|Re-Animator (1985) Turns 40: The Neon-Green Splatter Classic That’ll Make You Side-Eye Your Fridge

[Narrator]Hello, fiends. Welcome to the thing about films, the horror podcast. With zero credentials and absolutely no shortage of chills, tonight, we're serving up the screams, the suspense, and the kind of dread that crawls up the back of your neck and just stays there. So settle in, turn the lights down low, and if you hear a sound behind you, tell yourself you didn't. Now let's open the crypt and greet your hosts, Ambrose and Kelly.

[Ambrose]Welcome back, everybody.

[Kelly]It is good to be here. And honestly, I feel like I need a shower. Like, I need to go scrub a whole layer of grime off my soul.

[Ambrose]Right. I feel like I need to scrub the glowing green area off my skin. We are absolutely buzzing right now. It's late, the lights are low, and we just revisited what might be the peak of 1980s splatter chaos.

[Kelly]It is certainly a mood. You watch a movie like this and it doesn't just sit with you, it's. It kinda sticks to you.

[Ambrose]Yes, sticky is the word. Like, you stand up after the credits and you're like, why do I feel damp? And you didn't even spill anything.

[Kelly]Exactly. It's clingy. It's gross. It's the kind of movie where you finish it and you go, okay, that was fun. And then five minutes later, you're like, wait, was it fun?

[Ambrose]It was fun. It was absolutely entertaining. Because today we're talking about Reanimator, the 1985 classic. And look, if you're listening to this and you haven't seen it or you haven't seen it in, like, 20 years, 

[Kelly] buckle up. 

[Ambrose] Yes, buckle up. Because we're talking Miskatonic University. We're talking medical students with insane God complexes. We're talking glowing green syringes and the full unfiltered chaos of trying to cheat death.

[Kelly]And cats. We have to mention the cats.

[Ambrose]Aw, poor Rufus. But we'll get to Rufus, I promise. But okay, why are we dragging Herbert west out of the cooler today? Why are we doing this to ourselves?

[Kelly]Well, there's a pretty good reason.

[Ambrose]We're hitting a major milestone.

[Kelly]Yes.

[Ambrose]We're staring down the barrel of the 40th anniversary of this film, which is wild. And also, I didn't need that information today because now I feel personally attacked by time. Like, why do I suddenly feel old?

[Kelly]I know. It feels timeless in a very, very gross way. Like, it doesn't age, it just ferments.

[Ambrose]It ages like milk in a morgue fridge. And with the recent 4K restoration that ignite films put out, it just feels like the Perfect time to open the drawer and see what's inside.

[Kelly]Yeah, because this thing in 4k is. It's shiny in a way that makes it worse.

[Ambrose]It's crisp. It's too crisp. It's like the movie is going, oh, you thought that was a blurry VHS memory? No, babe, here's the texture.

[Kelly]It's like, here's every detail you tried to forget.

[Ambrose]And also, this isn't just a zombie movie. Right? Like, if you call it a zombie movie, I feel like you're not doing it justice.

[Kelly]No, not at all. Because if you go in expecting like Night of the Living Dead or even something modern like the Walking Dead, you're going to be very confused.

[Ambrose]Right.

[Kelly]This is really a Frankenstein story at its heart. It's about scientific arrogance, obsession, and the idea that the brain is just a machine.

[Ambrose]A machine that can be jump started.

[Kelly]Exactly. If you have the right jumper cables.

[Ambrose]And the right amount of neon green juice.

[Kelly]Exactly. It's about the mechanics of life, you know, not the spirituality of death.

[Ambrose]Okay, so let's unpack this right from the start. Because the origin of this movie is actually. It's hilarious when you look at where it came from.

[Kelly]Oh, it's one of the great ironies of horror literature.

[Ambrose] Because we all know H.P. lovecraft, right? Like the cosmic horror guy. Cthulhu, the Unknown Terror, ancient gods, sleeping in the ocean, all that heavy existential fear stuff.

[Kelly]Yes. The man who wrote about fears too big for the human mind to handle. The fear of the void.

[Ambrose]Right. So you'd think he poured his heart and soul into Herbert West Reanimator. Like, ah, yes, my precious work.

[Kelly]You'd think so.

[Ambrose]You'd think this was his big statement on the fragility of life.

[Kelly]You would think that. And you would be 100% wrong. He hated it.

[Ambrose]You're right. He didn't just dislike it.

[Kelly]No, he loathed it. He thought it was garbage.

[Ambrose]Which is wild because we're over here. Like this rules. So why did he hate it?

[Kelly]Lovecraft wrote Herbert West's reanimator between 1921 and 1922. And he didn't do it for art. He didn't do it to explore the human condition. He did it for money.

[Ambrose]The universal motivator.

[Kelly]Exactly. It was a work for hire, serial. And not for some fancy literary journal either. It was for a magazine called Homebrew.

[Ambrose]Homebrew? That sounds like a catalog for bootleggers.

[Kelly]That's basically what it was. It was a humor magazine. Lots of jokes about prohibition, recipes for making your Own liquor at home?

[Ambrose]No way.

[Kelly]So picture this HP Lovecraft, this very serious man from Providence. 

[Ambrose] Right. 

[Kelly] Writing gruesome horror chapters wedged between cartoons about drunk guys and recipes for bathtub gin.

[Ambrose]That image is incredible. It's like finding a Stephen King novel serialized in a pamphlet for a toaster oven.

[Kelly]It really is. And the pay?

[Ambrose]Let me guess, not great.

