A Classic Of Its Type

It is so hard to rate this unforgettable slice of 80's gore comedy. You are torn between recognising the daft campy script, the memorable lines that could be from a 50s B flick, and then you have to face facts that it is only a very, very silly horror film. This is every bit as much fun as when I first saw it, it still has a cracking pace, the cat still makes me laugh, the basement ending is still deliriously over the top. The whole thing works because of two things, firstly it is played straight, secondly because the story on which it was based was also a pastiche of the author's own work. Lovecraft wrote Reanimator in annoyed response to publisher's requests for more gore in his stories. Although this film loses all but some of the most basic of Lovecraft's plot ingredients it retains that sense of revelling in the comically grotesque. This film is first rate splatter which looks decidedly innocent compared to earlier 70s exploitation flicks and modern torture porn. Reanimator is basically a 1950s B feature with splatter movie FX, and its similar sense of fun will keep all but the most po faced entertained.