If you're into the _Horror_ genre and movie adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft stories, "Re-Animator" has always been one of my very favorites. This movie provided my introduction to Jeffrey Combs as our mad doctor, Herbert West. He's not really crazy, he's just very passionate about science. In this case, that science happens to be biology and the reanimation of the departed. One thing we've learned throughout the years about bringing the dead back to life is that they never come back quite right.

We've been exposed to so many _living dead_ movies and shows, that we know that they should stay dead. We still strive to extend life and know that doctors would restore life if it were possible, and feasible, without reanimated corpses being used as comatose meatsicles for harvesting of organs. Once deceased, we should have our _freshness date_ stamped on the bottom of the can, or a foot since we can't grow clones for organs. The glow-in-the-dark chartreuse reanimation juice is still so great, like activated glow-stick fluid, and this movie was released nearly forty years ago!

The reanimated doctor head in a duffel bag/doctor's house-call bag (or is it a bowling bag) has always been so creepy, thanks to great effects makeup and David Gale's Dr. Carl Hill, with a great face for something so twisted, it's great!!! The headless doctor body was made even creepier with the phony head and mask. The other dead to life bodies were so all over the place, making a mess and complicating matters in the already too small morgue, and the security guard didn't seem surprised any more by the headless body near the end of the movie.

Jeffrey Combs makes a great Herbert West, so driven to learn and push our understanding of the brain and body cell degeneration, and then being able to be such an arrogant snob as West should be. What an a-hole sometimes!! Of course, he's great in "From Beyond", "The Frighteners", "Star Trek DS9" (and a few other alien characters in the other Star Trek franchise shows. Time to watch the second film, "Bride of Re-Animator".

I enjoyed seeing as much of Barbara Crampton as we saw +++ She returned to the Lovecraft universe in "From Beyond" (1986), released one year after this movie, "Re-Animator" (1985). After "Bride..." we'll be watching "Beyond Re-Animator", before watching "From Beyond". C Ya