(1985) *****I snuck this one in just as Horrorthon was expiring. I don't have much of substance to contribute that wasn't already articulated in JSP's review from 2006, back when he was still Summerisle, or Octo's review from this year's Thon. Here are a few things, though, I stopped to consider while watching Re-animator.
--Why don't these scientists ever remember to flick their needles before injecting? Maybe the adverse effects had nothing to do with the serum, itself; Maybe the re-animated corpses were all just reacting badly to the bends.
--I guess it makes sense, when testing a new serum, to run multiple experiments to determine if the glitches are the fault of something other than the serum. Was Herbert West still, by the third film, using version 1.0? I really wouldn't put it past him.
--Wouldn't it have been better, more professional Mad Science if West had at least thought to tie down his subjects before injecting them? Even moreso, shouldn't Dan Cain have thought of this as well, before plugging his dead girlfriend with the stuff at the end of the film?
--I liked that Dr. Halsey retained the memory of how much he loved his daughter Meg. It really obscures the true character of the zombieism going on in this movie. In 28 Days Later, and Dawn of the Dead '04, the zombies are so out of their mind with rage, and in the original Romero flicks, the zombies are just so out of their mind, that there seems to be no mental connection to who the zombies were before they caught the fever -- Bud from Day of the Dead isn't a particularly good example: is he controllable because he's re-connected with his human psyche, or just because he's been well trained?
Here though, there's still a living person buried under all that zombie. Even, probably, in the ones that are on the attack. We don't see this side of them because their children aren't in the room.
I'm glad I exited the Thon watching this one. It's the quintessential Horrorthon movie.
3 comments:
I'm fascinated by your observations, so I'd like to address a few:
1) I'd never thought about the needle flick thing, but I'm pretty sure that since that is to relieve a possible air bubble going into the patient and...well...killing them, it might not really matter if someone were already dead.
2) There is a joke in the commentary made by Bruce Abbott during the special edition of Bride of Re-Animator that the serum in the second film looks a little more "lemon-limey," hence perhaps West was on Version 2 or at least Version 1.1.
In Beyond Re-Animator, West has to recreate his serum from scratch and thus improves upon it in the process. He only has a tiny vial of it left from 13 years previously that may have suffered some...deterioration, but the new batch is strong and...well, a little more neon than the old stuff.
3) As for the tying down, I'm pretty sure they tied down Halsey in the first film, but he broke loose from the bonds and grabbed them both by the throats. Powerful unbeings, them zombies. ;)
4) Loved your theory about retaining memories from pre-zombification. This is also shown in Bride's deleted first scene of Meg's re-animation (done with a different actress than Ms. Crampton), as she recognizes Dan upon "awakening."
Ooo, an anonymous commentator. Coooool.
Or is that just one of us who didn't log in?
Those are some great points, and I'm referring both to I'mnotMarc's and Anonymous's. I had no idea about the deleted scene of Meg's reanimation from Bride.
One of the things I love about the Dean's reaction to his daughter's presence is when the security guard shows up and the Dean is cowering in the corner. It's like he's horrified that someone he loves is seeing him like this, but you get that he's so addled he probably doesn't even know what's going on. Being re-animated sucks!
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