[Kelly]$5 a chapter.

[Ambrose]$5? I mean, inflation is a thing, but still, come on.

[Kelly]It's not exactly quit your job money.

[Ambrose]That is wild. And here's the part that gets really interesting with how the movie works.

[Kelly]Yep.

[Ambrose]Lovecraft saw this story as junk. In his letters, he called it wretched work. And the reason he hated it is also the reason this movie works so well. Because of the serial format.

[Kelly]Exactly. Since it was a serial, the editor required him to end every chapter with a big cliffhanger.

[Ambrose]A shock, a reveal.

[Kelly]Yup. And then at the start of the next chapter, he had to recap what happened before because readers might have missed the previous issue.

[Ambrose]So he was basically writing a TV show before TV shows existed. Like previously on Herbert West.

[Kelly]Exactly. And Lovecraft, who was all about dense atmosphere and slow building fear, found that structure incredibly annoying. He felt like it wrecked the flow.

[Ambrose]He thought it was cheap.

[Kelly]He did. But think about what that does for a movie. You have a story that naturally escalates.

[Ambrose]Yeah.

[Kelly]Every 15 minutes, something has to go off the rails to keep people hooked.

[Ambrose]It's built in pacing. He accidentally wrote a movie structure while complaining the whole time.

[Kelly]He did. He created this episodic, rhythmic climb that Stuart Gordon, the director, was recognized immediately.

[Ambrose]So Gordon didn't have to invent the pacing.

[Kelly]Nope. Lovecraft did the heavy lifting out of pure financial panic.

[Ambrose]I hate this story. Meanwhile, it's like, thanks for the blueprint, man.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]Okay, so speaking of Stuart Gordon, this guy was not your typical Hollywood horror director. He wasn't coming from the make it cheap and fast school necessarily.

[Kelly]No, not at all. He was a theater guy from Chicago.

[Ambrose]Right.

[Kelly]Like a serious theater guy. He came out of the Chicago theater scene, specifically the organic theater company. And that matters because it explains why Reanimator feels different from, say, Friday the 13th.

[Ambrose]Okay, explain that.

[Kelly]Gordon was used to pushing boundaries on stage. He did experimental stuff. He wasn't afraid to get weird.

[Ambrose]I read somewhere he did a version of Peter Pan.

[Kelly]He did. And he played Peter as a rock star.

[Ambrose]That's amazing.

[Kelly]It was counterculture, loud, physical. The whole point was to provoke a reaction.

[Ambrose]So he wasn't interested in safe entertainment.

[Kelly]Not even a Little.

[Ambrose]Okay, but then how does a Chicago theater director doing rock star Peter Pan end up making a splatter movie?

[Kelly]It started with a late night conversation, kind of like this. Gordon was talking with friends about the state of horror in the early 80s. He felt there were too many vampire movies. Everybody was doing Dracula. It was oversaturated.

[Ambrose]I mean, yeah, vampires were having a moment.

[Kelly]And he goes, I want to do a Frankenstein movie.

[Ambrose]The classic monster debate. Vampires versus Frankenstein. It's the Coke versus Pepsi of horror.

[Kelly]Exactly. And someone mentioned Lovecraft's Herbert West. Gordon hadn't read it. So he goes to the Chicago Public Library. Like the actual library.

[Ambrose]No Internet, no Kindle, no download the PDF. Just vibes and dusty shelves.

[Kelly]He went to the stacks and the story was out of print. The library had a copy of the original magazine or an old collection. And the pages were so brittle, they crumbled as he turned them.

[Ambrose]That is so cinematic. That's literally the opening scene of a horror movie. The forbidden tome, the dust motes in the light.

[Kelly]It really is. He had to read it while it was falling apart. And as he read these escalating cliffhangers, he realized, this is it. This is the Frankenstein story I want.

[Ambrose]So he knew right away.

[Kelly]He did. But here's the funny part. He didn't want to make a movie at first.

[Ambrose]Wait, what?

[Kelly]He wanted to make a TV series.

[Ambrose]A Re-Animator TV show in the 80s. Who is airing that?

[Kelly]PBS.

[Ambrose]PBS? Like right after Sesame Street. Today's episode is brought to you by the letter R for reagent.

[Kelly]Yes, a half hour series. They wanted to set it at the turn of the century, keep it as a period piece, like the original story. They wrote scripts for 13 episodes. It was going to be faithful and period accurate.

[Ambrose]That's actually kind of amazing.

[Kelly]It is. But then they ran the numbers.

[Ambrose]Let me guess. Period pieces cost money.

[Kelly]A lot. Costumes, horses, old cars. Public television wasn't going to pay for that. You can't just shoot on the street. You have to dress every frame.

[Ambrose]Right. You have to hide telephone poles, rent Model Ts. Like it's a whole thing.

[Kelly]Exactly. So they pivoted. They went, okay, we can't afford 1920s Arkham. Like, let's make it modern day Chicago.

[Ambrose]Which eventually becomes LA, Right.

[Kelly]Or as it turned out, Los Angeles standing in for New England.

[Ambrose]Which is hilarious because nothing says New England like sunshine.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]And that pivot led them to Brian Yuzna and Empire Pictures, right?

[Kelly]Yes. It connects through a special effects guy named Bob Greenberg. He worked On John Carpenter's Dark Star, he told Gordon, look, horror doesn't make money on tv. It makes money in theaters.

[Ambrose]Smart man.

[Kelly]He introduced Gordon to Brian Yuzna. Yuzna read the scripts, saw the blood, saw the mayhem, and said, this is a movie. He took it to Charles Band at Empire Pictures.

