Deconstructing Herbert West: Re-Animator

The last Lovecraft piece I did was on Color out of Space which you can find here.

For this one I familiarized myself with the original story by H.P Lovecraft, originally published in 1922 as a serial story for the publication, Home Brew. You can find it here if you don’t have a copy.  I always recommend reading the source material before watching the movie and Lovecraft’s writing style is just so flawless.  His work is literally beautiful to read.

I then went on to watch:

^{Re-Animator (1985)}

_{Bride of Re-Animator (1990)}

_{Beyond Re-Animator (2003)}

and finally

_{Herbert West: Reanimator (2017),  by Italian filmmaker Ivan Zuccon.}

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

~The Original Short Story~

I think most films that center around the idea of Necromancy can easily be traced back to Shelley or Lovecraft.  I’ve often wondered if Lovecraft was influenced by her work. Although Shelley’s version, Frankenstein (1818) involved a misunderstood creature that at heart wants acceptance and love; a more romantic idealization of reanimation. Whereas Lovecraft’s version, involves a certain amount of madness and soullessness. 

_{“West was a materialist believing in no soul and attributing all the working of consciousness to bodily phenomena ; consequently he looked for no revelation of hideous secrets from gulfs and caverns beyond death’s barrier.” (How the narrator describes Herbert West).}

^{-H.P Lovecraft}

The character of Herbert West was originally written as an awkward, highly intelligent doctor whose fascination lies in the idea that as long as a corpse is fresh enough and there’s no physical damage to the body or brain tissue- it can be reanimated using a specific serum that he’s carefully developed.  I have to wonder if Lovecraft modelled the character of Herbert West after himself in some ways; awkward, no social skills, methodical, even the physical description of West, a slight spectacled, socially awkward man- sounds a lot like Lovecraft himself.

Over time, West has tweaked the serum to accommodate different organisms.  It’s described as a thick oozing liquid that’s injected into the corpse.  Starting off with animals, he works his way up to humans.  He doesn’t work alone in obtaining his specimens and carrying out his highly unethical experiments.  Luckily, he has a friend, the narrator. The one friend that’s been with him since studying at Miskatonic University. He not only respects and supports his work, but he acts as the voice the reason frequently, which seems to be lacking in Herbert West. He’s also a little afraid of Dr. West compelling him to stay by his side.  Herbert has no sense of humility, or humanity in general. Thinking that the only thing one needs to bring someone back to life is purely physical, neglecting the emotional aspect of humanity altogether.  His reanimated corpses lack a soul and reasoning. Naturally his experiments end in abysmal failures- creating a multitude of horrendous, bordering on blasphemous, zombie-like creations.

*Note the 2018 Italian version of the Re-Animator films is the only one that’s NOT a horror/comedy. 

Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator

I am embarrassed to say I haven’t watched any of these movies.  I’m not sure I would have appreciated them until now to be perfectly honest.  The 1985 version was the most entertaining of the bunch and has the slight edge in ratings getting a strong 4.5/5 on Rotten Tomatoes. The two sequels only garnered a 3/5.  Jeffrey Combs plays West flawlessly.  He’s cold, almost in-human, methodical, brilliant, mad, and all about science. This movie is pure entertainment from start to finish.  It stays fairly close to the source material other than the fact that in the movie, Dr. Halsey (Dr. Hill in the original story) is more of a villain than the character of Dr. Allan Hill.  In the story, West had more respect for Hill, (Halsey) other than the fact that he looked at West’s work with disdain, he actually wanted approval from the esteemed Doctor.  The characters themselves are entertaining in their own right.  We have West (Jeffrey Combs) and his loyal friend, Dan Cain, (Bruce Abbot), there’s Dr. Hill’s daughter, Megan, (Barbara Crampton) who just happens to be dating Dan much to her disapproving father. There are creature effects, great action sequences, a lot of boobs (it was the 80s so the sexploitation and gratuitous nude scenes are plentiful).  Finally, oh so much blood.  The special effects department reportedly went through 24 gallons of fake blood for this movie.  It’s classic 80s style horror with a lot of gore as well as some humor.  It’s an experience. Five knives out of five.

