Re-Animator is a cult classic from 1985 that's loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story "Herbert West–Reanimator." It's about a medical student named Herbert West who invents a serum that can revive the dead, and when he and his housemate Dan Cain begin to test the serum on humans, things go terribly awry.
For me, this film works on two levels. On the one hand, it's a fun zombie movie that puts a different spin on the subgenre. The vast majority of zombie films involve some sort of apocalypse where all the dead mysteriously begin to rise and the entire human race needs to fight for survival, but this one is different. These zombies are scientifically reanimated, and depending on how soon after death they're revived, they can even retain some (or all) of their personality and intellect. That makes for a unique story that stands out in the subgenre while still delivering on the gory fun we've come to expect from movies about the living dead.
But even more than the zombies, the real star of this show is Herbert West. Actor Jeffrey Combs plays him with a focused intensity that borders on the psychotic but never goes quite that far. The character lives on the thin line that separates genius from insanity, and Combs absolutely nails it. Herbert is a treat to watch every time he's onscreen, and since he's the driving force of the story, you get a whole lot of that treat.
On the other hand, Re-Animator is much more than just a fun popcorn flick. It's an extended meditation on death, grieving, and our futile attempts to put an end to those realities. After beginning with a brief prologue introducing viewers to Herbert, the film quickly moves to Dan as he tries to revive a dying patient in a hospital. His attempt fails, and it really upsets him, setting the tone for the rest of the story. The shadow of death looms over the entire narrative, so the idea of a scientist who invents a way to revive the dead naturally plays as a metaphor for all of humanity's attempts to overcome death.
Unfortunately, Herbert's serum causes more trouble than it's worth. The vast majority of the people he revives come back as more or less mindless animals with only the faintest hint of their former personalities, and the one person who comes back with all of his intellectual faculties intact ends up being the villain of the film. So at the end of the day, all of Herbert and Dan's attempts to conquer death end in failure. Humanity is no closer to finding a way to live forever than it was when the movie started, and the final scene really hammers this idea home. It mirrors Dan's opening scene in a clever way, making it clear that humanity's fight against death is futile even with Herbert's reanimating serum.
While this obviously isn't a happy subject to talk or think much about, it's still a profound truth about human existence, and good art is supposed to capture those truths even when they're unpleasant. That's exactly what this movie does, but it manages to do so with a really fun story, so it lessens the brunt. It balances out the sadness of its theme with a whole lot of fun, and that makes the theme much more palatable than it otherwise would be.
So if you're looking for a movie that gives you the cinematic yin-yang of a deep theme wrapped up in a fun horror story, or if you want a zombie film that does something other than rehash the same premise we've seen a million times before, then give Re-Animator a shot. It's not on the level of the all-time greats like The Exorcist or Halloween, but it's a legitimate horror classic that most fans of the genre will probably get a kick out of. If you consider yourself a horror fan but haven't seen this one yet, you should definitely check it out.
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