[Ambrose]Empire Pictures, kings of the 80s video store. If you saw that Empire logo, that big, bold text, you knew you were in for something weird.

[Kelly]Absolutely. Ghoulies, transfers, robot jocks. They were a factory for high concept, low budget creativity.

[Ambrose]A perfect home for it.

[Kelly]They were the scrappy studio that would take a chance on a theater director from Chicago who wanted to spray gallons of blood everywhere.

[Ambrose]So they get the green light budget around a million dollars, which is peanuts even for 1985. And now they need their Herbert West.

[Kelly]And this is where it gets really. Well, it gets really perfect.

[Ambrose]Because looking back, I cannot imagine anyone else as Herbert west besides Jeffrey Combs.

[Kelly]It's impossible. It's one of those casting moments where actor and role basically fuse together.

[Ambrose]So let's talk Herbert west for a second. Because he's not a villain technically. He's kind of the protagonist. But he is absolutely the roommate from hell.

[Kelly]That is the best description. He's the ultimate bad roommate. He kills your cat, he fills your fridge with severed heads, and he's incredibly rude to your girlfriend.

[Ambrose]And the brilliance of Combs performance is he plays west with this cold conviction.

[Kelly]Yes. He's so intense, and there's a stillness to him that's really unnerving.

[Ambrose]Right.

[Kelly]Combs hadn't read Lovecraft before getting the script. He came into it fresh and made a very specific choice. People compared the look to a young Anthony Perkins.

[Ambrose]Norman Bates.

[Kelly]Right. Boyish face, dark hair, slight build.

[Ambrose]I totally see it.

[Kelly]But Combs didn't do the nervous internal panic that Perkins has. Norman Bates is jittery. He's hiding something. He's ashamed.

[Ambrose]Herbert west isn't hiding anything.

[Kelly]No, he's arrogant. He's convinced he's right and everyone else is a small mind.

[Ambrose]That line, who's going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow. The way he spits that out is legendary.

[Kelly]It's perfect.

[Ambrose]He talks down to everyone, even people he's actively ruining.

[Kelly]Exactly. He's not doing evil-laugh villain stuff. He's an annoyed scientist surrounded by idiots who don't understand his brilliance.

[Ambrose]His motivation is basically impatience.

[Kelly]The paperwork of death annoys him. He's like, I beat death. Why are you asking me questions?

[Ambrose]Please fill out form B13. No.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]And that contrasts perfectly with the Dan Cain and Megan Halsey.

[Kelly] Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton.

[Ambrose]Dan is your classic everyman. He's the audience stand in. He's seduced by the science because he wants to save lives. And west twists that.

[Kelly]Dan is the straight man in the comedy duo. You need Dan grounded so west can be West. But we have to talk Barbara Crampton.

[Ambrose]Barbara Crampton is genre royalty. Absolute icon. But she wasn't the first choice.

[Kelly]No, she was a last minute replacement. The original actress dropped out for various reasons. Crampton had about two weeks notice before shooting.

[Ambrose]Two weeks? That's terrifying. I get stressed if I have two weeks to prepare for a dentist appointment. This is a movie involving severed heads.

[Kelly]And she was young. But every source emphasizes how fearless she was. And I don't say that lightly. This script asked a lot of her.

[Ambrose]Specifically the finale, the head scene, which, yeah, we will get there.

[Kelly]We have to.

[Ambrose]But she commits completely. And she trusts Stuart Gordon.

[Kelly]That trust got built during rehearsals, which we'll talk about. But her chemistry with the cast, especially the tension with Combs and the romance with Abbott— anchors the movie. If she doesn't work, the whole thing is just gross.

[Ambrose]Because she makes you care.

[Kelly]Exactly. She gives it stakes.

[Ambrose]And then we've got the antagonist, Dr. Carl Hill, played by David Gale, the plagiarism professor. He's slimy before he even loses his head. 

[Kelly]Oh, yeah.

[Ambrose] And the wig. We have to talk about the wig. It's almost its own character.

[Kelly]It's a bold choice.

[Ambrose]He's got that physical presence too.

[Kelly]He does. He looks a bit like Boris Karloff.

[Ambrose]A bit, yeah.

[Kelly]And his dynamic with west is really interesting. It's a generational battle. Old guard stealing from the young genius. And then for half the movie he's acting as a severed head in a tray.

[Ambrose] Which is just what, a sentence to say out loud. Acting as a severed head in a tray. Cinema.

[Kelly]Cinema.

[Ambrose]Okay, so let's talk production because this is where the theater kid energy really shows.

[Kelly]Oh, absolutely.

[Ambrose]You said Gordon brought his theater background to the set. What did that actually look like? Because film sets are usually chaotic.

[Kelly]It changed everything. Usually on a low budget horror movie, you get a table read if you're lucky.

[Ambrose]If you're lucky, yeah. And then you're just screaming.

[Kelly]You meet your co star five minutes before you have to cry in their arms. But Gordon treated Reanimator like a play.

[Ambrose]How so?

[Kelly]They rehearsed for weeks before a single camera rolled.

[Ambrose]Weeks?!

[Kelly]Mostly unpaid. Yes.

[Ambrose] That's That's a lot of trust.

[Kelly]They gathered in a warehouse, blocked scenes, worked the rhythm of the dialogue, figured out where people would be standing, how they'd move, how the timing would land.

[Ambrose]That explains so much. That's why the banter between west and Dan feels so snappy.