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

Bride of Re-Animator

The plot roughly follows episodes “V. The Horror from the Shadows” and “VI. The Tomb-Legions” of the Lovecraft story, and follows doctors Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot) as they attempt to create a living woman from dead tissue. It’s about eight months after the events that took place in the original movie.  Dr. West and  Dr. Cain are now Medics in the center of a bloody Peruvian civil war.  It’s here where Dr. West has ample access to corpses to further his research.  After an attack at their base, the pair are sent back to Miskatonic University where West sets up shop in Dan’s basement.  West can now reanimate individual body parts so he finds the heart of Meg, Dan’s original love interest, Dr. Halsey’s head ends up being reanimated making for some serious cringe and comedy. This movie is crazy from start to finish. I laughed A LOT in this one.  A zombie detective who’s still in hot pursuit of West for turning his wife into a zombie.  A reanimated Dr. Halsey’s head, relying on a zombie guard to transport him everywhere until he makes bat wings for his head for readier mobilization.  He then leads an entire zombie force of West’s former test subjects to hunt down Dr. West.  There’s A puppet zombie dog, some crazy action sequences, and a shitload of gore that may not be for everyone, but I liked it.  The forever loyal assistant, Dan is frequently, sometimes hilariously, shirtless and has to decide between his Peruvian love interest, journalist Francesca Danelli, and the newly reanimated woman containing the heart of his true love, Meg. This all leads up to a very interesting cat fight.  Although this movie wasn’t received as well as the first it’s still a cult classic, it continues the original Lovecraft story. Plus, who doesn’t want to see a villain that consists of a head and bat wings leading a zombie army? Three knives out of five.

Beyond Reanimator (2003)

Beyond Re-Animator

The movie starts off with Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) in prison for 13 years because of a murder committed by one of his unfortunate experiments- (zombies- he made zombies). Continuing his scientific research in prison, using whatever he can find around the facility, he has now discovered the missing element in the reanimation process. The “NPE” (Nano-Plasmic Energy), it’s an energy that can be extracted from the brain of a living organism through an electrocution-like process and stored in a sparkly chip.  Using this in conjunction with his serum can possibly eliminate zombies altogether as it would not only restore the corpse, but also restore memories, skills, almost like their old selves right?

A new young doctor named Howard Phillips (Jason Barry)– (a nod to the author himself, H.P) is introduced as the new prison physician and the two quickly form a bond as West is assigned to assist him.  They continue Dr. West’s research because Dr. Phillips, it turns out, is the little brother of one of West’s victims and watched the good Doctor being led away in handcuffs 13 years prior.  He’s both fascinated by the research but contains higher morals than Herbert which keeps West from actually following through with experiments.  Enter journalist Laura Olney (Elsa Pataky) who’s doing an article for her newspaper on the prison.  Dr. Phillips and the pretty Laura develop a relationship and fall in love.  The evil warden of the prison also fancies the pretty reporter and through a brutal attempt at making her his own, Laura ends up dying. It’s here where the moralistic Dr. Phillips turns to Dr. West to bring her back.  I’m not going to give away spoilers other than this: there’s a little less gore in this movie but still some very cringey moments.  There’s a considerable amount of violence that eventually erupts in a pretty bloody riot at the prison.  It doesn’t really follow the original Lovecraft story but rather just another chapter with Jeffrey Combs playing the often comedic Dr. West.  It’s generally not well received, it’s not scary but has a few shocking bits.  If you’re a fan of the series, it’s definitely worth at least one watch. Two knives out of five.

