re-Animator was the bloodiest film he had ever worked on. In the past, he had never used more than two gallons of blood on a film.
    • Goofs
      Bone saws, like cast cutters, don't rotate, they vibrate.
    • Quotes

      Herbert West: Who's going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow.

    • Alternate versions
      Although never classed as a video nasty the film has a very checkered history of censorship problems in the UK. The original cinema and 1986 video releases were cut by 1 minute 51 secs by the BBFC and many scenes were edited - most notably to the stabbing of a zombie with a bone-saw, a shovel decapitation, a scene of a head being squeezed, and a sequence where a woman is stripped, strapped to a trolley and forced to fend off the sexual advances of a severed head. The 1999 Tartan release lost 2 minutes 20 secs of footage and, although the saw attack and head squeezing was waived, the decapitation and sexual assault scenes remained cut. The latter had been pre-edited by the distributors using a slowdown technique and the entire second half of the assault sequence was completely missing. The 2001 Tartan re-release was slightly less cut and finally had the shovel decapitation scene restored, though 1 minute 49 secs remained cut from the female assault sequence. The film was finally passed fully uncut by the BBFC for the 2007 Anchor Bay DVD release. Since this 2007 release, all subsequent worldwide releases of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray have included the complete, uncensored version of the film.
    • Connections
      Edited into Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)

    User reviews277

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    The Academy Award for best use of a headless corpse goes to...
    Most of the cheap or not so cheaply made horror films these days are nothing more than a tedious exercise in how to bump off as many teenagers in as many different ways as one can imagine in ninety minutes or less. One need only watch recent films such as Wrong Turn or the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre to realize how far the horror genre has fallen. Once John Carpenter made the first Halloween film, we have been subject to an endless series of copy cat films whose only purpose seems to be finding an imaginative way to slice and dice the local teenage population. All of the Freddies, Jasons, and Michael Myers films combined don't come close to having an ounce of the entertainment and imagination of Producer Brian Yuzna and Director and Writer Stuart Gordon's Re-animator.

    Professor Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a scientist who has discovered a formula which brings the dead back to life by reanimating their tissue. After an experiment in Switzerland goes awry, he moves to Miskatonic University to continue his experiments. One thing Professor West isn't and that is modest. He even takes a few moments to ridicule a professor, Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) when he disagrees with him about when death actually occurs. He eventually rents a room from fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot). Dan is dating Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) who is the daughter of the college dean, Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson). What Dan doesn't know is that the aforementioned Dr. Hill has a perverted eye on Megan also. We know this because of the sleazy stares Dr. Hill eyeballs her with when ever she's around. Think of Megan as being an overage Lolita and Dr. Hill as Humbert Humbert and you've got the idea. All of this is not window dressing as it would be in some other films. It all comes into play very nicely. It goes without saying that sooner or later, Dr. West will be making good use of his reanimation formula, in ways only those with the most grotesque sense of humor can imagine. To say any more than that would deny you of the true pleasures of this film.

    How can a film that is so explicitly graphic and perverted in nature be fun? It's because every person involved in the making of Re-Animator was smart enough not to take it too seriously themselves. Everything in this film is so wildly over the top, that you can't help but chuckle right along with them as they wink their eye at you. There may be certain moments of the film that would normally sicken even the most hardcore horror film fanatic, but since Yuzna and Gordon never once let Re-animator sink into the tedious by the numbers game of other films of these nature, these same scenes become intentionally cartoonish and silly.

    But more than anything, this film owes it's life to it's cast. Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West should serve as the model for anyone wanting to make a film involving a mad or semi-mad scientist. Given this kind of role, there is many an actor who would have been tempted to ham it up and alas in many horror films they do just that. However, when Combs seems to imply that he is the smartest man on the planet and the rest of us are Neanderthal, we don't hate him for this implication at all. He is so good at making us believe he is the smartest man since Einstein and we are all nothing but Cro-magnon man by comparison that we love him for it just the same. He may be crazy, but he's a fun kind of crazy.

    David Gale as the smarmy Dr. Hill, is a joy to watch also. He has some of the most ridiculous scenes in the film yet somehow manages to keep a straight face through it all. He gives new life to the old saying about not losing your head over a piece of tail.

    Bruce Abbot as Dan Cain is the perfect contrast for West. He is a straight arrow, is madly in love with Megan, yet somehow lets himself become involved in West's experiments. Abbot also is smart enough to know that the center of this film is West, and never once overplays his role to try and overshadow him. As for Barbara Crampton, she should have won some kind of award, just for the abuse the producers put her through as Megan. Is there an award for most abuse of a female by the walking dead?

    Re-animator was made on a budget of less than a million dollars which is truly remarkable. There isn't a film budget in the world though that can replace the imagination and daring rampant through out Re-Animator. And when a horror film is that well done, and is something all the Freddies, and Jasons, And Michael Myers can only dream about, I have no choice but to give it my grade which for Re-Animator is an A.
    helpful•101
    14
    • clydestuff
    • Apr 8, 2004

    FAQ2

    • What are the differences between the R-Rated version and the Unrated version? What about the old BBFC 18 version?
    • What's the reagent West uses made of?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 18, 1985 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Site
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • H.P. Lovecraft's Re-Animator
    • Filming locations
      • Occidental Studios - 201 N. Occidental Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Empire Pictures
      • Re-Animator Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $900,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,023,414
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $543,728
      • Oct 20, 1985
    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,023,414
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 24 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Ultra Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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