[Kelly]Yes, it's practiced. It has that stage cadence.

[Ambrose]It doesn't feel like they're hunting for lines.

[Kelly]Exactly. It makes the movie feel like a farce in the best way. Like a bloody screwball comedy.

[Ambrose]Right.

[Kelly]And because they were so rehearsed when things went wrong with the effects, and things always go wrong with effects, the actors could roll with it.

[Ambrose] Because they knew the scene inside and out.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]Speaking of effects, let's get into the practical magic. Because this movie is wet, it is drenched. I read the standard amount of fake blood for a horror movie back then was like 2 gallons.

[Kelly]2 gallons gets you a couple gunshots, maybe a throat slit. That's a respectful amount of blood.

[Ambrose]A polite amount. How much did reanimator use?

[Kelly]24 gallons.

[Ambrose]24 gallons? That is industrial. That's like, do we need a permit for this?

[Kelly]It was everywhere. The set was slippery, sticky. People were sliding around. And the blood is just the beginning because the real star is the reagent. That glowing green stuff is iconic.

[Ambrose]It is the color of the 80s. Like if you think 80s horror, you. Your brain goes neon green.

[Kelly]And do you know what it was.

[Ambrose]I assumed movie magic liquid. Like harmless food coloring?

[Kelly]You would hope, but no. It was fluid from silim glow sticks.

[Ambrose]Wait, like the ones you crack at a concert?

[Kelly]Those exact ones. They'd take industrial glow sticks, crack them, and pour the fluid into the hypodermic needles.

[Ambrose]Oh, my God.

[Kelly]And if you've ever read the warning label on a glow stick—

[Ambrose] Do not ingest. Do not get in your eyes. Skin irritant.

[Kelly]Exactly. It's toxic, it's caustic. And there they are, spraying it around, putting it in props, holding it right next to their faces.

[Ambrose]That's insane.

[Kelly]The actors had to be careful not to get that stuff in their mouths or eyes.

[Ambrose]That is commitment. Hold this toxic sludge by your eyeball and look intense.

[Kelly]But it looked amazing on camera. It actually glowed. No optical trick needed. It created its own light.

[Ambrose]And when west holds up the syringe, the. The green light hits his eyes. You can't fake that interaction.

[Kelly]You can't.

[Ambrose]And then we've got headless Dr. Hill. This is pre CGI. So when we see his headless body walking around holding his head, how do they do that.

[Kelly]It's a really smart mix of techniques. Basically stage magic with camera discipline. For the shots where he's holding his own head, they built a fake upper torso that David Gale wore on top of his head.

[Ambrose]Okay, walk me through that, because my brain is struggling. So his real head is the severed head and he's wearing a dummy chest on top of his head.

[Kelly]Yes. Picture him bending over at the waist so his upper body is more parallel to the ground. Then you strap a fake set of shoulders and a neck onto his back, extending above where his real head is.

[Ambrose]Okay, I think I see it.

[Kelly]Then Gail sticks his face through the hands of the dummy torso so it looks like the head is being carried.

[Ambrose]That's so simple and so genius.

[Kelly]It is, but lighting is everything. If you light it wrong, you see shadows that give it away.

[Ambrose]You'll see the seam.

[Kelly]Exactly. The cinematographer, Mac Ahlberg, had to shoot it with very specific low key lighting. Deep shadows to hide what you shouldn't see and highlight the prosthetic.

[Ambrose]So it's camera trick plus prop trick.

[Kelly]Exactly. And if the camera shifts a few inches, the illusion falls apart.

[Ambrose]And for the walking shots, when the body is moving?

[Kelly] For shots where the body is walking away carrying the head, they used a stunt double, Anthony Dublin. He wore a headless suit that extended above his real head and he looked out through the shirt buttons. He was basically walking blind.

[Ambrose] Just stumbling around, hoping not to body check the camera.

[Kelly]Pretty much. And for the scenes where the head is in the tray talking—

[Ambrose]Yeah.

[Kelly]They cut a hole in the table. Gail sits underneath and sticks his head up through the tray.

[Ambrose]Classic stage magic. Sawing a person in half energy.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]I love that. It's so physical. You can feel the craftsmanship and. Okay, we have to talk, Rufus, because the cat puppet in this movie, it's upsetting.

[Kelly]It's awful.

[Ambrose]There's that moment where west breaks the cat's back to fit it in the fridge. And the sound design is like, crunch.

[Kelly]It's horrible.

[Ambrose]It's dark. But it's also kind of funny in that I can't believe they did that way.

[Kelly]It's the darkest humor. And that puppet was designed to look like rigor mortis had set in. Stiff. Gross.

[Ambrose]And the way Combs handles it like it's a broken toaster.

[Kelly]No emotion, no reverence, just annoyed.

[Ambrose]And then the intestines. The finale where the guts fly out and wrap around Herbert West.

[Kelly]That was a mess to film. They had an air cannon designed to shoot rubber intestines out, but the mechanism kept Failing.

[Ambrose]It wouldn't work.

[Kelly]It wouldn't fire. Or it would just kind of flop out like a wet noodle.

[Ambrose]So what did they do to?

[Kelly] Jeffrey Combs saved the day. He wrestled the rubber guts. He threw himself around the room, tangled himself up, and sold it like the intestines were alive.

[Ambrose]That is why he's a legend. Give me these rubber tubes, and I will convince the world they're killing me.

[Kelly]And it really shows that theater company mindset. You make it work, you keep going.