Herbert West: Re-Animator (2017)

Herbert West: Re-Animator

This is a unique adaptation by Italian filmmaker Ivan Zuccon.  This is a much darker version of the tale. Starring Alessio Cherubini as Dr. West who tragically loses his daughter, Eleanor, a gifted student.  This adaptation was my personal favorite.  It’s dark and eerily shot, and goes deeper than the other films.  The cinematography was beautiful.  A true piece of art.  The story takes some artistic liberties with the original Lovecraft story but the end result is a unique, beautifully told, incredibly dark story.  It contains love, violence, some gore, but not over the top.  It’s more of a slow burner, of course there are subtitles but I assure you it’s worth the watch.  This Dr. West is devoted to his daughter and his love leads him down some dark paths.  The film was recently released on Amazon and I highly recommend it. Five knives out of five even though it’s not totally reliant on the original source material, it was creative and very well produced.

*NOTE: I was able to find all four movies on tubitv.com myself for free, I’m in Canada so it may differ from country to country.

H.P Lovecraft

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Images: 

Re-Animator (1985) Movie Poster  http://a-zhorror.com

Bride of Re-Animator (1990) Movie poster https://www.cinematerial.com

Beyond Reanimator (2003) Movie poster  https://fanart.tv/

Herbert West: Re-Animator (2017) Movie poster http://imdb.com

Mary Shelley Frankenstein book cover https://www.pinterest.ca User: frankensteinia.blogspot.com

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An original short story

Keisha woke up to the sound of her phone blaring WAP. It may be as filthy a bop as it gets but as far as alarms go, this one actually perked her up in the morning. Like most 16 (almost 17!) year old girls, the first thing she did in the morning was check her socials and throw a 15 second vid out into the world. Filter : cat ears. Greeting : peace, love, and good vibes from KeishaKittyKat0604😸. As routine as brushing her teeth and getting dressed for the day.

Despite the school’s strict no-cellphone policy, Keisha was able to surreptitiously check her socials between classes – or in class, if it was math. She was already on a calculus level when the rest of her class was struggling with algebra. Makeup trends, dances, true crime stories, she had her favourites. She was also a whiz with analytics, which was as much fun as the content itself.

By the time the final bell sounded, Keisha was on her way home to go spend more time on her phone. Extra-curriculars weren’t an option. “We don’t have money for that!” became such a repetition that she didn’t even bother to ask her parents anymore. Not like they noticed. They were too busy fighting.

Her parents always fought but it had gotten much worse lately.  It turns out that grown ups use social media too, but they tended to use it for airing the family’s dirty laundry. Embarrassing.  Most nights now ended with raised voices and slamming doors.  Her sister, Chloe, was two years older than her and often just cranked up her music.  Megan Thee Stallion, Rico Nasty, Playboi Carti, King Von…Chloe only liked the freshest of the fresh on her playlists. Keisha would sometimes tag team content with her sister. They had some good sibling rivalry happening on social media.  Everyone knew they were sisters.  Keisha always reminded Chloe that she had way more followers, but it was all in good fun.  They were pretty tight and often tagged one another in videos and posts. 

The videos were a good distraction from the fact that their world was falling apart around them. 

It was a Friday night when their Dad finally packed up his tattered suitcases and left the house. 

That’s the night Keisha went live to pour her heart out to her followers. She received the usual love and support she was used to getting from half a world away.  A few new people joined the live stream but one name stood out. DemiGod666  😈. Keisha found it hard to believe they’d have anything in common. “What if they listen to like, Marilyn Manson? Ew.” It just made her uncomfortable.  Mixed in with names like PinkPixie99 and Fairy_Felicia, it just seemed out of place.  After she told her her followers what just happened at home, she let them know she’ll likely be making some different type of content to take her mind off things.  

“Drop you suggestions in comments Guys, I need something different to take my mind off all this crap.  Have a good night fam.”  She flashed the peace sign, offered a pout and ended her stream.  

She joined Chloe in their shared bathroom. Time to scrape off the day’s makeup.  They’d usually talk about their videos, cute boy followers that slid in their DMs, giggle and sing.  Tonight was different though.  The mood was somber.  Chloe didn’t even have music playing on her phone.  Just silence. 

