Topic: Jon's Marathon of Horror! 2009

[Najemikon]

Good to see there's real taste on these forums! Hopefully, Pete will be joining in the chorus soon...

[Najemikon]

Re-Animator
4 out of 5



Slightly insane Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) has discovered how to bring the dead back to life. His experiments don't stay secret for long...

Re-Animator is one of the most gleefully gruesome films ever made. It's a great little horror story (by Lovecraft) that has it's roots deep in classic horror, most obviously Frankenstein. And the wonderful Combs is perfect as the disturbed West. I want to say "mad scientist", but actually he plays West as quietly serious and dedicated. We can excuse his naivety when he re-animates his flatmates cat (and it proceeds to launch it's bloody carcass at everyone!), so perhaps we only understand the real depths of his insanity when... no. I won't say it. It involves a shovel and it really isn't very nice.

The gore really is a bit OTT, but Stuart Gordon keeps the balance with the story just right throughout. The credits sequence is a perfect introduction to the style, with it's garish colours and detailed anatomy diagrams, and best of all, the theme. It's Bernard Herrmann's famous Psycho tune sped up! Genius. And of course, West's serum is a lovely bright green, as it should be in such a film.

The cast all throw themselves into it. Aside from the brilliant Combs, Robert Sampson (demands respect even as a slavering zombie) and David Gale (Karloff lookalike) might seem too mature and respectable for a film like this, but you wouldn't know it from their performances. Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton are the focus of the plot, as their romance is put to all sorts of terrible trials. All credit to Crampton who also had to suffer several gratuitous topless shots and one full-frontal where she is subjected to a brief, but outrageous visual gag that will make your jaw drop! By that point another character has slipped into a new level of depravity.

The weird thing is, while I said gratuitous depravity, there's also something rather innocent about the whole thing. Whereas comparable gore-hounds Raimi and Jackson have a real vicious streak, I really feel Gordon is just having the most fun possible and he wants the audience to be complicit and have the same fun. He definitely doesn't pull punches, but his gags are less flashy. He comes from a theatre background I think, so maybe it's a simple case of letting the actors play through the parts with honesty and without accentuating anything with edits and freaky compositions.

This came out the year after Nightmare On Elm St. and while that has a marvellous premise, I think Re-Animator deserves equal recognition. It's a classic horror setup, it looks and sounds great and it's a whole lot of very messy fun!

[snowcat]

Nice! I really like re-animator, I should get it on DVD.

[Jimmy]

Always like this one Jon
The sequel isn't too bad (but the dvd is crappy)
The third one isn't that great, Bruce Abbott isn't in it and I miss the chemistry between him and Jeffrey Combs.

Is the dream sequence is include in this dvd also Jon? It's include in the millenium edition and you can see a lot more of Barbara Crampton

[addicted2dvd]

Good to see there's real taste on these forums! Hopefully, Pete will be joining in the chorus soon...

Been a very long day Jon... unfortunately didn't get to watch much today.

[Najemikon]

Always like this one Jon
The sequel isn't too bad (but the dvd is crappy)
The third one isn't that great, Bruce Abbott isn't in it and I miss the chemistry between him and Jeffrey Combs.

Is the dream sequence is include in this dvd also Jon? It's include in the millenium edition and you can see a lot more of Barbara Crampton

I've heard the original crew may pull together for a proper sequel.

The dream sequence is one of the deleted scenes. I see why it was cut, but I'm glad it's there!   if anything though, Barbara is more attractive now...

Hope you're ok, Pete.

[Jimmy]

I've heard the original crew may pull together for a proper sequel.

Certainly a good news
The last time I've heard something about this film it was that it will be remade for another pointless waste of time

Link

[Boomstick98]

I always loved Re-Animator, but I haven't watched any of the sequels.  I'm thinking of watching The Bride of Re-Animator for my marathon.

[Najemikon]

I've heard the original crew may pull together for a proper sequel.

Certainly a good news
The last time I've heard something about this film it was that it will be remade for another pointless waste of time

Link

Ah, hell. That's later than what I read. Remake? For crying out loud! 

[Jimmy]

Another news, you decide if it's better



Herbert West Goes To The Head Of The Class In New ‘Re-Animator’ TV Series

 

[Najemikon]

Uh? What are they trying to do? Do they think they can capitalise on things like Pushing Daisies? Weird. Maybe if it was an anthology type story, with a twist on ER and different cases each episode. West would be the weirdo trying to hide his experiments... 

[Achim]

Herbert West Goes To The Head Of The Class In New ‘Re-Animator’ TV Series

Re-Animator is one of my favorite films too. Stuart Gordon seems like a really nice man, whenever I see him in interviews. Unfortunately he seems to be a bit unlucky at times and his films are usually not getting the attention they deserve. On the other hand, some of his films show merely great potential and then fall short in some parts and can't achieve the greatness that his name promises.

[Najemikon]

Shaun of the Dead
5 out of 5



Shaun (Simon Pegg) is struggling to make his relationship with Liz (Kate Ashfield) work, because he spends too much time at the pub and with his friend Ed (Nick Frost). A zombie outbreak is the last thing he needs...

Shaun of the Dead is a far better film than you might expect. It's a proper zombie film, albeit a funny one, with irony and gore by the bucket load. Made by people who love the old zombie flicks, it's wonderful fun with a lot of heart. Simon Pegg and especially Nick Frost are hilarious throughout and pull off the more dramatic stuff too (a very British thing to successfully mix drama and slap-stick).

It's one of the best purely British films for years. Aside from a fantastic cast, the characters feel very true, so you might not ask for a romantic comedy when you sit down for some gore, but you get one anyway! It helps that they don't have to change because the best zombie films are never character driven; you introduce zombies to any mix and it simply accentuates the relationships and neurotics that were already there and lets them play out naturally and confidently in a state of heightened tension. Shaun and his companions don't affect the situation at all, they just try to survive it. You can take the actors out of the sitcom, but you can't take the sitcom out of the actors! Good job as well.

Spaced wasn't just any sitcom though. They peppered every episode with affectionate digs at classic movies, throwing plenty of perfectly judged gags around in some complicated sequences, yet never drowning the story. Shaun is more of the same on a basic level, but the screenplay is more assured and ambitious with lots of old-fashioned links between scenes (a throwaway line early in the movie gives you clue to a characters fate). And the ending is wonderful. Again typical sitcom (not even rom-coms are this natural), but with a nice twist in the zombie plot.

Neither the rom-com, or the zombie factor are compromised. Both naturally compliment each other, so you get the absolute best of both worlds and something unique and brilliant is the result. Written by and starring talented film-geeks with a detailed understanding of what a zombie story is, it's definitely a film for this generation and will last for years. Hot Fuzz was a very funny follow up to Shaun, but not as clever or honest (that time the characters couldn't be so laid back). Edgar Wright gives excellent value for money, regardless of what he does.

[Achim]

Somehow your (deserved) praise of Shaun of the Dead makes me feel I want to upgrade to Blu-ray...

[Najemikon]

I was thinking the same while I watched it. I wonder what the transfer is like?  Both this and Hot Fuzz are released on Monday...