I was promised H.P. Lovecraft!  What I got were a few references and zero Cthulhu.  Well, I guess I haven’t actually read the Lovecraft novella this was based on (“Herbert West: Reanimator”).  My own fault.  I guess for me what was missing was a Lovecraftian “feel.”  This was straight out of the 80s.

There are, however, plenty of buck-naked corpses floundering around, lots of grisly medical scenes, and some pretty cheesy special effects.  This is a plot that has been done many times before and since – one could even argue that Frankenstein is also a reanimator, although his tale is less wacky and full of bizarre moments with a head on a table.

Recommendations!

• The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) – Another mad scientist, another head on a table.  The MST3K version is the one I watched and it was great (possibly one of their best).
• The Fly (1986) – Cheesy special effects and Jeff Goldblum.
• The Lazarus Effect (2015) – A group of scientists work to reanimate animal corpses, but after their project is shut down and their lead researcher dies, they decide to reanimate her.  Also death by e-cig.