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Re-Animator (1985)
In director Stuart Gordon's cult comedy-horror film
- a combination mad zombie and mad scientist film (and a retelling
of the original Frankenstein films), from a series of stories
by H.P. Lovecraft - outrageous tale of a demented medical student
who was experimenting on regenerating dead bodies:
- the film's opening: third year university student-scientist
Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), an incorrigible and obsessed
'mad-scientist' with a reanimating fluorescent green reagent, was
doing "independent research" in Zurich, Switzerland,
behind a locked lab room where screams were heard; when the door
was broken into and unlocked by guards with guns drawn, there was
the terrifying scene of West leaning over professor Dr. Hans Gruber
(Al Berry) with a hypodermic syringe and insisting he had to get
the man's vital signs; Gruber was screaming in agony, then stood
up as his head turned purple, and his skin and eyes bulged outward
- with blood spewing everywhere; Gruber then collapsed dead to
the floor; Dr. West explained how a life-resurrecting dosage was
lethal: West: "Of course he's dead. The dosage was too large." Female: "You
killed him." West: "No, I did not. I gave him life."
Dr. West with Dying Dr. Gruber
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Dr. Gruber Screaming
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West: "I gave him life."
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- Dr. West transferred to the US (at Miskatonic
Medical School in Arkham, Massachusetts), and became friends and
roommates with co-partner/fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott);
Cain's secret girlfriend/fiancee was Megan Halsey (scream-queen
Barbara Crampton), the daughter of the Dean of the medical school
Dr. Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson); Cain was discreetly having sex
with Megan, since her puritanical father would object; one of the
eminent professors at the school was megalomaniac Dr. Carl Hill
(David Gale), specializing in brains (and brain death), one of
Dr. West's research competitors
- the scene of Dr. West's first attempt at reanimation
in his apartment's basement, after he alleged that Dan's black housecat
Rufus had accidentally died of suffocation (and then was stored in
the refrigerator in West's room), along with a glowing green substance;
when Dan asked about the green fluid, West suggested blackmail and
retorted that it was none of his business: "...just as it's
none of my business that you’re sleeping with Dean Halsey's
daughter"; the cat was revived in the basement, although it
became hyper-crazy and screeched, and both Dan and Herbert tried
to kill it with a baseball bat and croquet mallet, respectively;
Dan heaved the cat against the wall and broke its back, and West
began laughing hysterically
Deceased Cat Rufus Stored in the Refrigerator
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Re-Animated Cat Thrown Against Wall - Now Dead
a Second Time
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- next, the incorrigible researcher Dr. West admitted
what he had done - he had attempted to reanimate the recently-deceased
creature by injecting it with a luminous green flourescent goo,
reagent or serum - a substance designed to bring back the dead
(he bragged: "I conquered brain death"); to prove he
could regenerate the dead animal again, he reinjected it a second
time - and the cat briefly howled and twitched.
Reinjecting Rufus Again With
The Green Serum
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Rufus Briefly Back to Life a Second Time
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- after Dan told Dr. Halsey about Dr. West's regenerative
experiments, the strict administrator expelled Dr. West from the
medical school for conducting experiments that were unauthorized
and "beyond the scope of...legitimate studies"; Dan was
required to submit a written apology, and his student loan was
rescinded (effectively ending his studies); however, Dan continued
to aid Dr. West to salvage both of their careers - he wheeled Dr.
West (under a sheet) into the medical school's autopsy room filled
with corpses
- the scene of the first awakening of an autopsy room
patient from a slab and the ensuing struggle with the superhuman
zombie, who in the melee attacked Dr. Alan Halsey and bit his fingers
- Dr. Halsey had arrived to accuse them of trespassing; the zombie
was killed by Dr. West applying a surgical buzz bone-saw to its back
and emerging from its chest; the dead Dr. Halsey, now the "freshest
body" available, was now reanimated as an undead zombie ("We
can bring him back to life")
- soon after, Dr. Hill became the "guardian" of
the zombified, strait-jacketed Dr. Halsey (held in a padded observation
cell/office); to investigate the cause of death by exploratory surgery,
Dr. Hill secretly performed a lobotomy on his boss, and discovered
that Halsey had been reanimated
- the sequence of the murder of Dr. Hill by an enraged
Dr. West, who feared that Hill would soon plagiarize his research
(Hill had already plagiarized Dr. Gruber's work); Hill had threatened:
"I want your discovery"; Dr. Hill's head was crushed when
a shovel was swung at it, and then severed from his body at the neck;
Dr. Hill's decapitated head was then placed within a silver tray, and
West injected reagent into both parts - the head and the body; in retaliation,
Hill's reanimated, headless body grabbed Dr. West from behind and knocked
him unconscious
- using mind control, weirdly-obsessed, lecherous Dr.