“How was your night? Did you go out?”  Keisha broke the silence.

“I did for a little while. Me and Jasmine went over to Darrell’s house but then the boys showed up and it got boring so we jetted.  You?”  Chloe answered.

“Nah, I just stayed home in case Mum needed anything.  She hasn’t gotten out of bed much today.  I got her to eat some toast and tea after school, but she just went back to bed.  Didn’t want dinner.  I just made some KD.  You should see her hair right now.  Don’t think she’s showered in a few days,” Keisha said.

Chloe responded, “I know.  She looks awful.  I feel so bad for her.  I’m really mad at Dad right now, I really don’t want to see him but he says he wants to see us this weekend.  Ugh.”  She wrinkled her nose.

“He’s still our Dad.” Keisha reminded her sister.

“Whatevs, let me be in my feelings right now,”  Chloe retorted.

Chloe wasn’t one to hide her anger.  She was a bit of a hot head.  Typical Aries. They both recently watched a video that explained the traits of the zodiac signs. Chloe was her birth sign through and through. Keisha was a Gemini – she thought meant that she had this deep dual personality, but the video she watched said that she’s simply addicted to drama. Touché.

Keisha went to bed, face lit by her phone as she checked her stats and messages.  Over 110 000 followers and counting. One comment suggested she start doing some scary videos as part of a little series.  Like dare videos.  Keisha always saw herself as being pretty tough and she enjoyed the creepy side of the internet.  She liked true crime stories and scary movies.  She watched all those paranormal shows where the people hunt ghosts with special equipment.  

She let the idea roll around in her head, coming up with scenarios while she drifted off into an unrestful sleep.

**********************************************************

A few of her followers suggested she partake in some 3:00am ghost hunting challenges where she and her sister would play with a spirit board and various apps on her phone. They played Charlie Charlie, which caused both girls to scream and end the video. The creepier the content she shared, the more followers and comments she got.  It was a rush. She went deeper. Keisha was aware of a new trending app that mixed adventure, creepiness, and coincidence. As long as you believed…

Rando-Journey insisted that the user try to “manifest” their end result. Want to find money? See a dog? A colour? Think hard, set your intention and then generate a location through the app. The girls started small. “Show me purple,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes. This was one step above a child’s treasure hunt. She was sure she had better ways to spend her time right now. The app generated a location, and off they went. 

They walked mere blocks before arriving at the location. The girls looked around and saw nothing but streetlights, a SLOW CHILDREN PLAYING sign, and the bus stop they used to use in elementary school. This was their neighborhood and they knew there was nothing purple around here. Chloe sucked her tongue, aggravated at the waste of her time when Keisha spun her around. 

“Remember that tall-ass hedge around the property behind the bus stop?! We always wondered what was behind those bushes!”, she hissed.

Chloe nodded in the affirmative. And then she saw it.

What was once a thick, some-type-of-evergreen-looking hedge that completely disguised what lay in the offing was gone. Nothing but sawdust, and stumps that suggested whoever cut them down was a chainsaw rookie.

And a purple house. 

How had they not noticed that before.

Keisha was pumped. Chloe was not.

“So someone bought the property, painted the house purple, and cut down the hedges. So?”, she said.

“It’s still purple.” Keisha said firmly.

Chloe knew her sister was right.

Subsequent journeys manifested a friendly dog, a not-so-friendly cat, and $40. Keisha figured they could have just manifested the chicken nuggets they bought with the money to skip a step, but Chloe reminded her that this way they got the nuggs – and got to keep the change. 

The girls became more and more detached from reality as they spent almost all of their waking time online interacting with strangers.  Retreating into their bedrooms more and more, the house itself became a ghost. 

Struggling to fall asleep as ideas for new videos ran through Keisha lay in bed struggling to sleep, with ideas running through her head like a freight train. 2:14am.  It was Friday night so there was no school in the morning.  She sent Chloe a text.

