Stuart Gordon blasted the horror genre with a shot in the dark when he presented his adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s short story, “Hubert West–Reanimator.” Now, I’ll be honest, the first time I watched this movie I didn’t see what all the hubbub was about but, after seeing it several times since, I have gained a greater appreciation, not only for the work, but especially for the comedy involved which does not exactly render itself accessible on the first viewing (much like Hitchcock’s Psycho with such lines uttered by Norman Bates as “Mother’s not quite herself today”).
The plot to this Frankensteinian parody is simple. A medical student named Hubert West (Jeffery Combs) arrives back in the States after inadvertently killing a Swiss doctor (Al Berry) in an attempt to concoct the first reanimating agent in human history. He is admitted into Miskatonic University (a stalwart Lovecraft setting located on the East Coast) and resumes his experiments there to meager, yet horrifying, ends.
The power of the film is two-fold. One is the depiction of Hubert West. For those new to the field, Jeffery Combs is second only to Bruce Campbell in his cult following as a horror actor. Combs’s over-the-top deadpan delivery in places where it would seem forced for the average person creates a terrifying portrayal, albeit in a black humor vein, of a man who, ultimately, is obsessed with immortality, not by way of his miracle serum, but rather through the fame which would result. His megalomania is personified in his negligent disregard, however paradoxical, for life in any form.
The other strength of the film is the extent to which Stuart takes the work (Lovecraft was seemingly devoid of humor, which the director posits in order to make the otherwise unbearable tale of horror assessable). The exaggerated scenarios, such as the visual pun of a severed head going down on a girl (for those really tired while reading this, we now have “head giving head”–see also the foreshadowing in the form of a Talking Heads poster early in the film), are only superseded by the acting at every turn.
There exist only two rational characters in this irrational world. The first is West’s overly earnest roommate, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), the second being his naïve girlfriend Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton), the Dean’s daughter. The couple quickly find themselves in situations which they would never have dreamed and, until this time, tried to steer their routine lives away from.
The crux of the film revolves around one of the university’s professors, Carl Hill (David Gale–a John Kerry look-alike), who gives us the penultimate portrayal of corrupt power in his obsessive control over his classroom and as well as over the Dean (Robert Sampson). It is this demand for control which allows for the conflict between the rival egos of the Hill and West to, a hem, come to a head, ending in many, many gore-infested reanimated corpses which rage out of control (the first of which is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body double, Peter Kent), which begins shortly after Hill suspects that West has been successful in his research and consequently attempts to force West’s hand. A fight ensues and Hill steals the rejuvenating Day-Glo green reanimating agent which still has more than a few bugs to work out before being put on the market.
To parallel the parody throughout, composer Richard Band’s rip-off of Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho serves as the theme for Re-Animator. (Why not a rehashing of the soundtrack to Frankenstein? Well, therein lies another taste of the humor saturating this movie.)
This cult classic was followed by two sequels, Bride of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator. Another piece of trivia includes James Cameron’s father in a cameo as the bandaged man in the hospital sitting next to Megan.
-Egregious Gurnow
BLU-Ray Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Director Stuart Gordon
- Audio Commentary by Producer Brian Yuzna and Actors
- Interview with Director Stuart Gordon and Producer Brian Yuzna
- Interview with Writer Dennis Paoli
- Interview with Composer Richard Band
- Music Discussion with Composer Richard Band
- Interview with Fangoria Magazine Editor Tony Timpone
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spots
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
