My thoughts

It's rougly five A.M., I'm laying in bed with an injured side from coding this damn website for too long. I need entertainment (and something to write about on here), so I decide to watch one of my favorite films, Re-Animator. I have my breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal, and I turn on the movie. All is well, at least for me.

Although, honestly, it doesn't matter the circumstances of my rewatch. It also doesn't matter that my oatmeal tastes worse than usual, probably because I put too much water. This isn't my personal blog, so who cares that my oatmeal, as of writing this, is now cold? You came here for one thing, and it's my thoughts on the 1985 film Re-Animator.

The film starts with a very gripping scene, none other than Herbert West himself is being arrested by (what I assume are German) officers. Stunned at what this crazy man is doing, the group just gawks. This part has always bugged me a little, I'll be honest. You see a guy spazzing out, and your first action is to stare? Not get the man medical help or anything? Why do they wait a few seconds before they arrest Herbert? I understand what the film wants this to be, it's meant to show that this is freakin' weird, but what purpose does it serve otherwise? I can suspend disbelief though. For now.

Moments later, however, these officers just let Herbert out of their grasp? That's certainly weird, at least to me. If you're trying to arrest him, you're clearly not doing well.

This opening scene just isn't my favorite. It even features some gnarly eye gore, which I almost always feel sick at. Out of all the gore, that right there is the worst.

The credit/title sequence immediately makes up for this though. Gosh, I love the credit sequence! The music is so nice, and the visuals are very interesting. I'll be putting a few screenshots from the credit sequence in the gallery section, just so you all know what it looks like.

We then see Daniel Cain working restlessly to save a woman's life, despite being told and shown that it wouldn't work. This part is very important, to me at least, because it establishes what kind of person Dan is. He's determined, he's patient, and he seems to have a pretty solid moral code: that people should live. Personally, I have that moral code too, and I think most sane people do as well, but put up against Herbert's clear inability to fathom that death is a bad thing it really shows the contrast between the duo.

And a smooth transition between establishing Dan and establishing a common setting, Dan brings the (now dead) woman's body to the morgue. In this scene, we also get an interesting bit of foreshadowing that I really do like. The security guard by the morgue entrance says, to quote, "Nobody wants in, and ain't nobody getting out," a line that turns out to be entirely false, both points being disproven.

Once Dan gets the corpse into the morgue, we see the worst character, Dr. Carl Hill. Carl Hill is objectively the most evil character in this film, but we'll put a pin in that until his crimes arise. We also see, in this scene, some pretty gross head gore. Nothing too graphic, but enough to make me feel like I'm getting a lobotomy.

We then formally meet Herbert, who has the blankest expression I've ever seen on a man. He blatantly disregards any attempt at socialization in favor of looking at... something? I assume it's the corpse Hill was sticking a cotton swab into, but it's off screen, so I genuinely have no clue. Maybe he's staring at a quarter on the ground, wondering if he should pick it up. I've got no clue!

Herbert then confronts Hill for plagarism: one of the less severe of the Hill's offenses. I've always loved this scene. Herbert turns from blank to petty in seconds. In fact, Herbert never stops being petty to Hill. It's hilarious.

We then meet Dan's girlfriend, Meghan Halsey. She's joking around with Dan, and suddenly, moments later, we cut to them having... intercourse, I'll say, in Dan's bedroom. I don't love this scene, but if you look in the background you see a very interesting detail: a Talking Heads poster! This is in reference to something that comes up later, you'll see why it's relevant. It turns out, also, that the director had no clue it was even there until it was pointed out! Interesting, huh? I think so.

Here we also see just how much Meg loves Dan, saying that the minute he gets his degree she'll marry him. I think that's pretty sweet, although it forms some contrast to her feelings later on.

As Meg is about to leave, she opens the door to see Herbert standing there, blank-faced, offering some aggresive contrast to the fact that Dan and Meg were just joking around and having fun. We learn that Herbert wants to move in with Dan, and after Dan goes to put on some clothes (because yes, he was still very naked), Herbert and Meg converse momentarily. The three go down to the basement, and after bribing Dan (or paying his first rent) Herbert is allowed to stay.

Cut to class, Hill is casually ripping someone's scalp off and cutting open their skull. All in a day's work, I guess. Hill then starts talking about his theories. He goes on, running his annoying voice for long enough to make any sane viewer's ears and eyes bleed, and Herbert grows so fed up with Hill's nonsense that he breaks his pencil and screams at Hill. Again, he stays petty.

