Re-Animator / Slither

Here we are with the fourth double feature of the week. Can you believe that, already four have gone by. These are some of my favorite posts to do because it’s a lot of fun coming up with two films that can compliment each other so well. This week I picked two movies that might not seem like they would go together at first with Re-Animator and Slither but I assure you, these two were made for each other. Here we have two films that are somehow not nearly as popular as they ought to be, in fact I hardly know anyone who has seen Re-Animator let alone even heard about it. That, my friends is an absolute crime. Slither is a little bit more popular simply because it was made just a few years ago but even then its one of those movies that you just don’t hear anyone talking about how great it is. With these two films you are gonna get every bit of cheesy B-horror amazingness that any horror fan could appreciate.

Re-Animator

Never will I forget some of the scenes in this movie because they are so off the wall bat-shit that they will leave you either laughing non-stop or making you question your sanity. Take the bondage rape style “love” scene for example where a severed re-animated head being held by its own body is involved and of course the eye popping, exploding head scene. Re-Animator easily has enough gore to satisfy. It is also hilariously funny and just as equally and exquisitely disturbing. It’s perfect blend of humor and gore is really what makes this one unforgettable. It’s one of those movies that if you haven’t seen it, when you finally do you will be wondering why the hell you didn’t see it sooner. The humor is really what sets this film apart from a lot of movies because it keeps it from being just another gore-fest. This is B-movie at it’s finest right here, it can easily sit on the same shelf as Evil Dead 2. In my opinion this is one of the best horror-comedies ever made and it’s a shame that not many people have had the fortune to see it. It’s one of those movies that only true horror fans can appreciate, and that is exactly the way it should be. It has the classic story of Frankenstein with an Evil Dead-like approach and is one of the all-time gore classics from the 80’s. It doesn’t get much better than that. What I love about this movie is that it isn’t afraid to go way beyond it’s limits as to what most movie-goers are used to seeing. This was adapted from an H.P. Lovecraft story and you can honestly see how much the directed really loved the source material because he put his heart and soul into this movie. Re-Animator is about a medical student and his girlfriend that become involved in a strange experiment into reanimating the dead. In this campy sendup of an H.P. Lovecraft story the main focus is on it’s humor but once the dead begin to walk, there is gore aplenty.

Rotten Tomato Score: 92%

Slither

This one isn’t as much a B-movie as it is a homage to B-movies which is what makes this movie so worth while. Most movies try not to be a B-movie since most people do not go out of their way to see a that type of film, but Slither tried its absolute hardest to be exactly that and it exceeded on all levels. This has to be easily one of the most enjoyable films of its kind in recent memory because it does exactly what it sets out to do, and that is to purely entertain it’s audience. Slither is one hell of a good time and when it isn’t making you laugh historically it’s making you squirm, the perfect movie. Slither is sure to become a classic and will be instantly loved by any fans of movies like Shaun of the Dead. This movie is splatterific and a perfect love letter to the great B-movies of the 80’s. As you guys know by now I’m a huge fan of films that use practical effects and Slither fits into that perfectly. It does an excellent job using practical effects, the few times it does use cgi is when the filmmakers had no other choice and that is something that I can really appreciate because it shows that the director really wanted this movie to have the look and feel of the old-school B-movies.

“If I weren’t about to shit in my pants right now, I’d be fuckin’ fascinated.”

Slither is an entertaining movie in every kind of way, it succeeds in being absolutely hilarious, disgusting, and even at times it can be touching. Oh yea, there are also zombies… lots of zombies!

Rotten Tomato Score: 85%

Why they are better together:

Well guys we are at the end here and I must say, I’m pretty proud of this one. Are these films totally the same? Certainly not but I can assure you that you wont find a better double bill than this one. These two films capture the very essence of what films are all about and that is to entertain its audience. The first film is as much of a B-movie as you can get with Re-Animator while Slither sets out to recreate the B-movies of the 80’s and succeeds on every possible level. Both of these films will have you laughing one moment and shocked the next. Two of the hardest things to do in a movie is to make its audience scared and to make them laugh, both of these films do both effortlessly. If you somehow have managed to live this long and not see either of these movies than it looks like you found exactly what to do this weekend and trust me you wont regret it.

As always, thanks for reading! Check out last week’s double feature if you missed it:

The Fly / The Thing