After
an accident happens on the road, traffic slows down to a crawl. Some
people are genuinely concerned about the heath of strangers, but
others are staring at the wreck, looking for something specific. It's
the same thing that drives up the ratings, for your local news
station. It's the same thing that keeps us up at night, and is
present in our dreams when we sleep.
Death
drives so much of what we do, whether we fear it or not. It urges
both men and women to have children. It determines our eating habits
and how often we exercise. It also makes scientists pious, while it
keeps the pious devout.
It's
fitting that, the one event that is inescapable, is the same thing
we're obsessed with avoiding. Think about Peter Pan, and what staying
young forever means. Think about vampires and consider for a moment,
why that genre is so popular. The earliest fantasies we have, all
involve defeating death. Smart fiction takes advantage of this, and
“Re-Animator” is smart fiction.
Classic
Movie Trailers – Re-Animator (1985)
The
end of life is inevitable, and once life has left the body, that
change quickly becomes permanent. There's no magic that will revive
you, after it happens. There's no component of alien DNA, or heroic
act of will, or scientific marvel that will reverse it. Stories can
deny this fact, but there's a lot of value in bucking that trend and
embracing it.
“Re-Animator”
takes a lot of pleasure, in denying your childish dreams. It voices
them, examines them and teases them, but it never quite delivers.
Instead of catering to those simple desires, it turns them into
something undesirable. It dangles that carrot in front of us and ties
us to a treadmill, until the carrot goes bad.
That
isn't to say, that it leaves us wanting in all respects. There are
plenty of people that want to be grossed out by a movie, and If
you're that type of person, you can find some of that here. Just be
aware that time hasn't been kind, to all of the special effects. Most
of them are still impressive however, and they hold up just fine.
As
for the movie as a whole, it's clearly a comic book. The tone, the
subject matter and the visual style, is like one of those old EC
Horror comics. I couldn't express the feeling better, than that
wonderful illustration, which was used for the poster and DVD cover.
With that glowing vile of liquid, the text and the bright colors, you
could slap that image onto the front of “The Vault of Horror”, or
“Tales from the Crypt”, and it would be just as appropriate.
The
film for me, was a fun, B-movie ride. As long as you can excuse some
touchy-feely nonsense, from Dr. Ichabod Crane, the creepy dead guy,
then pull up a chair. This is as much of a comic, as “Avengers: Age
of Ultron”. It's in a different genre certainly, and it pretends to
be really serious, but it wants you to know that it's faking it. I
actually didn't laugh out loud, until the second act was almost over;
in hindsight, I don't know how I lasted so long.
“Re-Animator”
has all you would expect, from a horror movie of that era. There's
blood and guts and breasts, because you can't forget those, as well
as camp and genuinely funny moments. If I could have added one thing,
it would have been The Crypt Keeper. This movie laughs at us and our
fear of death, but I'd rather he do it, explicitly.
-----------------------
@ChannelSeals
See
"Re-Animator", on Netflix!
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