2020 Blind Spot Series: Re-Animator

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What I knew going in: That it was essentially a body horror type film.

 Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a strange new medical student who has found a way to reanimate dead people with his experiments. He ropes his new roommate Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) in on this as well to disastrous results. 

 Have you ever watched a film and felt okay about what your were watching? Maybe you like it, maybe it's not perfect, but not bad, then one thing happens. ONE thing that makes you do a complete 180 and immediately lose all hope? Well, that's what happened here.

 I generally like campy 80's horror. It's not free of misogyny, a lot of them have a very exploitative view of women that some would call "dated" even though it was wrong back then too and no one gave a voice to those who objected, but Re-Animator is easily the grossest example of this that I've came across. And consider this spoiler territory a favor. 

 Why the hell is there a rape scene in this movie? Why does the only female character, who is minding her own goddamn business until her cat is murdered suddenly get labeled a "bitch" then subjected to a horrific sexual assault that I'm sure some neckbeard thought was "wicked cool!" even though the camera is practically reveling in this assault? This was some sexist fuckery that I just do not have the time for. (and don't "But Evil Dead!" me. I know this isn't the first film to do this but today it's the one that's bothering me.)

 Any goodwill I had for this movie, which had an interesting start to a story, campy acting, and amusing special effects was completely gone the moment they decided to show an assault for titillation. Sorry, cream of rapey bullshit is not the soup of the day here.

 Recommended: No

 Grade: F

 Memorable Quote: "I gave him life." - Herbert West

Comments

  1. Carson Maitland - SmithApril 11, 2020 at 11:15 AM

    I wasn't gonna recommend Re-Animator to my mum and stepdad anyway

    ReplyDelete
  2. thevoid99April 11, 2020 at 11:04 PM

    Wow... I really wanted to see this because I heard how fucked up and hilarious it is. Sorry it didn't work out for you as the guy who made the film died recently as he did a film called Stuck with Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari more than a decade ago that is really fucking good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 13, 2020 at 2:38 PM

      I can see how the campy acting is unintentionally funny but as a whole I would not call it hilarious. The bad parts are just too distracting to really lose yourself in the camp of it.

      Delete
  3. GetterApril 12, 2020 at 7:01 AM

    Oh well... so I'm skipping this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. joel65913April 13, 2020 at 3:29 PM

    Well this was the one film on your Blind Spot list I hadn't seen and I had planned to watch it before you got to it to have a clue. It proved to be difficult to locate and from your review I'm very, very happy about that. It never really looked like my cup of tea to begin with so now I'm positive I've missed nothing!!

    Better luck with next month! Looking at what you have left you no matter what you pick the sailing will be much smoother. You still have several to get to that I'm really looking forward to reading what you think of them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 14, 2020 at 10:05 AM

      I hope so. I already watched my May Blind Spot as well and it was so much better. I still get DVDs in the mail from Netflix because that service is awesome, so that's how I watched it.

      I'm still annoyed with this film. I like campy 80's horror and I did not expect to hate this so much at all.

      Delete

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