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Re-Animator (1985)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 39
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 3

Perfectly compositing humor and horror, the only thing more effective than Re-Animator's gory scares are its dry, deadpan jokes.

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1

Perfectly compositing humor and horror, the only thing more effective than Re-Animator's gory scares are its dry, deadpan jokes.

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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 32,793

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Movie Info

Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a brilliant medical student who has perfected a green-glowing serum for regenerating life into dead things -- or even parts of dead things. But a corrupt superior, Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale), assumes control of West's experiments and winds up, by ghastly necessity, using the stuff on his own severed head and body. West and in-over-his-head co-worker Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) struggle to control the now out-of-control effects of the serum, but the bone-saws and

R, 1 hr. 26 min.

Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

Directed By: Stuart Gordon

Written By: H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli, William J. Norris, Stuart Gordon

In Theaters: Oct 18, 1985 Limited

On DVD: Dec 10, 1997

Empire Pictures

Re-Animator Trailer & Photos

Cast

Jeffrey Combs
Herbert West
Bruce Abbott
Dan Cain
Barbara Crampton
Megan Halsey
Robert Sampson
Dean Halsey
David Gale
Dr. Carl Hill
Gerry Black
Mace
Al Berry
Dr. Gruber
James Earl Cathay
Psycho Ward Guard #2
Velvet de bois
Slit Wrist Girl Corpse
James Ellis
Psycho Ward Guard No. 1
Robert Holcomb
Motorcycle Accident Cor...
Annyce Holzman
E-R Patient Corpse
Peter Kent
Melvin the Re-Animated
Lawrence Lowe
Failed Operation Corpse
Derek Pendleton
Swiss Policeman #1
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
Dr. Harrod
Gene Scherer
Swiss Policeman No. 2
Bunny Summers
Swiss Woman Doctor
Ian Patrick Williams
Swiss Professor
Steve Frakes
Hospital Extra
Michael Muscal
Hospital Extra
Barbara Peters
Nurse
Lillian Avery
Hospital Extra
Ed Brummett
Hospital Extra
Bruce Cohn Curtis
Hospital Extra
Kim Deitch
Hospital Extra
Jack Draheim
Tall Skinny Guy Corpse
Mike Filloon
Bullet Wound to the Fac...
Bob Johnnene
Hospital Extra
Stephen Keinzle
Hospital Extra
Grace Keller
Hospital Extra
Peter Marti
Hospital Extra
Robert Pitzele
Bald O-R Corpse
Tom Reeves
Hospital Extra
Greg Reid
One Arm Guy Corpse
Greg Robbins
Hospital Extra
Robert Veilleuz
Hospital Extra
Jerry Thomas
Hospital Extra
Tim White
Hospital Extra

Critic Reviews for Re-Animator

All Critics (39) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (3) | DVD (33)

It's this kind of flat-footed stuff that gives garbage a bad name.

June 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comments (4)

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Pic has a grisly sense of humor, and sometimes is so gross and over the top the film tips over into a bizarre comedy.

June 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

All of this, ingenious as it may be and much as it will redound to Mr. Gordon's credit in hard-core horror circles, is absolutely to be avoided by anyone not in the mood for a major bloodbath.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Janet Maslin

New York Times

Top Critic

We have been assaulted by a lurid imagination, amazed by unspeakable sights, blind-sided by the movie's curiously dry sense of humor. I guess that's our money's worth.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Thumpingly good gore-fest.

October 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

Overall, Re-Animator (Anchor Bay Collection) is worth buying only for true die-hard fans, or as a blind-buy for any person who loves Raimi's Evil Dead series but hasn't seen this similarly superlative horror-comedy.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: IGN Movies

| Comment

Todd Gilchrist

IGN Movies

It's so politically incorrect that there is no way anyone would be able to make it today.

June 19, 2008 Full Review Source: ESplatter

| Comment

Lucius Gore

ESplatter

It's sweet when a classic lives up to its legend, isn't it?

June 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

| Comment

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

This is one of the greatest films ever made. Period. It's outrageous, erotic, gory, jaw-dropping, genre-busting ,shocking, and altogether exhilarating filmmaking.

May 5, 2008 Full Review Source: PopMatters

| Comment

Brian Holcomb

PopMatters

A classic horror-comedy.

January 29, 2008 Comment

Stefan Birgir Stefansson

sbs.is

In its best moments, the film itself practically leaps off the screen.

October 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Projection Booth

| Comment

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

... this is about as thorough a treatment as you could hope for on this movie ...

July 10, 2007 Full Review Source: DVD Review

| Comment

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

Stuart Gordon doesn't just push the envelope of good taste with this one; he tears right through it.

July 10, 2007 Full Review Source: DVD Review

| Comment

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

While Re-Animator fails as a faithful adaptation of Lovecraft, it is an incredibly demented movie in its own right that combines a plethora of downright disgusting grand guignol with disturbing black humor.

June 5, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

The plot... took a genre obsessed with masked killers, monsters et al, completely by storm.

April 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

| Comment

Mark Dinning

Empire Magazine

Packed with bonus features, Re-Animator is lovingly brought back to life by Anchor Bay.

April 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Jeremiah Kipp

Slant Magazine

Re-Animator was Stuart Gordon's first (and best) movie.

April 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Jeremiah Kipp

Slant Magazine

When Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator arrived in 1985, it set a benchmark in horror-comedy that few films have matched since.

March 31, 2007 Full Review Source: Future Movies UK

| Comment

Future Movies UK Source: Future Movies UK

A comically ghastly B-movie delight.

March 20, 2007 Full Review Source: FulvueDrive-in.com

| Comment

Chuck O'Leary

FulvueDrive-in.com

The injection of humour into HP Lovecraft's 1922 tale is what saves this splatterfest from being mere fodder for gorehounds.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Re-Animator

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Graphic, gory and amazingly entertaining! It's hard to imagine that a zombie movie from the 80's, with such a no-name cast, could be this absorbingly brilliant. It's kind of like a modern-day version of Frankenstein, except much more extreme and bloody. One of the things that makes it so great, besides the fantasic

July 21, 2007

Mike S

Super Reviewer

This is basically a slight twist on the Frankenstein story, so it feels very familiar, and has many of the conventions of the horror genre obviously. I didn't like that about it, it made the movie kind of boring. On the other hand, there were tons of blood and gore all over the place on top of violence and nudity, all

August 24, 2011

AJ Verser

Super Reviewer

Re-Animator Quotes

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1. Herbert West: Dammit! It wasn't quite fresh enough!
– Submitted by Joseph M (8 months ago)

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