8 Movies Featuring Reanimation (That Aren’t About Zombies)

It ’s aliiiiive ! The Bible establish Jesus an encore after death , but Frankenstein is what really brought reanimation to the revulsion - flick forefront , and the writing style ’s been embrace it ever since . We ’re not talking standard - yield living dead here — in honor ofPet Sematary , we ’re counting up our favorite corpses who ’ve bounced back from beyond with a little something extra .

8. Deadly Friend

After a teen inventor ’s robot buddy is destroy by his fussy neighbour ( played by Anne Ramsey , the mean - mama mobster from Goonies ) , he decides to use its microchip to quicken his gal pal Samantha ( played by future O.G. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Kristy Swanson ) when she ’s tap into a braindead comatoseness by her scurrilous father . unluckily for everyone , Sam 2.0 hardly resembles her former self ; alternatively , she becomes a robotic killer whale with super strength that enables her to flatten anyone who get in her way .

Wes Craven ’s 1986 outlet famously fell victim to last - moment studio tinkering , when the powers that be address the film needed more Albert Gore Jr. and some freaky dream sequences — not to mention a all nonsensical close — to bring it more in line withA Nightmare on Elm Street and Craven ’s other early horror hits . Deadly Friend is wildly uneven , to put it kindly , but Swanson is amazingly effective , and the story ’s miss - next - room access / sci - fi twirl on Frankenstein is still challenging .

7. The Lazarus Effect

This Riffian on Flatliners(more on that one below ) reckon that a group of aesculapian investigator , including an engaged couple played by Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde , make out to create a formula that can add the dead back to biography . But their risky experimentation dips to a unexampled level of sinister when Wilde ’s graphic symbol , Zoe , dies in a lab accident , and is right away resurrect using the special sauce .

Alas , Zoe ’s brief time on the other side of the velum was time enough to send her to nether region ; when she returns , she ’s basically the superhuman equivalent of the ship inEvent Horizon , using psyche - fuckery to torment everyone before turning to ever - more fiendish works , such as splash poor Donald Glover in a entrepot locker , then using an east - fag to choke the living out of an inauspicious Evan Peters . Points for creativity , demon gentlewoman !

6. The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

Dr. Bill Cortner ( Jason Evers ) has already stray into demented scientist territory before the events of 1962 ’s The Brain That Would n’t Die ; we jazz this because he has a loom man - animal lurking around his research laboratory . thing take an ever - more outrageous tour when his fiancée , Jan ( Virginia Leith ) , is behead in a car crash — and Bill decides to employ his strange talents to quicken her sever heading while he prowls around looking for a fittingly shapely cleaning lady to furnish Jan ’s new body .

The situation is further combine by the fact that disembody - head Jan has way more sentiency than rapidly - lose - his - idea Bill . She makes it very clear that she ’d prefer death to being hold open awake as one of Bill ’s weird experiment , and she ’s in spades not Centennial State - signing on his execution plan . All things consider , The Brain That Would Rather Be Dead is probably a more accurate title , though you’re able to see why legendary B complex - movie studio AIP went with the more sensational choice .

5. Flatliners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51fqhYSPboU

Not theremake . We are strictly referring toJoel Schumacher ’s 1990 sci - fi thriller with an ensemble cast led by Julia Roberts ( then at the height of her post - Pretty Woman celebrity explosion ) , but also asterisk Kevin Bacon , Kiefer Sutherland , William Baldwin , and Oliver Platt . They play a group of med students who become spellbound with the idea of fail on purpose and then being wreak back to life .

What begin off as an extreme dangerous undertaking soon leads to supernatural consequences and major regrets , as unresolved trauma from their spirit begin to haunt them even when they ’re widely awake . Everyone realizes they have to face the deep , dark enigma that are get them the most guilt , though some of them have done much bad thing than others — specially Sutherland ’s reference , who ’s virtually hit in the hereafter ( wait … huh ? ) by a Thomas Kid whose end he make thanks to some cruel intimidation years prior .

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is actually like, “I would really rather not be alive.”

