Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator

Re-Animator (1985) is a fast-paced, blackly comic horror riff on an H.P. Lovecraft story. Ambitious but unhinged medical student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) arrives at Miskatonic University with a phosphorescent reagent that can reanimate dead tissue. He ropes in his skeptical roommate Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and, eventually, Dan’s girlfriend Megan (Barbara Crampton) as his experiments escalate from dead cats to fresh human cadavers. As West’s work spins farther out of control, the campus – and the morgue – fill with grotesquely resurrected corpses, drawing the attention of rival physicians and setting off increasingly outrageous, violent consequences. Watching Re-Animator you’ll get a potent mix of gross-out special effects, energetic low-budget filmmaking, and gleeful, often absurd dark humor. Expect practical gore FX, over-the-top acting (especially Combs’s manic West), and a tone that shifts between pulpy scientific obsession and slapstick mayhem. It’s gory, irreverent, and cult-friendly—perfect for viewers who appreciate classic ’80s practical effects, satirical takes on mad science, and horror that leans as much into comedy as into shock. Viewer warning: graphic violence and body-horror content.

Actors: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton

Director: Stuart Gordon

Runtime: 104 min

Genres: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Filmaffinity Rating 6.1 /10 Metacritic Rating 73 /100 IMDB Rating 7.2 /10 Bmoat Rating 6.9 /10