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 Blah Blah Blah, head-based pun. A 1985 film directed by Stuart Gordon, starring the inimitable Jeffrey Combs, and based on the short serial Herbert West - Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft.The story involves an idealistic medical student named Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). Dan rents a room to Herbert West (Combs), who has discovered a way to revive the dead, and reluctantly becomes West's assistant. Soon their activities cause a rift between Dan and his girlfriend Meg (Barbara Crampton) and draw down the wrath of university higher-up Dr. Hill (David Gale). Then West decapitates Hill. Then he revives him. And then things get crazy.Re-Animator is remembered for its dark humor, gruesome gore effects, transgressive sexuality, and violence against an undead cat. Less well-remembered, but more poignant, is the sweet, wholesome quality of the relationship between Dan and Meg. Fangirls gravitate to the perceived homoerotic subtext between Herbert and Dan. Basically, there's something for everyone.Re-Animator was not the first film adaptation of Lovecraft; there were waves of them in the mid-1960s (The Haunted Palace by Roger Corman, and Die, Monster, Die! by frequent Corman collaborator Dan Haller) and the early 1970s (The Dunwich Horror — Haller again — and several episodes of Night Gallery). But Gordon's film is probably the most famous such adaptation. It spawned a wave of imitators and Spiritual Successors including From Beyond, Lurking Fear, and Castle Freak (all starring Combs, with From Beyond and Castle Freak also being directed by Gordon) and 2001's Dagon (directed by Gordon).Naturally also spawned official sequels. The first was Bride of Re-Animator (1990). Dan, growing uncomfortable with Herbert's experiments, decides that he will move out of the house that he and Herbert share. To convince him to stay, Herbert takes the heart of Dan's deceased girlfriend Meg and offers to create a body for it. Subplots include the return of Dr. Hill and a detective investigating the massacre at the end of the first movie.The second sequel was Beyond Re-Animator (2003). Herbert West has been in prison for thirteen years after one of his test subjects killed a teenaged girl and Dan Cain testified against him. The prison has a new doctor, Howard Peterson, who has West help him in the infirmary. Howard is revealed to be the younger brother of the girl who was killed by West's test subject. He helps West continue his experiments in the hope that what happened to his sister will never happen to anyone else again. West experiments with nanoplasmic energy, which can be taken from a living person and put into a reanimated person, restoring rational behavior. It works. Sort of.There have also been rumors of the upcoming House of Re-Animator which has been denied by Jeffrey Combs on numerous occasions. The movie would involve Herbert West moving into the White House and reanimating the deceased vice president. Stuart Gordon has stated that while he did originally intend to create this film, he saw no need for a political satire after the end of the Bush administration.Brian Yuzna has also planned two other sequels : Re-Animator Unbound! and Re-Animator Begins. The former involves West working in a war zone and coming across the Old Ones. The latter involves West losing his memory after his encounter with the Old Ones, reproducing his earliest experiments, and falling in love with a woman. We also see a flashback to West's childhood. But like House, these seem to be on the back-burner.Besides the films, there are several other adaptations. Re-Animator has had crossover comic books with Hack/Slash and Army of Darkness. A Younger and Hipper, Hotter and Sexier television series was proposed, but nothing came of it. There is also a musical.The films provide examples of:
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0 reviews alternative title(s): Re-Animator
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