Month of Horror - Day 15: Re-Animator

"Don't expect it to tango; it has a broken back."

We've hit the half-way mark on our Month of Horror. Our first fifteen days have been exciting. I've been introduced to some movies that I now consider among my favorite horror flicks: The Fly, The Stepford Wives, and Paranormal Activity to name some. What's interesting about the last one is how many people aren't agreeing with me. Now, I haven't read a lot of reviews of Paranormal Activity but I have read a lot of Facebook updates. Maybe it's the hype, maybe it's to compensate for the pants-pissing terror they experienced, or maybe they just didn't like it. That's the dilemma I'm going through with Re-Animator.

For some reason, I didn't love Re-Animator. Should have. Didn't.

The possible causes have been narrowed down to three.

First, the score grates my ears. The main theme to Re-Animator is the main theme to Psycho. Only Psycho did it better, much better. The day Bernard Herrmann wrote Psycho's score, he left any jazz influences he might have had at home. Such influences were not missed. But somehow, twenty-five years later, someone felt that the only thing the music was missing was some smooth saxaphone. Vomitpuke.

Second, the hype. Hype hurts films and I hate that. What's been positive in my experience, however, is that hype usually only ruins first viewings. I have a hypothesis involving Re-Animator and second viewings that I plan on experimenting with in the near furute.

Third, an overwhelming feeling that I'd seen it all before. This is most definitely not the film's fault, it was made before Dead Alive and Frankenhooker but that doesn't change the fact that Re-Animator seemed awfully familiar.

My conclusion in this oddly weighted five-paragraph essay about Re-Animator is that all things considered, I was probably just having an off-night. The score is annoying but hype and similarity are stupid reasons to not like something. To read a much better review of Re-Animator, visit one of my favorite defunct blogs, The Kinetoscope Parlor.