This is a horror film from the mid-1980’s based on a story by the horror legend H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a riff on the classic Frankenstein story with a lot of zombies thrown in for good measure. It’s pretty great although definitely not recommended for the average movie-goer. This is for horror fans only.
Although there are long stretches of boring scenes (a lot of fluff could have been cut from this), when the blood starts flowing, it’s jaw-dropping. The film could have been trimmed down by about 20 minutes and would have made the pace much smoother. That’s my one big complaint. In between the re-animation scenes (a doctor finds a way to re-animate dead tissue), there’s a lot of pretty bland dialogue scenes that feel more like a low-rent TV sitcom but the gross-outs and horror as well as the flat-out stunning finale when all hell breaks loose are more than enough to elevate Re-animator to horror classic status. The blood flows freely with gross outs including severed heads, re-animated body parts, and disturbing images. You’ve been warned (or welcomed if you are into that sort of thing).