[Ambrose]If the prop fails, you act harder.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]So we've got blood, glowing, goo, headless guy, evil professor wig, dead cat. But none of it works if the tone isn't right. And this is where Reanimator stands out to me. It is a horror movie, but it is hilarious.

[Kelly]It nails the balance of horror and comedy. But the key is it's not a spoof.

[Ambrose]Right. It's not scary movie. They're not winking at the camera. They're not slipping on banana peels.

[Kelly]They play it straight. The comedy comes from how absurd everything is while everyone is acting like it's totally logical.

[Ambrose]Okay, and you used a term earlier this. That people throw around with this movie. Grand Guignol.

[Kelly]Yeah.

[Ambrose]What does that mean in this context?

[Kelly]It refers to a theater in Paris that operated from the late 1800s into the 1960s. They specialized in naturalistic horror shows. The goal was to shock the audience. Gore, terror, intense situations so hard that at a certain point, people would laugh just to release the tension.

[Ambrose]Like, your brain is like, I can't hold this stress anymore. I'm hitting the laugh button.

[Kelly]Exactly. So you're not laughing because someone told a joke. You're laughing because you need an outlet. Like when west says, cat dead. It's funny because of the context. He's sweaty, panicked, holding a shovel, and he's still trying to be efficient.

[Ambrose]The paperwork of the apocalypse again.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]And that tone is perfectly captured in the music. We have to talk Richard Ban's score.

[Kelly]Oh, boy. The elephant in the room.

[Ambrose]The. The Psycho elephant.

[Kelly]The Psycho elephant wearing a disco suit.

[Ambrose]It is the Psycho theme on speed. It's like Psycho went to a club and did a line of coke.

[Kelly]That is very accurate. And he did it on purpose.

[Ambrose]Really?

[Kelly]Oh, yeah. He basically took Bernard Herrmann's iconic staccato string rhythm and sped it up, then added a synth beat.

[Ambrose]Was he worried about getting sued? Because that feels bold.

[Kelly]There's a fine line between plagiarism and homage. Band argued it was a musical joke.

[Ambrose]A musical joke.

[Kelly]He wanted to cue the audience immediately. Like, this is a movie about a guy who is basically psycho, but it's fast and kinetic and modern.

[Ambrose]Some critics hated that. Right.

[Kelly]Leonard Maltin hated it. He docked points specifically because he thought the score was a ripoff.

[Ambrose]But fans—

[Kelly]Fans love the nerve of it. It tells you what kind of movie you're watching in the first 30 seconds.

[Ambrose]It's like punk rock. Take a classic riff and play it faster and louder.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]Okay. We can't talk Reanimator without talking controversy.

[Kelly]Right. The ratings board. The MPAA, the arch nemesis of 80s horror.

[Ambrose]So they make this movie. Exploding eyes, severed heads, nudity. They knew they weren't getting a clean R. Right.

[Kelly]They basically assumed an X rating was inevitable if they submitted it. And an x rating in 1985 was a theatrical death sentence.

[Ambrose]Because theaters hear X and they think porn.

[Kelly]Exactly. You can't advertise in newspapers. You can't get TV spots. Big theater chains won't touch it.

[Ambrose]So they did a power move.

[Kelly]They released it unrated. They bypassed the MPAA entirely. There was a contract clause that allowed it.

[Ambrose]That is risky.

[Kelly]Very risky. A lot of theaters still wouldn't show it, but it also gave it this forbidden vibe.

[Ambrose]The movie they didn't want you to see.

[Kelly]Exactly. It became a badge of honor to find a theater playing Reanimator.

[Ambrose]And then you get to the home video era and it gets confusing. Because there's an R rated cut on VHS.

[Kelly]Yep. And usually you hear R rated cut and you assume it's shorter because they trimmed gore.

[Ambrose]Right.

[Kelly]But Reanimator is weird. The R rated cut is actually longer than the unrated cut.

[Ambrose]How is the censored one longer?

[Kelly]Because once they cut the gore, the effects, the nudity, the movie ended up too short to count as a feature. It dropped down to around 70 minutes. So they went back and added deleted scenes to pad it out.

[Ambrose]So you get less blood but more talking.

[Kelly]You get a whole subplot about Dr. Hill having hypnosis powers.

[Ambrose]Hypnosis? I don't remember any hypnosis.

[Kelly]You don't because it's not in the good version. In the R rated cut, there's this whole thing where Hill can hypnotize people to do what he wants.

[Ambrose]Okay.

[Kelly]It explains why the dean turns on the student so fast, he's hypnotized. But in the theatrical cut, that's gone. And honestly, it slows everything down.

[Ambrose]That sounds awful. Nobody watches Reanimator for the nuanced hypnosis subplot. We are Here for chaos.

[Kelly]Exactly. That's why the Integral Cut fan favorite tries to combine the gore with some of the better story editions. But really, the unrated theatrical cut is the one you want. It's lean. It's like an 86 minute machine. It doesn't waste time.

[Ambrose]Okay, we've been circling it. We have to talk about the most controversial scene in the movie. 

[Kelly]Yeah.

[Ambrose]The head scene.

[Kelly]Dr. Hill and Megan.

[Ambrose]Yes. Hill severed head and Megan tied to a table. It's shocking even now. It's a jaw drop moment.

[Kelly]It really is.

[Ambrose]And quick content note for listeners. We're going to talk about assault here, because that is what that scene is.

[Kelly] Yeah. It's sexual assault, plain and simple. And it's done in this grotesque, impossible way involving a decapitated head.

