31 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN : NIGHT 22 : REANIMATOR

Back in the 90's I became very fond of a certain kind if movie, every so often I would discover a film that was kind if silly as well as scary, but always seemed to have every over the top colours and special effects, they seemed similar but as a kid I didn't give it much thought. It was no surprise to me when I found out that most of these films were DIrected by or at very least had some involvement from Stuart Gordon and it was his very distinct cinematic style that I had been noticing. One of my all time favourites was his feature debut REANIMATOR.

Dan Cain is the top student at his medical academy, he has high hopes and a beautiful young girlfriend in the form of the deans daughter. His life couldn't be much better. That is until new arrival Herbert West offers to rent out his spare room. It's not long before noises in the night and strange smells alert Dan to West's experiments, but when he discovers that West may have infact cured death, the two students set out to complete the ultimate goal, to Reanimate human life.

REANIMATOR is simply an epic film, just trying to write a synopsis for it reminded me use how bug the whole thing is, I have uncovered just the tip of the iceberg there. The effects are amazing and the comedy and horror mixture is just perfect. It's hard to believe that it's based on the series of short stories by HP Lovecraft, which were much more serious in tone.

The film is one of my favourites, I even adapted the material it is based on as my final thesis film at film school. It's spawned 2 sequels to date, Bride Of and Beyond, and West, being a public domain character continues to appearing various mediums including comics and video games.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