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About This Quiz
It's campy, it's gory, it's thoroughly revolting... but this 1980s film is now considered a cult classic. Are you up on your Re-Animator trivia? Find out now with our quiz!
What year was Re-Animator released?
1985
Re-Animator landed squarely in the middle of the 1980s. However, the film's score and opening credits were pretty retro; both were a throwback to Hitchcock films.
1986
1987
1988
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Where is Herbert West studying when the movie opens?
Canada
Russia
United States
Switzerland
The film's opening shot shows the sign for the Institut fur Medizin at a university in Zurich. This is likely a nod to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; her obsessed doctor was Swiss.
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What is the name of West's mentor (and the first experiment subject we see)?
Dr. Godwin
Dr. Gruber
His full name is Hans Gruber. That's right -- he shares his name with Alan Rickman's character in Die Hard.
Dr. Paracelsus
Dr. Wollstonecraft
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How did Dr. Gruber die?
heart attack
stroke
pulmonary edema
we never learn this
When Herbert West is accused of killing Gruber, he says, "I gave him life!" This indicates strongly that West didn't actually murder him mentor -- yet we don't learn how Gruber died.
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What is the name of the medical school West transfers to?
the Pan-American School of Medicine
the Boston School of Physicians and Surgeons
Miskatonic Medical School
Miskatonic Medical School is in Arkham, Massachusetts, also from Lovecraft's writing. You may know it for its asylum.
it is never named
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Why does Miskatonic accept West, despite his obvious misconduct?
he falsifies his school records
he shows such promise as a student
his father is a rich Miskatonic alumnus
this is never explained
West just turns up at Miskatonic, being shown around by Dean Halsey. Interestingly, Halsey tells Dr. Hill that West "worked with" Dr. Gruber -- but he seems unaware of how hideously that mentor-student relationship ended.
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What is Dan's last name?
Cain
In Lovecraft's story, the character is unnamed (he's a first-person narrator). The screenwriter seems to have chosen a name with chilling implications -- odd given that it's West who's the primary bad guy here.
Boyle
Ostler
McClintock
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What is Dan doing when we first see him?
joking around with the security guard
desperately performing CPR on a dead patient
The determined Cain has to be called off by an older, wiser doctor. This is setting up his willingness to working with West on his theories, no matter how outlandish they are.
having sex with Megan
feeding Rufus
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What year of medical school are Herbert and Dan in?
second
third
Cain has a lot of responsibility for a third-year. We see him taking corpses down to the morgue, implying he already works at the hospital.
fourth
they've graduated and become residents
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What does Herbert accuse Dr. Hill of when they first meet?
coasting on his reputation
being wrong about the six-to-twelve-minute window for resuscitation
plagiarizing Dr. Gruber's work
both #2 and #3
Herbert has zero interest in social graces. Immediately on meeting Hill, Herbert tells him that in Europe, he's considered to have plagiarized Gruber. Then he says that Hill is wrong in saying that after 12 minutes, no one can be revived from death.
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What is significant about Megan, Dan's love interest?
she's the dean's daughter
Megan is Dean Halsey's daughter. West considers this somehow immoral, even though she's an adult and the dean knows about the relationship.
she's the top-scoring med student in Dan's class
she has a potentially fatal heart condition
nothing
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What is Dan's street address?
221 Barker Street
666 Darkmore
We see Dan's address when he pins a Roommate Wanted sign on a bulletin board. The symbolism in this movie is really not very subtle.
66 Renfield
we never learn this
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What does Herbert do while Dr. Hill is lecturing about the 6-to-12-minute timeframe?
breaks two pencils
Herbert is so annoyed he snaps one pencil in half, then another. After class, Hill says icily, "I suggest you get a pen!"
shouts "liar!"
pointedly yawns
shouts "plagiarist!"
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What is the name of Dan's cat?
Caesar
Frankie
Smokey
Rufus
You might think it's Megan's cat, because she's very solicitous of Rufus. But since Rufus lives in Dan's apartment, viewers have concluded that the cat must be his.
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How does Herbert claim that Rufus died?
drank antifreeze
hit by a car
suffocated
Supposedly, Rufus knocked over some trash, then put his head in a jar, got stuck, and suffocated. Viewers are meant to have their doubts.
died of old age
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What color is West's "re-agent"?
blood-red
carnation pink
murky Frankenstein green
fluorescent green
The effects department used the fluid from glow sticks as the re-agent. It was apparently the first time this technique had been used onscreen.
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What is Dr. Carl Hill's relationship to Megan?
he is her godfather
he is her mother's second husband
he was her tutor in high school
he has a creepy obsession with her
We first learn this when Halsey makes a toast at dinner. He calls Megan, "the obsession of all who fall under her spell." Awkward!
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When Cain comes to Halsey with news that West has resuscitated a dead cat, what is Halsey's reaction?
he expels West
he demands Cain write a letter of apology
he expresses guarded interest and asks for evidence
both #1 and #2
You'd expect the dean of a medical school to express interest in a potentially Nobel-winning breakthrough. Halsey, though, is only interested in punishing the infractions committed. See, Halsey -- this is why you're not Dean of Johns Hopkins or Harvard!