K: 3 a.m. Rando-Journey? 🧭

C: Dude. No. 

    Too tired. 

    Tomorrow. 

K: Pffffft.

   Sneak out with me? 

   TONS OF VIEWS GUARANTEED ☠️

C: 😴😴

They had agreed when it came down to these adventures that they would never do it alone.  

An anxious Keisha broke the rules that night.

She carefully grabbed the car keys off the table downstairs, and left quietly through the back door.  She had just passed her driving test making it legal for her to drive, although she was supposed to have a licensed driver in the vehicle with her. She drove down the street out of sight and parked. She had her iPad for the app to generate coordinates while she filmed inside her car.  She hit the “Live” button.

“Ok Guys, so I’m going on a Rando-Journey, I know, I know, I’m by myself but my sister was being a wuss so…” She gestured to her virtual audience.  “I’m going to document everything and take you all with me.” She proceeded to warn the hundreds of people slowly joining her live not to be stupid and do it alone. “I just feel confident tonight guys, I’m going to be careful don’t worry.  I have my pepper spray with me.  You like the 3am challenges so much that I thought, why not go on a late night Rando-Journey and see what happens.” She continued, “Tonight,” she spoke aloud, “show us something unexpected, no death, I don’t wanna die or anything, but show us something unexpected.”

A few moments later she had her coordinates, which she shared with her viewers.  She narrated while driving, pausing only briefly to pull over and respond to comments.  Some viewers were saying that they knew the general area she was in.  Some people recognized a few landmarks nearby.  Then she saw him again.  DemiGod666  😈💀💀. He had added a couple of skulls.  She never interacted with him, he never commented.  She just all of a sudden felt a quiver of unease go through her.  She knew she was being watched by more than a thousand viewers but this time, she actually felt like she was being watched.

The coordinates led her to what felt like the end of the earth.  The pavement dropped off and all of a sudden she was on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Alone.  It was then that Keisha concluded that this may not have been the wisest of choices.

“Guys, I’m a little creeped out right now, I’m not gonna lie. This road is so bumpy and dark. Ooof, my mother is gonna kill me if I bottom out in her car.”  It was right about then that an old abandoned house came into view.  Now, Keisha and Chloe grew up in this area their entire life.  They’ve driven everywhere and thought they knew all of the abandoned creepy places in town.  So how did this, too,  not end up on their radar? 

“Looks like an old abandoned farm house guys.  This is unexpected most def.  Chloe and I have lived here our whole lives and we’ve never seen this place before.  Never knew this road even existed.  I brought some gear, let me grab my flashlight.”  She looked into the camera on her phone when she saw a shape coming up behind her.  She felt something hit her hard on the back of her head, everything went black. The livestream cut out. 

**********************************************************

Chloe woke up to her phone buzzing with notifications.  She tried to ignore it, thinking one of her videos must have just gotten a lot of hits.  She looked at the time. 3:44am.  The notifications kept coming and she got a sinking feeling in her stomach.

They were all notifications from “CLICK”, her video app.  They weren’t notifications though, they were DMs.

Something happened to Keisha! Exclaimed one user.

Someone’s got Keisha.  Another user.

Call the police now!  A regular viewer.

Call the cops, I recognize that area.  Another user in their circle.

I think I may know where that house is. From Pixie_Girl19, which was not just a random user but a friend of theirs from school.

Chloe’s heart raced as she checked her sister’s empty room with its unmade bed and then dashed into her mother’s room shaking her awake.  “Mom, something’s happened to Keisha, she went LIVE and people are saying something happened to her”, Chloe blurted out. “We need to call the police.”

In that instant, Donna sprang out of bed and threw on some clothes, all while dialing 911. Chloe hadn’t seen her mother move that fast since she tried to do one of the girls’ dance videos with them – the time she popped her knee out and had to stop.

Within minutes it seemed the police were knocking on the door.  Chloe pulled up her CLICK app and hit the LIVE button.

