REANIMATE - HOME

Herbert West - Re-Animator, a short story written by HP Lovecraft and published in 1922. It was later adapted into a movie in 1985, directed by Stuart Gordon and produced by Brian Yuzna. It stars Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, a young medical student recently transferred from Zurich, Switzerland, to Miskatonic University, where another medical student named Dan Cain (played by Bruce Abbot) is studying his third year. Running the prominent university is Dean Allan Halsey, the father of Megan Halsey (played by Barbara Crampton). The action picks up when Herbert decides to become Dan's roomate and learned that Dan and Meg are sleeping together without the knowlege of the dean. He leverages this information by essencially blackmailing Dan into aiding him with his experiments and keeping them a secret. Those exiperiments being the reanimation of dead creatures; starting with various animals and soon graduating to that of human corpses stolen from the university's morgue.

Words cannot quite describe the obsession I have with this movie. I've enjoyed horror in the past, but I've never been a 'horror fan' persay. After watching this movie for the first time, and the sequel Bride of Re-Animator soon after, I've become hooked (You can check out my reviews of the movies here). The premise is intriguing on its own, but Jeffrey Combs' acting in this is so perfect for the role of Herbert. Obsessive, possessive, driven, intellegent, impulsive, creative, all of these characteristics put into a 5'7 man who pronounces consonants like a theater kid (Ok, now I'm dunking on him LOL).

Being real though, I see a lot of Herbert's character traits and behaviors within myself, which I think is tied to his queer and autistic coding. A smart, but strange-acting and isolated man who spends his freetime obsessing over a fanatical interest that others don't understand. He often expresses his emotions or affection in 'strange' ways that tie back to his interests. To others his actions come off as strange, but I feel a sense of relatibility.

In terms of queer coding, he most certainly has a co-dependant relationship with Dan, often exhibiting controlling and manipulative behaviors and extreme jealousy whenever Dan expreses interest in a woman (This is not to say that queer people are manipulative, but I see Herbert's unhealthy behaviors as stemming from his interest in Dan). Hell, in the second movie, Herbert decides to create the perfect woman for Dan in order to get him to stay living with him. He does this by channeling all of the traits that Herbert thinks Dan would enjoy, and even utilizes the heart of Dan's dead lover in a symbolic gesture to 'win his heart'. Despite the outlandishness of this idea, Dan accepts.

Finally, one of my favorite scenes from these movies

Blasphemy? Before what, God? a god repulsed by the miserable humanity he created in his own image? I will not be shackled by the failures of your god. The only blasphemy is to wallow in insignificance. I have taken refuse from your god's failures and I have triumphed. There! There, is my creation!

Herbert is so transgender. Denying 'God' and the path predestined before him, defying the limited ideas of society and biology placed upon him. GRAHH it's just so perfect. I love this movie from the bottom of my heart and could analyze it and discuss it for hours. So! If you like horror and are alright with gore, needles, and animal death, please give this classic a watch! It is absolutely worth your while (Sidenote: there is an S/A scene that many people choose to avoid, myself included. The timestamp for it is 1:08:00-1:12:07 if you choose to do so).