History YMMV / ReAnimator

* ContractualImmortality: Being played by Creator/JeffreyCombs ensures that West survives the gory finale of each film against all odds-- a sharp 180 degree inversion from the original novella, in which West ends up a victim of his reanimation subjects, torn to pieces by an undead mob.

* TheWoobie: Poor, poor Dan Cain. He had just about everything until West stepped in.

** The intact Rufus clinging to the back of Mr. West a few minutes earlier isn't any better, no matter how much Jeffrey Combs flails arounds it's very clearly and unmoving stuffed animal.

!!The short story:
* AdaptationDisplacement: ''Herbert West: Reanimator'' was written in 1921 and 1922, and Lovecraft was known to dislike the story; as such it was rarely reprinted and remained largely obscure for decades. The movie has almost completely supplanted it in popular culture.
* MoralEventHorizon: West at least started out by simply acquiring fresh bodies in the morgue or later on battlefields, but then he eventually resorted to outright murder just so he could find a fresh specimen.
* ValuesDissonance: There is an ''extremely'' racist description of a black boxer that would be considered disturbing to most modern-day readers. It stretched the limits even for its day, being more like something you'd read in the Reconstruction-Era South than 1920's New England.


!!The films:

* CompleteMonster: In the {{Novelization}}'' by Jeff Rovin, [[AdaptationalVillainy Dr. Carl Josiah Hill]] is a scientist and hospital researcher who is also an [[{{Jerkass}} unapologetic plagiarist]] who ruins the lives and careers of his victims. When Hill discovers [[ForScience Dr. Herbert West's]] Re-Agent, he {{lobotom|y}}izes the revived Dean of the college and proclaims his intent to steal West's notes. Murdered by West and revived, Hill takes on new powers and begins reviving and lobotomizing other corpses as slaves with intent to kill and revive countless humans to worship him. Hill intends to kill his rivals, revive their severed heads and keep them in [[AndIMustScream states of unending torment]] before launching them into space, sexually assaulting Halsey's daughter Megan before proclaiming he'll revive her if she dies in the battle with West.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Okay, West killing [[spoiler:Dr. Hill]] can be justified, he had it coming... But him [[spoiler:decapitating him wholly and then re-animating the head and body separately]] for what amounts to shits and giggles? Seriously!

* HoYay: While Herbert is more likely to be asexual (even being [[WordOfSaintPaul confirmed by]] Jeffrey Combs), many fans have had fun interpreting his relationship with Dan like this, being akin to a StalkerWithACrush. Especially the scene where Herbert puts a [[ComfortingComforter blanket]] over Dan when he's rendered in shock after he Re-Animates Dr. Halsey.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The movie is actually really good in this regard, especially for a b-movie from the 1980's... with one glaring exception; Rufus the cat. The model they used isn't even slightly convincing and looks more like they disemboweled a rejected Muppet than a cat.

* WhatAnIdiot: Especially in the first film.
** Herbert West uses dead bodies to test his reagent, each and every one of them is [[CameBackWrong revived as a mindless feral zombie.]]\\
'''You'd Expect''': He'd realize that his reagent causes more trouble than it's worth and destroy the formula.\\
'''Or At Least''': Try to synthesize a new reagent that helps heal the brain so that the undead will keep their humanity.\\
'''Or Possibly''': Get in the habit of heavily restraining every one of his test subjects.\\
'''Instead''': He keeps on reviving dead bodies and makes no changes to his formula.\\
'''The Result''': The zombies keep causing chaos and innocents keep getting hurt.

* HoYay: While Herbert is more likely to be {{Asexual}} (even being [[WordOfSaintPaul confirmed by]] Jeffrey Combs), many fans have had fun interpreting his relationship with Dan like this, being akin to a StalkerWithACrush. Especially the scene where Herbert puts a [[ComfortingComforter blanket]] over Dan when he's rendered in shock after he Re-Animates Dr. Halsey.

* HoYay: While Herbert is more likely to be {{Asexual}} (even being [[WordOfSaintPaul confirmed by]] Jeffrey Combs), many fans have had fun interpreting his relationship with Dan like this, being akin to a StalkerWithACrush. Especially the scene where Herbert puts a [[ComfortingComforter blanket]] over Dan when he's rendered in shock after he Re-Animates Dr. Hemsley.

* PoorMansSubstitute: It's no hard to see that David Gale as Dr. Hill was trying to emulate horror icon Creator/ChristopherLee, [[spoiler:right down to the aspect of having BloodFromTheMouth upon getting re-animated that could bring in mind Lee's iconic performance as Film/HammerHorror's Count Dracula]].

* CrazyAwesome: Dr. West

** West and Cain trying to explain to the security guards what happened after their second Re-animation attempt [[spoiler: that lead to Dean Halsey's death]], including explaining away the dead body that they had to put down.

'''The Result''': The zombies keep causing chaos and innocence keep getting hurt.

* HoYay: While Herbert is more likely to be {{Asexual}} (even being [[WordOfDante confirmed by]] Jeffrey Combs), many fans have had fun interpreting his relationship with Dan like this, being akin to a StalkerWithACrush. Especially the scene where Herbert puts a [[ComfortingComforter blanket]] over Dan when he's rendered in shock after he Re-Animates Dr. Hemsley.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: By composer Richard Band's own admission, the theme music is essentially stolen from Alfred Hitchcock's ''Film/{{Psycho}}''. The credits even acknowledge this, with the film's score being credited to Band, "with apologies to Music/BernardHerrmann".