RE-ANIMATOR (1985)

Medical student Herbert West has discovered the secret of bringing the dead back to life...at least in animals. So to prove that it can work on humans he and his roommate sneak into the hospital morgue and pump a recently dead dude full of his reagent. Good news is it works. Bad news is now you got a rampaging zombie on the loose! Even worse is the zombie kills the school's dean. That's definitely going on your permanent record. Zombie hijinks ensue.

I used to love RE-ANIMATOR when I was a teenager, but watching it now again as an extremely handsome adult, I was surprised at how badly it's aged. Yeah, it's got some memorable moments, but compared other zombie classics like 1985's THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD or 1992's DEAD ALIVE, RE-ANIMATOR hasn't aged well at all. With both of those films, the story is engaging and imaginative with memorable characters and insane violence. With RE-ANIMATOR the story is fine, but the overall look of the film is dated, the special effects look cheap and the violence is nowhere as prevalent as I remember. There are a few topless scenes though.

Still, it's a legendary zombie film and 100% worth checking out.  Maybe I'm just grumpy.  Grrr.

Part 2 - Bride of Re-Animator (1989)
Part 3 - Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012)

Do you like earth-shattering booms that'll shake your speakers right off the wall? You like high-piercing screeches so loud that it'll make dogs two counties over soil themselves? How about jump scenes so goddamn startling that it'll make the cat sleeping in your lap jump up and rip your face off ? If you answered "Yes." to any of those questions then do I have the movie for you! It's called THE WOMAN IN BLACK and it's about a young lawyer sent out to a secluded estate to clear up the paperwork/will of a woman who just died. Bad News Bears for him though because the house is haunted!

At first, it's just random sounds that could be attributed to the wind or maybe birds, but soon enough things escalate to eardrum exploding crashes that sound like somebody detonated an nuclear bomb in your backyard. Alternate that with scenes of crusty phantoms standing around looking sinister and you pretty much have the entire movie. I liked the first 20 - 30 minutes, it had a nice build-up, the house looked creepy and a sympathetic character was created out of the widowed Daniel Ratcliffe, but once the ghosts started showing up there was nothing. Just boom, shriek, jump scene and repeat until end credits.

Worth watching, I guess, if you're easily amused and don't mind the sound of the Space Shuttle coming through your wall every five minutes. If you need me I'll be in my room watching THE SHINING.

Part 2 - The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014)