Hill sent a reanimated Dr. Halsey out to kidnap his own daughter
Megan ("Alan, it’s time for you to come out now...");
Megan was brought to the lab - she fainted, and she was stripped
and her left arm was strapped onto a metal lab table next to Hill's
head in the tray
- the next infamous scene was an outrageously humorous
and horrifying scene - the film's most famous over-the-top, perverted
sequence - "rape-by-severed-head"; decapitated Dr. Carl
Hill's disembodied, reanimated undead 'head' was aroused by the sight
of a naked Megan while she was restrained and bare on the laboratory
gurney next to him; after Dr. Hill's body (his head was propped onto
his neck) massaged both of her breasts, Megan kicked off his fake
head; Hill's body picked up his own head in the tray, then leaned
over her with his disembodied head (held by his own body) and managed
to speak in a gravely voice to her, while trying to kiss her breasts: "I've
always admired your beauty, my dear. I think I've always loved you.
(She screamed and attempted to push him away.) And you will love
me. You will!" As she protested and screamed: "Please stop,
let me go," he attempted to provide oral sex ('head') to Megan,
but was interrupted by West: "I must say, Dr. Hill - I'm very
disappointed in you! You steal the secret of life, and then here
you are trysting with a bubble-headed co-ed. You're not even a second-rate
scientist."
Severed Head Sexual Attack by Dr. Hill on Megan
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- Megan was rescued by Dan from the table, and the
two escaped, as all the other corpses (reanimated by Dr. Hill's
body with a new laser-drill lobotomizing procedure) in the room
were commanded by Hill to come to life; Dr. West was held down
on a metal lab table and was beginning to be laser-drilled in the
head, but was interrupted when Dr. Halsey grabbed Dr. Hill's disembodied
head; he squeezed it and gouged out its eyes, and tossed it into
the hallway - and then, he was torn to pieces and had his head
ripped off by the other zombie-corpses; to destroy Hill's body,
Dr. West injected it with a large overdose of the reagent from
two syringes, while he cried out for his work to be saved; Hill's
body fought back, attacked, and began to mutate (and grabbed West
with twisted parts of its intestines).
Dr. Hill's Head Squeezed by Dr. Halsey
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Intestines in Dr. Hill's Body Wrapped Around Dr.
West
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- in the conclusion, as Dan and Megan fled into the
basement hallway, she was choked to death by one of the re-animated
corpses (a burn victim) in the elevator; after attempting CPR,
Dan wheeled Megan into a nearby upstairs emergency room, where
there were vain efforts to resuscitate and save her; the room was
cleared, but then Dan had an idea - he opened Dr. West's medical
bag (holding a syringe) and injected her in the neck with the reagent
as he told her: "I Love you!" The screen faded to black,
and then she screamed!
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(l to r): Dr. Halsey, Dr. Hill, Dan Cain, Dr. West
Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) Having Sex with Dan Cain
First Re-Animated Corpse in Autopsy Room
Zombie Crunching on Dr. Halsey's Fingers
Dr. West "Killing" Reanimated Zombie
Corpse with Bone-Saw
Re-Animating the Dead Dr. Halsey
Dr. Halsey Detained in a Padded Cell in a Strait-Jacket
Dr. West Severing Dr. Hill's Head With a Shovel
Dr. Hill's Disembodied Head
Dr. Hill Commanded Dr. Halsey to Kidnap Megan
Megan Abducted and Brought to the Lab
Concluding Sequence:
Death of Megan - Choked by Zombie
Dr. West Attempting to Revive Megan in Emergency
Room
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