“I gave him life!”

If you’re looking for a faithful adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1922 novelette “Herbert West, Re-Animator,” then Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator is not for you. Gordon’s film is sleazy and gory, excessive where Lovecraft is academic. It’s also very, very funny, one of the best horror comedies ever made. (One of Gordon’s greatest coups is to take Lovecraft’s stark prose and make it hilarious.) It’s so damn strange that it was destined to be a cult classic.

We first meet the titular doctor in Zurich, as he brings his dead mentor (cheekily named Dr. Hans Gruber) back to life. The sequence is rightfully horrifying; West blames the monstrous side effects on a too-large dose of his reagent. West is looked upon as a madman, and is accused of killing Gruber. Frankenstein plays no small part in Re-Animator‘s DNA, and the film has a lot of fun with it. But it doesn’t shy away from one simple fact: brilliant though he may be, Herbert West is mad; or at the very least, obsessive to the point of being myopic.

West ends up in New England, at Lovecraft’s fictional Miskatonic University. He immediately becomes a disturbing presence not just in the life of his roommate, Dan Cain, but also Cain’s fiancee Megan, and the academic community at large. Upon meeting the condescending Dr. Hill, West quips, “I know your work quite well, Dr. Hill…Though derivative of Dr. Gruber’s work in the early ’70s. So derivative, in fact, in Europe it’s considered plagiarized.” Of all the films that Jeffrey Combs made with Gordon, Re-Animator boasts his best performance. He is maniacally dedicated to his work, and can’t understand why people won’t see things his way. He’s stubborn, but also a smart-ass; more than that, though, he has a real affection for Dan and Megan. Ignoring how much he clearly creeps them out, he considers them friends. West is a deceptively layered character in what is – on paper and in reality – a darkly comic splatterfest. It’s easy to laugh at West, not with him, but Combs never succumbs to the temptation to make West pathetic or laughable. It’s a fine line to tread, and Combs does it with aplomb. Whenever we feel the urge to laugh at West, the movie reminds us: this man is way smarter than any of us.

Bruce Abbott is no slouch as Cain, but he’s hamstrung by the fact that he’s not the title character. That’s not enough to sabotage the film; any story like this needs a straight man, and Abbott plays his nicely. Barbra Crampton, another actor is Gordon’s repertoire, is excellent as Megan. Despite being the subject of some of the film’s most depraved scenes (such as a literalization of the phrase “giving head”), she never makes Megan seem weak. She doesn’t shy away from voicing her opinions and concerns to Dan, and the fact that she’s right about West – he’s crazy! – saves the character from becoming a shrill harridan. The only other substantial role is played by David Gale, as Dr. Hill; Gale nicely portrays what is mostly a stock ’80s villain, as he plans to take credit for West’s discoveries. It’s easy to be happy when Hill winds up a headless zombie.

About that: Re-Animator, like all Stuart Gordon films, is not for the faint of heart. If you are at all squeamish, avoid Gordon’s work. The film’s humor does little (by design) to dampen the horror of its imagery. This is a film designed to be enjoyed in an interactive environment. It has a 1950s drive-in sensibility, aiming to elicit shrieks, gasps, and laughs from its audience. It’s movies like this that make one realize that Gordon doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the caliber of his screenwriting. Re-Animator is as memorable for its humor as for its violence.

Gordon wisely decides to make the climax horrific instead of humorous. This is a Lovecraft story, after all, and (nominally at least) a horror film. The undead Dr. Hill, his head operating separately from his body, is able to telepathically control corpses revived with West’s reagent. Gale has an excellent time in these final scenes, going absolutely gonzo in his performance as a cackling maniac (content warning: there is a scene of sexual assault in this part of the film). The effects still hold up today; Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna studied books on forensic pathology, in order to ensure that the corpses had the right amount of lividity and blood clotting. That verisimilitude, coupled with Tony Doublin’s excellent practical effects, make the sequence undeniably chilling.

Megan is killed in the melee, and Dan is unable to revive her. Desperate, he gives her a large dose of West’s reagent. The last thing we hear is Megan coming back to life, screaming. It’s certainly chilling, but what sticks with me the most is West’s final moments. As he is sucked into the mass of entrails that was once Dr. Hill, he doesn’t scream for Dan to save him. He screams for Dan to save his work. It’s all that matter. At the end of it all, the work is all that matters.

10/1: Hellraiser / The Invitation

10/2: Splice / Banshee Chapter

10/3: Jennifer’s Body / Raw

10/4: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

10/5: Kill List / A Field in England

10/6: Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch

10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

10/8: Ginger Snaps / Creep

10/9: Cube / Creep 2

10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / The Ritual

10/11: Hell House LLC / The Taking of Deborah Logan

10/12: Re-Animator / From Beyond

10/13: Beetlejuice / Sleepy Hollow

10/14: Idle Hands / The Lords of Salem

10/15: The Ring / Noroi: The Curse

10/16: I Know What You Did Last Summer / The Monster

10/17: Night of the Living Dead / Train to Busan

10/18: The Devil’s Backbone / Southbound

10/19: Event Horizon / Dreamcatcher

10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / The Bad Seed

10/21: Eyes Without a Face / Goodnight Mommy

10/22: The Strangers / The Strangers: Prey at Night

10/23: In the Mouth of Madness / The Void

10/24: The Amityville Horror / Honeymoon

10/25: Gerald’s Game / Emelie

10/26: The Monster Squad / Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/27: Veronica / Jacob’s Ladder

10/28: High Tension / You’re Next

10/29: The Innkeepers / Bug

10/30: The People Under the Stairs / Vampires

10/31: Saw / Saw II

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