I was late to the party with ‘Reanimator’…come to think of it, I was late to the party for ‘Brain Yuzna’…But in the last 5-10 years i’ve tried to remedy that, and I’ve had a great time. But while movies like ‘Society’ and ‘Return of the Living Dead 3’ were absolutely fun, strange and interesting. ‘Reanimator’ feels to me like a production that got the balance just about right between INCREDIBLY dark comedy, INCREDIBLY gory horror and INCREDIBLY bizarre visual imagery.
The plot itself predominantly revolves around one Dr. Herbert West (Played PERFECTLY by Jeffery Combs. A ‘not quite in the room’ practitioner who’s been experimenting with reanimating dead tissue. after a few notable failures which got him kicked out of a swedish university (and Sweden) He’s arrived in the US looking for a place to lie low and continue his research into the neon glowing ‘Reanimator’ fluid.
And what better place to do that than at a medical school! and after making himself well acquainted with the doctors teaching at the facility (he flat out insults their intelligence and makes sly comments about his own work) he eventually finds a place to stay and a basement to call his own when he answers the ‘Roomate’ ad for couple Dan and Meg. At first the pair are apprehensive of Herbert, but when he offers a months rent up front in cash on the request that he be left alone…the pair soften a little to him…Little do they know the carnage they’re offering up into their lives from this point onwards.
And honestly? I REALLY like this one. Its pretty much consistently successful in what its trying to do across the board. The script is a pacey hour and 26 minutes long, has a clean 3 act structure with perfectly smooth transitions between the acts. The pacing, while a little stop/start in places is at least consistent. It gives you pretty fair warning if your into media literacy of when the films going to slow down for a bit to get some exposition out of the way or its going to begin the warm up for an excessive gore shot.
The characters are VERY well rounded and have some amazingly charismatic and genuinely entertaining dialogue. It opens with clear intentions of where the plots going to go and ends satisfactorily in a way that leaves room for a sequel. But if you DID just wanna end things here, it’d absolutely work too.
The direction is stylish, methodical and clearly thought out, it has a grimey ‘mouldy’ edge for lack of a better expression and Yuzna’s really managed to rein in the excesses that would make his later work feel festering (See ‘Silent Night Deadly Night 4’) here? its all bubbling just under the surface occasionally rising up out of the slick and considered action ready to just help lift those nastier moments to something altogether more disturbing.
The direction of both the cast and crew here shows a clear understanding of the film making process and it seems like Yuzna was a clear communicator to his team, while also allowing just enough fluidity that the cast could loosen up, work to develop their characters on set and maybe even throw a few improvs in for good measure.
The cine is just delightful, with wondefully composed sequences made of a solid mixture of key shots and B-roll. the blocking is near excellent as is the compositional choices throughout. the heavy use of coded styalized colours such as luminous green and cool blues and blacks really help only further cement this films already solid identity.
And only further enhancing the situation, the editing is superb. with precise and clear cuts and transitions that help keep the film ticking over at a solid pace. With even some decent match cuts only adding to the strange but delightful humour this film has (an example being an early scene where Dan surprises Meg in a corridor and starts being affectionate, she repeatedly says ‘No! No! No!’ which then hard cuts to a near match cut of the pair having sex at a later point where shes saying ‘Yes! yes! yes!’…Its a small touch, but it near instantly tells you the type of tone this things going for)
The performances are delightful, I honestly think the core casting of Jeffry Combs, Barbara Crampton, David Gale and Bruce Abbot was…simply put. Perfect. It was perfect casting, at the perfect time for them to be cast and they all pretty much give the performances of their respective careers. I honestly cant imagine these characters being played or portrayed by any other actor. Its TOO perfect. They all absolutely got on board with the tone of the film and completely committed to the brief. Its a rare sight to see in cinema. But this film manages it.
And tying all this together in one delightful bow, the soundtracks rock solid for this film as well. Its synthy slightly rocky poppy stuff. I liked it, as a minor criticism i’d argue that outside of the theme tune, there isnt really another BIG scoring hit for this one…but consistant and good is always a winner to me.
‘Reanimator’ is a film I really wished i’d checked out sooner. My first watch was 3-4 years ago and frankly I should have seen this decades ago. The perfect match up to movies like ‘Return of the Living Dead’ if you havent seen ‘Reanimator’ You need to go see ‘Reanimator’…if you HAVE seen ‘Reanimator’…go watch ‘Reanimator’.
TYTD Reviews 