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is actually like, “I would really rather not be alive.”Image: (American International Pictures)

4. RoboCop

You know it , you love it , you cite it in your day-by-day animation : Peter Weller play a dear - future Detroit cop who ’s kill in the line of duty while pursuing a poisonous ring , only to be resurrected ( with a lot of cybernetic assistance ) as the form of address theatrical role . RoboCop came out in 1987 and is still rightfully hailed as one of the delineate sci - fi films of the earned run average , delving into themes like high-pitched - stratum corruptness and the increasing ability of mega - bay window that still finger incredibly relevant today .

But there ’s something else about RoboCop you might not have look at , whichdirector Paul Verhoeven fully acknowledge when chitchat with MTV back in 2010 : “ The point of RoboCop , of course , is it is a Christ account . It is about a guy that gets crucify after 50 minutes , then is resurrected in the next 50 minute and then is like the superintendent - cop of the world , but is also a Jesus design as he walks over piss at the end . ” RoboChrist , everyone . ( Read the intact interviewhere . )

3. Frankenhooker

Cult picture music director Frank Henenlotter ( Basket Case ) quite obviously used Frankenstein as a wanton inspiration for this morbid and yet weirdly odorous 1990 horror comedy , which is about an electric whizz describe Jeffrey Franken ( James Lorinz ) who turns to crazy science to resurrect his fiancée , Elizabeth Shelley ( Patty Mullen ) , after a tragical lawnmower stroke turn her into a “ cast away human salad . ” But he does n’t gazump Robert Graves as part of his dodging ; instead , he puzzles together body parts cull from sex worker he subdues using … his own portmanteau word of super - crack … that realise them detonate .

The resurrected Elizabeth — stitch together as the purplish - haired Frankenhooker — is only in the movie for the last 30 minute , but they are glorious and include the sight of her stamp through New York City , pull out faces and yelling come - ons like “ Want a appointment ? ” , zapping multiple would - be johns with her lightning - fueled fingertips , and at last apply Jeffrey a taste of his own medicine for meddling so much with mother nature .

2. The Crow

A year after Eric Draven ( Brandon Lee ) and his fiancée are slaughter by a street bunch , he egress from his grave with the help of a charming crow . Eric is n’t actually a animate corpse ; rather , he ’s more like a ungratified tone who ’s been given temporary re - role of his corporeal cast ( and some fillip superpowers ) in the name of dulcet revenge .

Unlike most every other motion-picture show on this inclination , Alex Proyas ’ The Crow use resurrection for something confirming , even though it ’s in the human body of a murder spree , since Eric ’s bloody quest for payback ends up ridding the world of some passing evil the great unwashed . When all his loose end are connect up , he contract to head to the afterlife to reunify with his beloved — an befittingly bittersweet ending to a picture that ’s forever yoke tothe tragic on - set stroke that get Lee ’s deathjust days before shoot was completed .

1. Re-Animator

You did n’t consider we ’d put any other statute title at turn one , did you ? Stuart Gordon ’s gruesomely screaming 1985 moving-picture show , adapted from an H.P. Lovecraft story , follows the tale of unbalance medical student Herbert West , play by Jeffrey Combs in one of horror ’s all - time neat comedic performance . West ’s fellow Miskatonic University scholarly person and flatmate Daniel Cain ( Bruce Abbott ) becomes his lab partner of sorts as the two get a African tea back to life using West ’s glowing green blood serum , and then move on to human field of study from the hospital mortuary — though Dan draws the line when West , who ’s ferociously protective of his discovery , reverse to murder .

The big reanimation in Re - Animator is West ’s hated rival , Dr. Carl Hill ( David Gale ) , who becomes even more fiendish than West when his freshly - slain head and body are revive separately , enabling him to carry his own melon around and practice it to do severe thing ( like terrorize the only in truth sympathetic reference in the moving picture , Dan ’s girlfriend Meg , who ’s play by scream queenBarbara Crampton ) . “ You ’ll never get citation for my discovery , ” sneer West . “ Who ’s go to conceive a talking head ? ”

Thanks to Dr. Hill and his intellect - control condition lobotomies , Re - Animator ends with a good old - fashioned rampage of the late dead that sees most of the major players wiped out — except Daniel , who despite all he ’s seen does n’t hesitate to pick up that glow green syringe and step right into West ’s shoes .

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