41 Years, the Most Inventive Sci-Fi Thriller of the ’80s Is Officially Free to Watch on Streaming

Zombies are some of the most difficult creatures to innovate. Over nearly a century of cinematic history, these monsters have typically been frightening but simple; they eat brains and they decompose. The zombie genre itself is defined by its clear parameters, usually depicting the rise of the undead, a group of survivors, and a collapsing society. While the storytelling has evolved to explore different societal concerns, the zombie genre remains challenging to add wrinkles to. Some of the biggest breakthroughs in the genre come from redefining the zombie itself: 28 Days Later made them fast and angry (and technically not undead at all), while The Last of Us fused real science and speculative sci-fi to imagine a connected network of fungus-infected zombies.

But 41 years ago one movie blazed the way for undead innovation. It led to a breed of zombie that, despite being frightening and deadly, also had the capacity for depth. Re-Animator redefined the genre forever, and it’s streaming for free on Tubi.

What is Re-Animator about?

Directed by experimental sci-fi icon Stuart Gordon and released in 1985, Re-Animator is a modern take on Frankenstein by way of horror master H.P. Lovecraft. The story follows Herbert West (Gordon’s frequent collaborator Jeffrey Combs), who has developed a green serum that can bring dead beings back to life. Of course, West’s experiments quickly get out of hand, leading to a disturbing grand finale. The movie became a cult classic thanks to its grind-house thrills and unintentionally campy comedy, resulting in two lesser sequels.

Re-Animator opens on West. He’s a medical student at the University of Zurich and has just reanimated his mentor, Dr. Hans Gruber, with faulty results. His skin has turned grey and he’s screaming in pain. To the horror of everyone around him, Gruber’s eyes burst, with blood splashing all over the place in a great feat of practical effects. “Of course he’s dead, the dose was too large,” says West. It’s an attitude he’ll return to throughout the movie, consistently more invested in his experiments than in the subjects themselves.

West relocates to Massachusetts to continue his studies, and we’re introduced to his new roommate, student doctor Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). While also brilliant and ambitious, Dan has more earthly concerns, like his finances and his relationship with his girlfriend, Meg (scream queen Barbara Crampton). Complicating their dynamic is the fact that Meg is the daughter of the school’s dean, Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson), with the two deciding to keep their relationship a secret until Cain graduates. Once West moves in, he draws Dan and Meg into his horrific experiments. Oh, and there’s also Carl Hill (David Gale), a creepy doctor who wants to take credit for West’s invention.

How Re-Animator Redefined Zombies

Image: 50th Street Films

Zombies are always scary, but Gordon pushed the concept into fresh new territory, with each zombie encounter escalating the tension in the film. Subjects grow violent and cannibalistic — whether they’re cats or humans — taking bites out of any living being nearby. But the transformation isn’t uniform. Each zombie showcases different behaviors, with some retaining flickers of the people they were in life. After a zombie kills Dean Halsey, Cain and West inject him with the serum. In one of the film’s key sequences, the dean recognizes his daughter and rescues her despite his zombie state. Dr. Hill, meanwhile, mostly retains his creepy personality even after becoming undead. It’s a clear departure from the mindless zombies pioneered by George Romero in Night of the Living Dead, which feel nothing except a desire to eat brains.

These developments augment the film’s most memorable and extreme zombie sequences, including its most infamous scene where a decapitated zombie head instructs his re-animated body to grope a naked Meg. It adds a layer of exploitation that zombie movies rarely explore and pushes the boundaries of the genre, for better or worse. Gordon ultimately builds to a climax set in a morgue, with numerous reanimated corpses using their own intestines as weapons and countless limbs and organs flying all over the screen.

Image: Empire International Pictures/Everett Collection

Over the past century, the zombie genre has allowed its creatures to progress from hypnotized ghouls to slow-walking undead to sprinting and hyper-aggressive monsters. But while the genre has evolved in fits and bursts, most zombie flicks keep things simple, sticking to what works. For every 28 Days Later, there are a dozen Romero remakes, spin-offs, and copycats. Re-Animator is one of the rare films to try out something new, featuring some of the genre’s best gags and a truly memorable zombie villain in Dr. Hill. It’s a movie that belongs to its time, but a must-watch for fans who want to develop a full understanding of the zombie movie canon.

Re-Animator is streaming now on Tubi.