[Ambrose]How did Barbara Crampton feel about filming that? Because she's the one on the table having to act through that.

[Kelly]She's talked about it a lot over the years. It's the question she always gets at conventions. And her take is really interesting. She found it uncomfortable, obviously. It's a vulnerable position. But she framed it as absurdist horror.

[Ambrose]Right. It's not meant to be sexy. It's meant to be horrifying and pathetic.

[Kelly]Exactly. She didn't see it as titillation. She saw it as the ultimate example of how depraved Hill is. He is literally a brain without a heart.

[Ambrose]It’s about domination and sickness.

[Kelly]It is. And she trusted Stuart Gordon.

[Ambrose]That trust matters.

[Kelly]She knew he wasn't trying to make porn. He was trying to make something that shocks the audience into disbelief. And it worked.

[Ambrose]It did.

[Kelly]And it's referenced in American Beauty. It becomes a cultural touchstone for transgressive cinema.

[Ambrose]You can't unsee it. Once that image is in your brain, it lives there forever.

[Kelly]No, you cannot scrub that out.

[Ambrose]So the movie comes out. It's a hit, especially on video. And like any good horror movie, it spawns a franchise. Let's talk legacy.

[Kelly]You've got sequels. Bride of Re-Animator in 1990, which goes full Frankenstein. They're literally building a woman out of spare parts. It's got some great gore. Brian Yuzna directed that one. And it's a bit campier.

[Ambrose]It leans harder into the comedy.

[Kelly]A lot harder.

[Ambrose]And Beyond Reanimator in 2003— 

[Kelly] Herbert west in prison. 

[Ambrose] Which on paper, sounds like, okay, sure.

[Kelly] It has its moments. Combs is always good. But the magic of the original was that specific combo of Gordon, the cast and the freshness of it.

[Ambrose]Right. The sequels Are fun, but they don't hit the same.

[Kelly]There was almost an island of Reanimator too.

[Ambrose]Yes, island of Dr. Moreau. Vibes west making mutants in the jungle.

[Kelly]Herbert West creating hybrids on an island. It never got made.

[Ambrose]I would have paid good money to see Herbert West fighting a monkey man.

[Kelly]I would watch that instantly, no questions asked.

[Ambrose]But the weirdest part of the legacy might be Reanimator the musical.

[Kelly]Stuart Gordon directed a stage musical version in 2011.

[Ambrose]Full Circle Theater guy makes movie, then brings the movie back to the stage. And it was apparently an event.

[Kelly]They had a splash zone.

[Ambrose]Wait, you mean like SeaWorld?

[Kelly]Yes. If you sat in the first few rows, they gave you a plastic poncho because you were getting sprayed with fake blood and fluids.

[Ambrose]That is immersive theater. That is commitment. Like, welcome. You will leave soaked.

[Kelly]And George Wendt played the dean.

[Ambrose] Norm from Cheers, singing and dancing while zombies run around.

[Kelly]It just shows how much affection people have for this story.

[Ambrose]It becomes this beloved campy classic.

[Kelly]Absolutely.

[Ambrose]And there were comics too, right? I feel like I've seen crossover cover art.

[Kelly]Oh, yeah. Herbert West has fought everyone in comic land. There's the army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator comics, Ash from Evil Dead crossing over.

[Ambrose]That is the crossover we deserved as a movie. Bruce Campbell and Jeffrey Combs on screen together.

[Kelly]It would be too much charisma for one camera. The lens would crack.

[Ambrose]True.

[Kelly]He also met Vampirella. Herbert West is basically the go to mad scientist whenever comics need someone to bring a villain back.

[Ambrose]What a ride. From a Lovecraft story he hated in a bootleg or magazine to a crumbling library copy to a splatter masterpiece.

[Kelly]It's a journey.

[Ambrose]And now I feel gross again. Like, we dissected the body, examined the organs, stitched it back up.

[Kelly]The autopsy is complete.

[Ambrose]So I guess that's it.

[Kelly]Yeah, I think we pretty much covered it.

[Ambrose]Wait, you think we're done?

[Kelly]We are just getting warmed up. Because knowing the history is one thing. Judging the movie itself is something else.

[Ambrose]That requires a different scalpel.

[Kelly]Exactly. It is time to descend into the critics crypt.

[Ambrose]Ah. Okay. Cue the thunder. Cue the dramatic torches. Cue me instantly acting braver than I am.

[Kelly]Always.

[Narrator]Gather close, listeners, if you dare. The air grows cold and the light begins to fade. Can you hear them? Two brave souls have foolishly left the safety of the world above. They descend the spiraling stairs deeper and deeper into the damp darkness where cinema skeletons remain unburied. They come not to praise the dead, but to dissect them. Watch your step, friends. You have now entered the critics crypt.

[Ambrose]Alright, we're in the crypt. It's damp, the torches are flickering. There's a weird smell, probably formaldehyde. 

[Kelly] And you’re touching everything. 

[Ambrose] I am not touching everything.

[Kelly]You're absolutely touching everything.

[Ambrose]Okay, Critic’s Crypt rules. We stop being historians and start being fans. Three criteria. The scares, the laughs and the madness.

[Kelly]Correct.

[Ambrose]Let's start with scares. Does reanimator actually scare a modern audience? Like if you show this to a 20 year old today, are they scared?

[Kelly]That's a tough one. Hmm. I don't think they would be scared in the way where they were checking under the bed or sleeping with a light on.

[Ambrose]Agreed. It's not the Exorcist. It's not hereditary. You're not going to be sitting there haunted by the plot.

