Re-Animator

Re-Animator is a 1985 film about a brilliant but obsessed medical student who stumbles upon the secret to bringing the dead back to life. Based on the H. P. Lovecraft story Herbert West--Reanimator, it is the first in a series of three horror films.
 * ''Directed by Stuart Gordon. Written by Stuart Gordon, William Norris, Dennis Paoli.

Herbert West has a good head on his shoulders... and another one on his desk.

Herbert West

 * [to Dan, trying to convince him to assist in his research] We can achieve every doctor's dream! You'll be famous, and live lifetimes.
 * Do you agree he's dead now? [picks up the dead cat and drops it with a clunk] Do you agree that he's dead now?
 * [regarding the dead cat he is reanimating] Don't expect it to tango; it has a broken back.
 * I must say, Dr. Hill, I'm very disappointed in you. You steal the secret of life and death and here you are, trysting with a bubble-headed co-ed. You're not even a second-rate scientist.
 * You'll never get credit for my discovery. Who's going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow.
 * I am not through here! I told you I have a theory: overdose!! [wields two full reagent hypodermics]

Dan Cain

 * [about the death & reanimation of Dean Halsey] This is a dream. Fiction.
 * [about Dean Halsey] He's not insane. He's dead.
 * [whispered to Megan, in the film's final line] I love you.

Dr. Hill

 * [about the two pencils West has just deliberately snapped] Mister West. I suggest you get yourself a pen.
 * [about West's basement lab] Hmm. Interesting little la-bor-ah-tory you have here.

Other

 * Mace: [about the morgue] Don't know why they keep locked doors around here. Nobody wants in, and ain't nobody gettin' out.

Dialogue

 * Swiss Woman Doctor: You killed him!
 * Herbert West: No I did not. I gave him life.


 * Cain: What were you researching?
 * West: Death.


 * Megan: You... didn't say why you left Switzerland.
 * West: There was nothing more I could learn there.


 * Dan: You couldn't call, or write a note. [regarding the death of Rufus, his cat]
 * West: I was busy pushing bodies around as you well know. And what would a note say, Dan? 'Cat dead; details later'?


 * Dan: God, why does it make that sound? [as Rufus is being reanimated a second time]
 * West: Birth is always painful.


 * Dan: It was dead! [regarding the reanimated Rufus]
 * West: Twice.


 * West: I will show you, then you will help me.
 * Dan: No!
 * West: Yes you will. That is why I brought the infernal beast back to life in the first place.


 * West: This is the freshest body that we could come across, save of killing one ourselves, and every moment that we spend talking about it costs us results. Now will you give me a hand!


 * Dan: Oh, man, if we get caught--
 * West: Well, what will they do, embalm us?


 * West: [reading toe tags in the morgue] Burn victim... Here's your meatball... Shotgun wound to the head...
 * Dan: ...Aw, God, he's ripe!
 * West: [singsong] ...Malpractice...!


 * Dan: We failed. C'mon, let's go; somebody'll be coming any minute!
 * West: [striking the corpse angrily] He failed! Not I!


 * Dan: Herbert, you're insane, now what happened here?
 * West: I had to kill him!
 * Dan: What?? He's dead?
 * West: ...Not anymore.


 * Hill's Head: Weeeeesssssssst...
 * West: Yes, doctor, it's Herbert West! What are you thinking?
 * Hill's Head: Yoooooooouuuuu...
 * West: [taking notes] You...
 * Hill's Head: Baaaaaastaaaaaaaaaaaard...!

Taglines

 * H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale of horror
 * Death Is Just The Beginning...
 * Herbert West has a good head on his shoulders... and another one on his desk.
 * ...It will scare you to pieces.

About Re-Animator

 * When we were doing the research on it, we were spending a lot of time talking to pathologists in various morgues, and they had the blackest sense of humour I’ve ever encountered! I think you have to if you’re going to do a job like that. I think that, somehow, managed to make its way into the movie.
 * Re-Animator was released unrated, which is very seldom done, but it allowed us to do anything we wanted to. With From Beyond, they insisted that it be rated R, which meant that it was more restricted in what we’d be allowed to do.
 * I think that the MPAA, which is the ratings board in the States, they were angry about Re-Animator, with it having gone out without a rating. They kind of took that out on From Beyond and cut it to ribbons - but luckily I was able to put it back together a few years ago. I found all the pieces that had been censored, and I was able, thanks to digital technology, to put it back together again.
 * Stuart Gordon

Cast

 * Jeffrey Combs - Herbert West
 * Bruce Abbott - Dan Cain
 * Barbara Crampton - Megan Halsey
 * David Gale - Dr. Carl Hill
 * Robert Sampson - Dean Alan Halsey
 * Carolyn Purdy-Gordon - Dr. Harrod
 * Al Berry - Dr. Hans Gruber
 * Gerry Black - Mace (Miskatonic security guard)