The two middle-aged academics in Stuart Gordon‘s Re-Animator (1985) are hardly charmers. Well, they really get their comeuppance in this crazy horror flick, and likewise with the arrogant young med student, Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), who knows how to re-animate corpses. He’s unworthy of the discovery.

Based on writings by H.P. Lovecraft, this cult concoction turns into an adult fairy tale with a damsel in distress. Such actors as Combs and Barbara Crampton are delightfully adept, but David Gale and Robert Sampson are also wildly, creepily convincing. Moreover, Re-Animator is one of the most sensual American movies I’ve seen. The pronouncedly attractive Ms. Crampton has breasts that are comely from every angle, and are fondled by a headless reprobate! Her damsel-in-distress scenes compete well with, say, Giovanni Baglione’s painting, Judith and Holofernes. I mean it. There are some other nude bodies in the film, in dim lighting, but they aren’t sensual.

Nice, smooth work by director Stuart.