At dinner, in the next scene, Hill cannot stop talking about Meghan, to a degree that you start to realize why he's just so weird. Meghan is uncomfortable, Dan is uncomfortable, Alan is uncomfortable, and I'm uncomfortable. In fact, the scene ends with a close up of Meghan, an uncomfortable cringe plastered across her face.

We then learn that Meg is also uncomfortable with Herbert, but for different reasons. He stays cooped up in his room all day, scares the cat, and is "a little cracked". Dan and Meg also find that their cat Rufus is dead! Not just dead, but in Herbert's mini-fridge! Yes, that's right, Herbert is keeping a dead cat in his mini-fridge. I hate this scene so much, just the idea of a dead cat in someone's fridge... gross. Then, the icing on top is that Herbert lies about Rufus' cause of death.

Now it's nighttime, Dan wakes up from a series of clatters and screeches. Dan goes falling down the basement stairs, and finds the most hilarious scene in the whole movie unfolding as Herbert is brutally attacked by the cat he just killed. Yes, that cat. He revived the cat and it immediately attacked him. The two men utterly destroy the basement, and I cackle for a few minutes. They eventually fully kill the cat, and Herbert pulls a little prank on Dan. Afterwards, Herbert explains his re-agent to Dan. Dan doesn't want to hear it, but eventually Herbert convinces him to help with his experiments, only after demonstrating how it works.

We're at the thirty minute mark now, and Dan is sneaking Herbert into the morgue. We learn here one of Herbert's greatest skills: speed shoe-tying. We also see that Dan is horrified of what they're doing. Although all circumstances align just right, and they can somewhat-complete the experiment. Their freshly reanimated corpse is now throwing a hissy fit, launching things across the room, and screaming like a child. Things escalate very fast, and this grunting corpse bites off one of Alan Halsey's fingers, crushes him with a door, and eventually has to be impales with a bone saw. I love the bone saw scene, something about it is both gruesome and hilarious. I've featured a screenshot in the gallery. Alan is now dead, and Herbert decides to use this as an opportunity for science! Meg makes her way to the scene, and upon seeing this, is obviously apalled. Meg is one of the few sane characters in this film! The scene ends with the security guard confronting the two, and Dan collapsing to the floor in shock.

Now we see that someone left Hill alone with Meg, which is the worst idea possible. He explains what he'll be doing to Alan, and gets a bit too close to her for comfort. I don't like dwelling on these scenes where Hill is being gross, so my thoughts will end at this: he's vile.

After this, Dan and Meg fight (or really just Meg slaps Dan and yells at him a little). After this, we cut to Herbert in the basement, and Hill having just broken in. Hill threatens Herbert, steals a bit of his serum, and ends up freaking decapitated! Herberts then reanimates Hill's head and body, and finds that he can talk to Hill. There's a lull after this which isn't very important to talk about, so I'll refrain.

We're now at the hour mark. Herbert realizes his serum has been stolen, and start screaming about it. Dan rushes down to the basement. Cut to see Hill giving himself blood and then chatting with the lobotomized dead guy in his office. As you do. One thing I've never really understood though is why Hill is breathing. He doesn't need to, he's been decapitated! There's no path to his lungs! That also raises all sorts of concerns, but that's besides the point.

Hill is now reanimating corpses on his own accord. I think he's trying to build a little corpse army, not even kidding. Things get a bit more serious though, when Hill pilots Alan's reanimated corpse over to Dan's house, kidnaps Meg, and we see just how vile Hill is when he sexually assaults Meg. This scene always makes me sick to my stomach, to the point I have to skip it every time. Thankfully, Dan and Herbert rush to the scene swiftly, and Dan works on saving her. However, Hill has his corpse army, and immediately goes to attack the three. In the most gruesome scene of the whole movie, we see all sorts of gore and violence, and a fight for the ages.

In the scuffle, Meg ends up strangled and killed by one of the corpses. The doctors all make an effort to bring her back to life, but it's fruitless. With no visible way out of this, Dan decides to reanimate Meg with the serum. Fade to black, end movie.

Over all, here are my thoughts on the movie. It's a pretty good film, and an amazing gorefest if that's something you like. It's got compelling characters, fascinating storylines, and plenty of cool trivia about it too! If you're fine with the crazy stuff that happens, and you want something to completely wreck your apetite, this film is perfect for you!

The cinematography is also very interesting! Camera angles show what is and isn't important, subtle things like lighting or sound give cues, and I've gotta congratulate the writers for their hard work! They really did do a good job telling this story!

I do have my complaints, yes, but this isn't a place for that. This is where I praise the movie for what it's done right, and boy has it done a lot right! I can forgive the scientific inaccuracies and the strange plot points, because this movie really is great in my opinion. I'd give it a solid 8/10!

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