REANIMATOR (1985)

Stuart Gordon’s “Reanimator”(1985) is a jumpy, paranoic, knockabout example of a movie with a grim cast of thought and a certain nuttiness to it that makes it all work. Taken from a series of stories by the classic fantasy author, H.P.Lovecraft, which revolve around master fantasist and scientist Samuel West, it takes the bare outlines of one or two of the stories and is low budget in fashion and ways.

A simply set and filmed setting of a Lovecraftian university and hospital (probably the already named Misketonic University), these stories are all put around the theme of leaving nature alone and going where man should not go. That is all purely said,Gordon, an underrated director since then, would become a top name of these types of movies soon after. This was his first movie.

The whole movie is shot in the dark, closeted tones of the nightime settings of the script. They seem to resemble a cartoonish aspect of colliding bodies and physical gags in all of these scenes, much like the Raimi and Coen Brothers movies of the 1980s.There is a true sense of movie rhythms and stylings here. It does make it all here to say that the cult actor, Jeffrey Combs, has an early role in all of this action movie high. He plays the secretive, sly but still ambitious and toughened up Doctor with the right pitch of style and higher ambition.

dr samuel west from the lab

Dr Samuel West