[Kelly]Right. But it is intense in a very physical way. It's gross, it's uncomfortable. The body horror is a lot.

[Ambrose]Yeah, it gets under your skin, but not in a ghost is watching me way.

[Kelly]Exactly. The idea of waking up and your body isn't yours anymore, or being aware while your head is in a bag, you know, stuff like that. Hits a deep fear button.

[Ambrose]So it gets you on the “Oh, no, my body” level.

[Kelly]Yes. It's a wince movie, not a scream movie.

[Ambrose]That's a great way to put it. Okay, does the Comedy hold up 

[Kelly]100%. 

[Ambrose]Without question.

[Kelly]I laughed out loud multiple times. Combs timing is perfect.

[Ambrose]There's this dryness to it. Like when the Dean is dead and West is basically standing there like, well, this is an opportunity.

[Kelly]Yes.

[Ambrose]And the physical comedy, too. The fight scenes are almost slapstick.

[Kelly]It's like the Three Stooges, but with intestines.

[Ambrose]Exactly. And it works because they commit. If they were trying to be funny, it would fall apart. But they're trying to be serious.

[Kelly]That's the key.

[Ambrose]And finally, the madness. The nerve. How wild is this movie?

[Kelly]VERY.

[Ambrose]Would you say off the charts. Like my scale snaps in half.

[Kelly]Let me just say this. 24 gallons of blood. The head scene, the cat, the sheer boldness of it. Would you say that's wild enough for you?

[Ambrose]I would. Also the ambition. Trying to do all this with a million dollars, basically inside a morgue. And it still works.

[Kelly]And a practical effects headless. Dr. Hill still looks convincing for 1985. That's pure movie magic.

[Ambrose]It feels like a movie that shouldn't exist. Like it slipped through a crack in reality.

[Kelly]It crawled out of a drawer.

[Ambrose]Okay. Would you recommend our listeners to either rent it, buy it, or just Bury it.

[Kelly]This is easy for me.

[Ambrose]Oh, I think I know where you're going with this one.

[Kelly]You do, huh? Well, I say it's a buy. It's an essential classic. If you care about horror, history, practical effects, or you just want to see Jeffrey Combs give one of the best performances of the 80s. You need it.

[Ambrose]And let's not forget that new 4K restoration. The colors pop. That green reagent has never looked greener.

[Kelly]Yes, the green just pops in that new 4K version. And honestly, if you want the full story, check out the integral cut. But for the best party experience, I'd say the unrated theatrical cut is the one.

[Ambrose]Right, because it's lean, it moves, it doesn't stop. To explain hypnosis for 10 years, it's just like, here's the madness. Enjoy.

[Kelly]Exactly.

[Ambrose]Okay, alright, rating time. Let's slap some coffins on this thing.

[Kelly]Yep, let's do it.

[Ambrose]For me, Reanimator is a clean five out of five coffins. Like, come on, it's a classic, it's gross, it's hilarious, it's iconic, it knows exactly what it's doing and it does not apologize for any of it.

[Kelly]I mean, you're not wrong. It's absolutely a classic. And yeah, it's disgusting in a way that feels almost like medically disrespectful.

[Ambrose]Thank you. That's the vibe.

[Kelly]But I'm going a little lower. I'm giving it four out of five coffins.

[Ambrose]Wow, look at you, miss. I'm gonna be reasonable today. Who are you.

[Kelly]I know, I know. Everyone, clutch your pearls. But listen, it's not a four because it's bad. It's not falling apart or anything. It's confident, it's memorable, and it totally understands what kind of movie it is.

[Ambrose]Okay, so why are you robbing it of that fifth coffin?

[Kelly]Because there are a couple spots where I can feel it working a little too hard. Like the pacing wobbles just enough that I'm not locked in every second. And there are one or two choices where I'm like, alright, you didn't need to push it that far. So what I'm saying is I almost have nothing to complain about. But there are a couple of tiny things. I mean, more like small nitpicks. Like, for instance, the pacing dips for a minute or one choice doesn't land. Like, that part could have been tighter. That's all I'm saying.

[Ambrose]And that, folks, is the most Kelly explanation ever.

[Kelly]And I stand by it. It nails the vibe. It lands the big swings, it still makes people react. There's just a tiny bit of rough edge that keeps me from giving it the full five.

[Ambrose]Okay, fair. So there you have it. Five coffins from me.

[Kelly]And four from me.

[Ambrose]Which means Reanimator proves you can cheat death. As long as you don't mind getting a little messy.

[Kelly]And as long as you don't let Ambrose anywhere near the syringe.

[Ambrose]Wow. Okay, first of all, disrespectful. Second of all, I wouldn't even touch the syringe unless, like, it was already in my hand for totally normal reasons.

[Kelly]Yeah, right. And you should always keep an eye on your cat.

[Ambrose]Exactly. Go watch it. Get the popcorn. Maybe avoid the spaghetti.

[Kelly]Definitely avoid the spaghetti.

[Ambrose]Okay, now, before we bounce, we have to settle our ongoing argument, because I can feel you winding up right now.

[Kelly]Am I?

[Ambrose]You are. You're about to say, I die in the first 15 minutes of Re-Animator.

[Kelly]I'm not about to. I'm saying it out loud. You would be gone immediately. You'd wake up the next day with your head in a sack.

[Ambrose]No. Absolutely not. I survive Reanimator.

[Kelly]Ambrose…this movie is literally about a guy running around with glowing Frankenstein juice. That's your whole weakness. You'd be like, wait, it works on anything.

