Re-animator / one sheet / photo style / USA

19.12.13

PosterPosterPosterPoster
Title
Re-animator
AKA
Zombio (Japan)
Year of Film
1985
Director
Stuart Gordon
Starring
Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Robert Sampson, Al Berry
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
Photo
Origin of Poster
USA
Year of Poster
1985
Designer
Unknown
Artist
--
Size (inches)
28 1/16" x 40 15/16"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
--
Tagline
Herbert West has a very good head on his shoulders... and another one in a dish on his desk. | Death Is Just The Beginning...

A true cult horror classic, Re-Animator was based on H. P. Lovecraft‘s 1922 short story ‘Herbert West–Reanimator‘ and was director Stuart Gordon‘s first feature film. Originally planned to be a TV series set around the beginning of the 20th century, a pilot and a number of episodes were scripted by Dennis Paoli and William Norris. Eventually the trio decided to update the story to present day Chicago since the period setting was increasing production costs, and were then persuaded to make it as a feature film after Gordon was introduced to producer Brian Yuzna. The infamous horror director/producer Charles Band‘s Empire Pictures agreed to help with post-production in return for distribution rights (note the logo on this poster).

One of the reasons for the films cult success was the hiring of Jeffrey Combs to play the lead role of scientist Herbert West, which led to one of horror’s all-time great performances. Coombs’  portrayal of West is pitch-perfect, blackly comic and the film is unquestionably elevated by his presence. At the beginning of the film West’s medical student is dismissed from a Swiss University after a failed experiment to bring his dead professor back to life using a concoction he has been developing for several months.Some time later, West arrives at a New England university and immediately carries on his experiments, enlisting the help of his room mate Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). When Dan’s girlfriend Megan grows suspicious of their activity, a series of events see the body count rising and West is able to test his new serum and ‘defeat death’.

The film has brilliant, gore-heavy special effects that stand up well nearly thirty years on and it’s a perfectly paced horror that was, unusually for the time, lauded by most critics. It went on to spawn sequels and launched Gordon’s career as a horror director of note.

This is the photo style one sheet and features one of the all-time great horror tag-lines. There is also an illustration style one sheet that can be seen here.

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