One of those movies that I’ve heard about forever, but never actually watched. It’s just as gross, crazy and over-the-top as I had been led to believe. Not sure what took me so long to pull the trigger…
I would not classify myself as a “gore-hound”. I enjoy horror movies, obviously, and I appreciate some good, gruesome effects, but gore for its own sake is not really my thing. Re-Animator is a movie for gore-hounds. I’m talking died-in-the-wool, Fangoria-subscribing, $300-Halloween-costume horror fans. As evidenced by the very first scene, in which a man has his eyeballs thumbed out in a torrent of blood. That doesn’t mean I disliked it, however. In fact, I found it delightfully absurd and remarkably good-natured about delivering its horrors. Stuart Gordon’s affinity for bloodshed is infectious. He is so focused on showing off his diabolical vision, in fact, that he completely eschews darkness, pretty much the most basic horror movie building block, in order to give us a better look. I don’t know how scary the whole thing is, but there is no doubt that it achieves a visceral reaction.
Herbert West is a medical student from Switzerland who has transferred to America with a secret: He has discovered the ability to bring the dead back to life by injecting them with Masters of the Universe Toxic Slime™. The trouble is, he doesn’t have the wrinkles all ironed out yet, and his “patients” tend to come back with murderously violent tendencies. Also troubling, his new professor and dean both think he’s a lunatic, and his roommate’s girlfriend is highly suspicious of his undeniable creepiness. You may think you can guess how this is destined to play out, but the heroes and villains are not necessarily who you think, and there is no way to anticipate the levels of carnage and depravity that Re-Animator reaches in its third act. I started to type out an explanation of the most twisted scene, but I had to unplug the computer and take a shower before returning to the review.
Re-Animator has a host of strengths. Jeffrey Combs is awkwardly magnetic as the intensely unhinged West, the best of a solid group of performances. The special effects are not complicated, but they are convincing. I joked earlier about the lighting, but it’s true that darkness can cover a lot of dodgy effects work. Gordon is too proud of his work to allow that. Finally, much like I applauded Night of the Demons for, this movie is not predictable. There is the real sense that anything could happen, that nothing is sacred, and that translates into a feeling of danger. And the feeling of danger is what this whole season is all about. For that, above all else, I applaud the efforts of everyone involved.
Comentários