[Ambrose]No, I would be cautious.

[Kelly]You would not.

[Ambrose]Okay, fine, I would be curious. But I would survive.

[Kelly]You'd be the guy who goes, okay, hear me out. What if we do just one tiny injection, just a little one for science, and then you're the cold open.

[Ambrose]That is so dramatic.

[Kelly]It's accurate. You'd be the first person to volunteer as tribute. And not even for money, just for vibes.

[Ambrose]First of all, rude. Second of all, my plan is simple. I do not room with Herbert West. I do not go near the basement. I do not touch the green stuff. Boom. Survival.

[Kelly]You'd last one day at Miskatonic before you're like, so, where do they keep the glowing stuff? Just asking. Hypothetically.

[Ambrose] I would be there for emotional support for Dan. He needs a friend.

[Kelly]He does not need you.

[Ambrose]He needs me. Specifically, because I would be the only one going, hey, man, maybe don't let the intense little Gremlin scientist bully you into corpse projects.

[Kelly]And then Herbert would look at you once, insult you, and you'd immediately go, wait, does he like me?

[Ambrose]Okay, that part might be true.

[Kelly]And then you'd defend him. You'd be like, guys, he's misunderstood. Meanwhile, the cat is missing, the basement door is locked, and you're holding a syringe like it's a Capri Sun.

[Ambrose]First off, my cat would never. Okay, maybe, but I'm definitely not the one who'd inject stuff into my body. I'm the guy going, hey, maybe we don't try and reanimate any dead bodies today.

[Kelly]Ambrose, you would say that while you stand just three inches from the body with the syringe in your hand.

[Ambrose]Okay, I might be that person, but I'd still not inject anything into a dead body. I'm not that insane.

[Kelly]Well, I'm just saying, the only way you survive Re-Animator is in your imagination. You're a cautionary tale before the title card finishes.

[Ambrose]Alright, alright, you made your point. We'll call it Disputed.

[Kelly]Disputed.

[Ambrose]So let's get out of here before the crypt locks us in.

[Kelly]I wish you would just stop joking like that. You know I don't like closed spaces.

[Ambrose]Oh, right, the person who is not afraid of anything.

[Kelly]I didn't say that. I'm just saying, why do you always have to call the crypt out? That's all.

[Ambrose]Okay, I get it.

[Kelly]Do you?

[Ambrose]I do.

[Kelly]Good. Now lead the way, Crypt Boy.

[Ambrose]Oh, so this is my new nickname, Crypt Boy.

[Kelly]Yeah, I like it. It suits you.

[Ambrose]You are way too funny, Kelly.

[Kelly] I know.

[Narrator]Silence has fallen upon the critics crypt. Once again, the screams have faded and the reals are back in their graves. Once again, you have survived the visit. But take heed. We will always keep a cold spot ready for your return inside the critics crypt. Sleep well, my little critics. As for now, the crypt is closed. For now.

[Ambrose]All right, that's our review of Reanimator. And if you're sitting there right now thinking, cool, should I be locking my basement door and checking my fridge for glowing neon goo? Yeah, that's the movie.

[Kelly]Seriously though, Reanimator is one of those movies that just commits. Like it looks you in the eye and goes, yeah, we're doing this. And then it does it harder. And if you're listening to this in the dark right now, I mean, respect. That's some ride or die horror behavior.

[Ambrose]For real. And if you're sitting there thinking, cool, why am I suddenly uncomfortable with the concept of medical school? Yep, that's Reanimator.

[Kelly]Or if you hear a weird little clink in the next room and you're like, nope, that's just totally normal science noises. Yeah, okay.

[Ambrose]Also, quick reminder, do not let your friends come over with a duffel bag and a plan. If someone shows up like, hey, I made something, you say, no, you didn't and you lock the door.

[Kelly]And if it's glowing? Absolutely not. If it glows, it goes. Throw it away.

[Ambrose]Anyway, if you had fun hanging with us, hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening.

[Kelly]And leave us a review if you can. Even a short one. It helps the show a ton and it helps other horror fans find us without having to summon us in a pentagram made of popcorn.

[Ambrose]And since we're here, I just want to let you know about our premium VIP pass. This is where you get episodes free of any sort of ads. Just pure horror movie chaos. And the best part is it's just $4 a month. Or an even better deal, $48 for the year.

[Kelly]Like if you've ever been mid episode and an ad pops up and you're like, okay, cool, love this. But also, I was literally in the middle of picturing something gross. The VIP pass fixes that. It's just us. No interruptions, no detours, just straight to the spooky stuff.

[Ambrose]And we're also working on our very own the Thing About Films Discord server right now. So if you want a place to hang out with other horror nerds, yell about movies, drop recommendations, argue about endings, or just post why did I watch that before? Bed memes. That's gonna be the spot.

[Kelly]And if you want more updates and movie stuff, follow us at the Thing About Films on Facebook and on Instagram and TikTok too. That's where we post little clips and random fun facts all the time. Like bite sized moments you can scroll through when you're supposed to be doing literally anything else.

[Ambrose]And yeah, if you listen every week, it's honestly the easiest way to support the show and keep season two rolling. Because we've got a lot coming and we wanna keep making this bigger, weirder and way more fun.

[Kelly]Alright, that's it. We'll catch you next time.

[Ambrose]And until then, be nice to your neighbors. Trust absolutely nothing that makes a weird sound in the other room. And don't do not mess with anything that's glowing. Bye.