If Frankenstein was the modern Prometheus then Reanimator is the modern Frankenstein. Except that the hard work has been done and all Dr West has to do is inject some luminous yellow liquid into the brains of dead people to bring them back to life.
Based on H P Lovecraft's story Herbert West: Reanimator, the film is very much in the 80s splatter movie style of Scanners (1981), The Evil Dead (1981) or Bad Taste (1987). Full of Dark humour and quite outrageous scenes, Reanimator is great fun despite being essentially daft and looking rather dated. The special effects, however, don't look dated. In the great tradition of practical horror (American Werewolf in London (1981), The Thing (1982), Evil Dead or Evil Dead 2 (1987) and even Aliens (1986)) the effects are all tremendously gooey and as far as I can tell all done in camera, which all adds to the fun.
Perhaps not so horrific by today's standards, Reanimator is more of a Sci-fi romp than anything else, more frenetic than atmospheric; but this doesn't detract from it at all. But, well, you know, that’s just, like, er, my opinion, man.
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