“Ok Guys, I need your help, I need to know what happened during Keisha’s Live.  Fill me in, the police are here now and we need to find her.”  She pleaded on the screen. A few eyeball emoticons started popping up in the video.  

“She was driving down the old highway that cuts off near Elmsdale,” advised one user.

“She was heading north towards the old Oak pass,” another person chimed in.

Chloe was watching the comments closely and relaying the info to the police officers at the same time.  She heard them radio an alert  for the area, and a BOLO for Donna’s Toyota.

“I think she could be at the abandoned Fairclough Mansion, I’m almost sure of it.  Someone came up behind her and hit over the back of the head.  She’s gotta be there!”  Thank you, Pixie_Girl19.

The police sped off to investigate. Officer Browne and his partner Cruz responded first and found the old road that led to the Fairclough property. 

“Man this place has grown wild over the years,”  remarked Officer Browne.  

They parked further down and turned off their headlamps ready to walk.

“Wait! Is that the Toyota?”  

The two officers got out of their car, flashlights in one hand, the others resting on their pistols.

 It seemed to be the girl’s car.  Her purse was still in it and her cell phone on the ground nearby.

The two men kept walking, approaching the doorstep of the creepy old house. Weeds had taken over the stairs now.  Browne motioned for Cruz to go around back while he went through the front.  The front door wasn’t locked.

**********************************************************

Cruz cautiously stepped around the back of the house trying to not step on any twigs to make a noise.  He went in through a busted old window, landing in the kitchen.  He met Browne in the lobby. 

To the left, at the end of the hall there a soft glow of light.  The two men approached, floor creaking beneath them.  When they approached the lit room at the end of the hall they drew their guns and entered yelling, “Police!” The room was empty other than a small woman’s pink an black hoodie draped over a lone chair.  The only other thing in that room was a lamp on the floor with no shade on it, giving off a harsh blinding light.

The officers scoured the rest of the building and called for backup to search the nearby road and fields.  The GPS had been turned off on the phone making it impossible to ping and locate. The last known location was this house. 

For three weeks volunteers from the community led that search, stapling posters of a smiling innocent Keisha in her favorite pink and black hoodie.  No one had heard or seen anything.  Leads went nowhere and the trail simply grew cold.   

Donna and Chloe tried their best to keep it together although a large piece of them was now missing.  Chloe was still trying to get ready for college but had major hesitations about leaving her mom.  She had been accepted with honors to the Sciences program.  Her plan was to become a microbiologist and Keisha would have been the mathematician, always with her stats.  God, Chloe missed her sister, the pain weighed so heavy on her heart.  That night she cried herself to sleep and dreamt about Keisha. 

Keisha tied to a chair, being beaten, abused, starved, or worse.  Keisha’s colorless face looking up at her through lake water with dead eyes.  Keisha with worms and snakes coming out of her mouth and eyes.  Keisha’s dismembered body being found in a suitcase somewhere.  The nightmares were always the same.  She figured she’d have them for the rest of her life.

**********************************************************

Eight months later. Chloe’s home making dinner for her and her mother. While she waited for the lasagna to bake, she opened an app she hadn’t opened since shortly after her sister disappeared. 

The bright light of CLICK opened, with a video immediately playing. Right away she noticed messages that had gone unread.  She went through them one by one.  Friends sending their love and regards.  Sending prayers to the family.  She was even tagged in a few videos made by fellow creators discussing the case, still trying to find answers.

When she got near the bottom of her message list.  There it was.  KeishaKittyKat0604😸 with a video attached.  Only the video was dated three months ago.  Chloe’s heart raced as she opened it not knowing to shout for her mother or not first.  The video was only 60 seconds long. You see a dark warehouse with one lamp on, no lampshade.  A male voice is heard, “Welcome to the show Chloe, by the way… You will NEVER find her.” He followed that up with a loud obnoxious, maniacal laugh.  The video ends with one close-up large brown bloodshot eye and, “I see you…”

Chloe dropped the phone.  

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