What’s not to love about this movie? You have Jeffrey Combs at his puckery-mouthed weirdest, flawless scream queen Barbara Crampton slowly realizing men are terrible and some absolutely disgusting special effects, all loosely circling the plot of a classic H.P. Lovecraft story. A decapitated head attempts what may be history’s least welcome act of cunnilingus. It’s completely and unapologetically absurd. You might throw up.

Lovecraft, despite being almost laughably problematic and, in all honesty, not very good at his job, really did crank out some consistently beguiling plot-driven horror. Here, he has given us the gift of a med student driven by an insatiable need to reanimate the dead, which he describes as “every doctor’s dream.” But like… is it?  Did he lose a loved one? Does he see this as an extension of the Hippocratic Oath? As far as the movie is concerned, no. Like Elon Musk, Herbert is simply a man with a singular vision. He’s reluctantly assisted by his blandly hunky roommate, but the real tension here is between Herbert and his academic advisor/rival, Dr. Hill. I am told this is an exceedingly accurate representation of the experience of obtaining a doctorate. 

The two engage in a series of classroom scuffles before Hill discovers that Herbert really has discovered a serum that reverses brain death past the traditional 6-12 minute barrier. All of his reanimated corpses are incoherent, furious and actively bleeding from the mouth, but somehow that does not lessen the allure for these two nerds. Things go downhill quickly from there. I won’t spoil it, but basically this movie sees the top and tells a friend to hold its beer.

There is also an excellent Richard Band soundtrack working from a thesis of “Psycho, but make it camp.” Band has made a career out of composing music for B movies, and his work also appears in the other two Re-Animators, as well as most of the many iterations of the Puppet Master series (there are somehow thirteen, with more in production). The track listing for the Re-Animator soundtrack includes such titles as “Cat Dead, Details Later; the Cellar,” and “Corpses Run Amok,” both of which are just goddamn poetry. It was recorded in Italy and performed by the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra.

It was seventy degrees on Christmas in Chicago last year, and the holiday itself was on a Wednesday. My husband had just started a new job and couldn’t take any real time off of work, and as our families are scattered throughout the greater Midwest and South, this meant that we were on our own. It was weird and hot and felt distinctly un-Christmassy, and we somehow ended up watching all three Re-Animator movies while working our way through all of the wine in the apartment. In many ways, this holiday presaged all of 2020. 

We rewatched Re-Animator at the Music Box of Horrors at the Drive In on Wednesday. Our dog napped in the back seat the entire time, with brief breaks to consume spilled popcorn. It was just as good as it was last Christmas.

While you’re too late for Re-Animator, don’t despair – there are a lot of great films in the line up, and I’m told you can still get tickets if you act fast. Please do.