SummaryA dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.
Directed By:Stuart Gordon
Written By:H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli, William Norris, Stuart Gordon
Re-Animator
Metascore
Generally Favorable
73
User score
Generally Favorable
7.4
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
73
79% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
14% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
100
It's simply the best, funniest Grand Guignol horror picture to come along in ages.
90
Close to being a silly ghoulie classic - the bloodier it gets, the funnier it is. It's like pop Buñuel; the jokes hit you in a subterranean comic zone that the surrealists' pranks sometimes reached, but without the surrealists' self-consciousness (and art-consciousness).
User score
Generally Favorable
7.4
79% Positive
44 Ratings
44 Ratings
16% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
5% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Jan 9, 2020
10
Just rewatched this movie, it was extremely entertaining. Extremely. I think what makes it so good ism that it approaches a normal boundary then smashes through it. again and again, until you arrive at a scene with a severed head giving oral pleasure to a restrained girl while his beheaded corpse holds her down and her resurrected father stands watch, and the absurdity of it all washes over you. This movie is magic, i watched all sequels and other work by the director, don't bother. Only this was worth watching and it is super exhilarating. The villain is really really good, the humor is perfect, the effects are the bare minimum of what they need to be but never less. You must watch immediately.
May 6, 2019
10
There are few films as genuinely entertaining as Stuart Gordon's lose adaptation of H.P Lovecraft's famous serial. Thankfully, Gordon makes the story his own and the film ultimately becomes more of a tribute to the tale rather than a adaptation. Re-Animator is campy, and it revels in it.
90
A deft, funny, fearless, and gloriously tasteless mix of horror and comedy, Re-Animator proves that entertainment value trumps virtually every other concern.
80
Re-Animator remains a splashy hark back to the glorious 80s love affair with all-things bloody — to the point that Gordon was convinced he'd used more fake blood than anyone else in the history of horror.
75
One of the pleasures of the movies, however, is to find a movie that chooses a disreputable genre and then tries with all its might to transcend the genre, to go over the top into some kind of artistic vision, however weird. Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is a pleasure like that, a frankly gory horror movie that finds a rhythm and a style that make it work in a cockeyed, offbeat sort of way.
60
Pic has a grisly sense of humor, and sometimes is so gross and over the top the film tips over into a bizarre comedy.
20
Ludicrous and inept, this low-budget 1985 splatter film directed by former Chicagoan Stuart Gordon tries to compensate for its complete failure to establish even a sliver of credibility by inflating the usual quotient of giggly camp humor and squishy gore effects...It's this kind of flat-footed stuff that gives garbage a bad name.
Jan 11, 2019
10
A work of absolutely perfect tonal control. The humor so dry, so bone deep, it doesn't need underlining. Horror so in your face, so over the top, it doesn't need "scares". One tone or the other always picks up the slack, always drives a scene, in a seamless flowing rhythm. Jeffrey Combs is the epicenter of it all.
Jun 27, 2025
8
I love this movie. It is funny, gory and always interesting. The acting is brilliant. Jeffrey Combs is brilliant to watch as always and David Gale is so evil I love it. The doctor carrying his own head around in a tray and the dead cat are such good moments. This is a zombie movie but it is so much more, it’s not so much about the zombies but about the people that create them. The story is so good and has fascinating characters. It’s tightly paced and never boring. I think it has to be the best Lovecraft movie, certainly one of the best anyway.
May 13, 2023
8
Recently I begin to watch Classic and notorius "old" movie...ranging from Oscar films to B Movie...just to expand my movie knowledge.
This is on of them.
It deserve it's reputation as a classic B movie horror comedy; a great film for a retro halloween party.
It narrate the story of a young, brilliant and a little odd (or Mad) scientis that create a misterious substance .
I find it on Amazon Prime Video
Dec 24, 2022
8
A Messed up Science Experiment that I love, it has good characters, great story, and Amazing Gore.
Jan 8, 2020
5
It's a cult classic horror movie for a reason and I respect that but I far from love it. The effects and make-up were absolutely fantastic and made the film worth watching but everything else was kind of instantly forgettable.
Production Company:
- Empire Pictures
- Re-Animator Productions
Release Date:Oct 18, 1985
Duration:1 h 45 m
Rating:R
Tagline:H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale of horror
Awards
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 4 Nominations
Fantafestival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
