Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a follower of Dr. Gruber, a Zurich scientist who died during some hallucinatory experiments conducted on some corpses. West, intending to continue his master's research, goes to an American hospital and continues his study of a special compound that, in the form of a serum, injected into the occipital area of the brain brings the bodies of the deceased back to life. In his operations he enlists the help of young Dan (Bruce Abbott).
The head of the department, Carl Hill (David Gale), specializes in lobotomies and, learning of young West's important discovery, attempts to take credit for it.
Meanwhile, the hospital's new director, Dr. Dea Halsey (Robert Sampson), falls victim to some "resuscitation" by West; while, during an altercation with West, Dr. Hill literally loses his head and is subjected to the resuscitation procedure with striking consequences: the doctor's body trunk recovers its head and threatens (including sexually) the attractive Megan (Barbara Crampton), Dan's girlfriend and Dr. Halsey's daughter....
Meanwhile, having completely lost control over the "revivals," all hell breaks loose inside the hospital, with violence that will spare no one from death, and "resuscitation."....
Awarded at Rome's Fantafestival of the Fantastic in May 1986 (but the year before it also won recognition at Cattolica's Myfest), Stuart Gordon's (From Beyond, Dolls, The Well and the Pendulum, Dagon) debut film immediately found a very warm reception from fans of the genre.
The excellent result can be attributed to the good spfx department by A. Dubin and H. Miller, to the performers all well cast in their roles (above all the hallucinated Jeffrey Combs), and to the good script taken (very loosely, to be honest) from Lovecraft's short story Herbert West, a resuscitator, and the work-rather than that of Paoli, Norris, and Gordon-by Dr. Ron Berman (former director of an emergency room in California).
Gordon, in addition to consulting with Dr. Berman, carried out a series of inspections of several morgues (about half a dozen) in order to make the images as truthful as possible...
While fitting into the Romero-esque "zombies" strand, the film anticipates the current trend of hypervelocity returnees at length: in Re-animator, in fact, the dead sprint to the crib and hurl themselves like tarantulas at the surrounding humans...
Very cautious, on the other hand, has been the reception of Italian critics who, as usual, have not grasped the underlying ironic sense and, on several occasions, have demolished the work...
Thus, for example, he mentions "Il corriere della sera" of August 26, 1986:
"In the abominable contest fought among horror masters to earn the supremacy of horror, here enters an American newcomer who, if he keeps it up, will deserve an honor to the Order of the Vomit. His name is Stuart Gordon, and it is to be feared that the awards he has received will encourage him to continue..."
And, fortunately we add, Gordon really went on to make two more Lovecraft-inspired films (From beyond-terror from the unknown and Dagon-the Mutation of Evil) unreleased to us in theaters and circulated only in the home-video market...
Music by Richard Band and production by Brian Yuzna (Society, Re-animator 2, The Dentist 1 and 2, Faust, Return of the Dead-Aliving 3, Necronomicon) for an unquestionable masterpiece of splatter, turned ironic (though far removed, e.g., from the result of Peter Jackson's Brain Dead) and anticipating stylistic gimmicks that would inspire, from there on, much of the near-amateur underground cinema.
Fun fact: The first corpse reanimated in the morgue, and killed by Dan, is Arnold Schwarzenegger...
Thus the catch phrase, in American flans: Death Is Just The Beginning....
Two versions of the film circulate, the cut version (unrated version) is shortened by 9 minutes compared to the unabridged version for a total duration of 86 minutes.
Review by Undying1