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How does Dean Halsey die?
he has a heart attack
he's in a car crash
he's killed by a re-animated corpse
Halsey walks into the morgue while Dan and Herbert are trying to subdue a lively corpse they've just revived. Actually, Halsey doesn't walk in -- the door falls and flattens him, and that's not the worst thing that'll happen to the dean this day.
Herbert kills him with a shovel
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Where is Dean Halsey kept after his re-animation?
a padded cell next to Dr. Hill's office
Hill can observe Halsey through a large plate-glass window, raising the question, did the hospital staff just throw together the padded cell after Halsey's mishap? Was it always there, right next to a professor's office? This is never explained.
Arkham Asylum
the morgue
at home, under watch
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Why does Dr. Hill lobotomize Dean Halsey?
to test his laser drill
so he'll be less violent
so he won't object to Hill making romantic overtures to Megan
so he can't tell anyone that it was actually West who re-animated him
Hill intends to claim West's serum as his own work. He thinks West will keep silent because Hill can always blackmail him with Halsey's "murder." He seriously underestimates West's craziness.
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What does Dan find in a file in Dr. Hill's office?
proof that he stole Dr. Gruber's work
keepsakes concerning Megan, including a lock of hair and a news clipping
The news clipping notes that Megan was voted "Sophomore Sweetheart." Really, what's everyone's fixation on this girl? She has the world's worst pageboy-with-bangs hairstyle!
forged consent forms
plans for a new lobotomy process
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How does West kill Dr. Hill?
with a bone saw
with a shovel
West hits Hill over the head, then decapitates the man with the shovel blade. Did we mention you shouldn't watch this movie while eating?
with a scalpel
with an embalmer's trocar
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Why does West re-animate Hill's head and body?
to punish him for trying to steal the serum
to preserve his knowledge of brain science
so he can't, technically, be charged with murder
he wants to see how the serum works on separated body parts
Though it seems like a bad idea to bring your rival back to life, West does so. He says he's never tried his re-agent on "whole parts," which is an oxymoron. Drop by the English department sometime, Herbert.
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Who attacks West from behind and knocks him out?
Megan
Daniel
Dr. Halsey
Dr. Hill's body
Yes, apparently Dr. Hill's severed head controls his body by a kind of telepathy. Just go with it.
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Who does Hill capture and strap down in the lab?
Cain
West
Megan
Newly re-animated, Dr. Hill knows what needs to be done next: make time with the dean's daughter! Frankly, this damsel-in-distress scenario seems more like a gratuitous way to sneak in some full frontal nudity.
the security guard
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Why does Hill's body take blood from a lab refrigerator?
to experiment on it
to fake Megan's death
to sustain its severed head
Yes, although the movie shattered basic tenets of life science to bits, it was apparently important to show that Hill had a blood supply to his brain. So his body pours donated blood into the pan the brain is resting in, like he's watering a plant. Ah, science!
to sustain other re-animated corpses
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How does Hill fight Cain and West in the lab?
his body has super-strength
he uses Halsey, who has super strength
he sics a small army of corpses on them
In the original script and a deleted scene, Hill has psychic mind-control powers. In the actual film, Hill explains that his lobotomy process makes slaves of re-animated corpses. That's why, at his command, they get up at once from their gurneys and attack.
he uses mental/psychokinetic powers
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If Halsey is lobotomized, why does he defend Cain and Megan?
Megan's voice arouses some of his old protectiveness
A possessed/mind-controlled/zombified person being affected by the sight or sound of a former loved one is a classic of the horror and thriller genres.
Cain gets through to him with logic
he remembers a dislike for Hill he had in life
all of these
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How does Herbert West die?
injected with his own serum, which kills the living
beset by re-animated corpses
stabbed by Hill's body, using a scalpel
we never actually see him die
West is work-obsessed until the end. Though he's turned the morgue into a mini Romero movie, West's first concern is that Dan escape with the briefcase containing the serum. (Of course, this will be needed later).
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How does Megan die?
choked by a re-animated corpse
Since the serum works on body parts, the hand doesn't stop choking Megan, even after Dan has dispatched its body. Dan rushes her to the ER, but when he can't save her... well, you can guess what happens.
falls down an elevator shaft
slips and hits her head while running on the blood-spattered morgue floor
she doesn't die
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Who directed Re-Animator?
Tobe Hooper
Stuart Gordon
Gordon has directed a number of horror movies. Wikipedia notes that he's married to an actress, Carolyn, "whom he frequently casts and often murders in his movies." Hey, if it works -- they're still together!
George Lucas
Brian Yuzna
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Is Re-Animator considered a zombie movie?
sure!
It's rare for a zombie movie to use the word "zombie." This is often because the revival of the dead is such a new phenomenon that there's no name for it. But Re-Animator is on at least one "best zombie movies" list.
no, it never uses the word "zombie"
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Which of the actors has also played H.P. Lovecraft?
Jeffrey Combs (Herbert West)
Combs played the writer in Necronomicon: Book of the Dead. He's also been in other Lovecraft adaptations, horror films, and science-fiction shows.
Bruce Abbott (Dan Cain)
Robert Sampson (Dean Halsey)
David Gale (Dr. Hill)
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Which is NOT a Re-Animator film sequel?
Bride of Re-Animator
Beyond Re-Animator
Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator
Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator was a comic book, not a movie. The original Lovecraft story and the movie spawned a number of creative offspring, including a musical.
they're all movie sequels
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You Got:
/35
The Movie DB