20 Horror Films Where Humans Are The Real Monsters

5. Re-Animator (1985)

The film that propelled director Stuart Gordon onto the movie scene and began our four-decade-long (and counting) infatuation with Barbara Crampton, Re-Animator took H.P. Lovecraft’s novella Herbert West–Reanimator and made it a cult classic of '80s horror.

Although we arrive at Miskatonic University with everyman Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), it is of course his new pal Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) who drives the movie. A medical student accused of killing his former mentor, Herbert claims to have invented a chemical agent that can reanimate dead bodies, and while his conflict with lecturer Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) seems at first one of intellectual rivalry, we soon see Carl is right to condemn Herbert’s studies.

It wouldn’t be called Re-Animator if the juice didn’t do the job, but unfortunately it has a few side effects – most notably, uhh, zombification - but does that stop Herbert? Not a chance. And, once catching wind that the process works, Dr. Hill wants to take it for himself and make Cain's fiancée Megan Halsey (Crampton) his undead bride.

Now, there are various zombies in various states of decay and cognition in the film, but naturally Herbert and Dr. Hill are the real monsters. The creation of the serum itself is a fool’s errand, and to use it on corpses is unethical, but the murder and reanimation of several other characters (including Hill himself) is, well, far more monstrous than anything a lumbering, mush-brained reanimation can manage.