Re-Animator
Lovecraftian
shenanigans and other kinds of fun.
If you’re
searching for good B-horror movie, the name ‘Re-Animator’ is certain to pop up,
sure it ain’t as popular as ‘Evil Dead’ and not as gory as
‘Braindead/Dead-Alive’, but it respectably stands proud on the top as a B movie you shouldn’t miss.
Directed in
1985, Re-Animator is an adaptation of from the novel of the same name by H.P
Lovecraft.
For those
who don’t know, I’m a huge Lovecraft fan (just between us, I
welcome our fishy overlords). The mythology, the dark symbolism, the perfect
and rich writing, what’s not to love?
Just for
those who don’t know, here’s a quick recap:
H.P
Lovecraft was a writer in the early 1900 who made a mediocre living by writing scary stories for a
newspaper. Unfortunately, like most geniuses, he wasn’t recognized for his
talent until after his death. He was often called the Edgar Allan Poe of his
time, his stories were often based on ancient deities that once ruled the earth
that sometime came back to take their old kingdom which often ends in madness
and chaos, with more than often it’s fair share of undead monstrosities and
other nightmare fuel for weeks.
But is this
movie faithful to the tale of Herbert West, the man who cheated death? Well,
let’s take a look at the plot.
Herbert
West, a talented and maybe a little eccentric neurologist scientist is just
transferred to the University of Arkham (for all you Batman fans out there,
that’s where the name came from) from Zurich, under questionable circumstances.
He unfortunately drives his roommate Dan with him in his crazy theories that
involves the resurrection of dead tissue. Dan, not being a complete
idiot right off the bat decides to tell West to go to hell, but after some
blackmail and an unfortunate instance involving a zombie Mr Whiskers, Dan finds
himself helping West acquiring cadavers for his experiments.
West succeed to cheat death and with ideas of grandeur
decides to test his serum further and in even more immoral ways, unfortunately,
his plans are thwarted as a teacher catches wind of his little rehearsal of the
Night Of The Living Dead and decides to put his plans to be a creepy horny old
stalker toward Dan’s girlfriend on hold to stroll in the scene to steal the
credit. This should be quickly solved seen as that West can create an army of
hungry undead to eat the teacher’s wrinkly old behind, but things get
complicated when the teacher turns out to have hypnotic powers…wait what now?
Ok, that’s where the movie kinda lost me, hypnotism? I guess
it makes the idea sort of interesting, but I personally prefer the route the
book took by making West face his own creations and letting his ambitions be
his undoing, instead of a pissed off perv with magic powers.
But first, before comparing it to the novel, how does this
movie hold on its own? Well, it’s good, great even. The practical effects have
that good old 80s campy feel and the characters and their motives are well
portrayed, the only problem I have with it it’s that it’s pretty slow, the
first half is purely to show how much of a psycho West is and how he
manipulates people, and only near the end do the zombies really kick in the
door at the plot’s house to ask for their screentime, which is a shame really,
but well, that’s to be expected from a movie that was adapted from a novel.
The dialogue isn’t anything special, it’s not bad but it’s
probably noting you’ll remember, exept for West screaming “Overdose!” while
finishing off a zombie Mortal Kombat style.
But how does this movie hold up in comparison with the
novel? Mhe
I guess it follows the overall story okay, a few changes
here and there, mainly due to the fact that it was set in the eighties instead
of the early 1900, so acquiring a corpse was as easy as walking through a door
(I’m not kidding, they have like, zero security at the Arkham university’s
morgue), instead of unearthing the dead at the local cemetery causing the suspicion of the townsfolk like
in the novel.
The consequences are also very light in comparison with the
novel, in the movie, the worse that happens in the first act is that the cops
are slightly questioning West’s motives while holding one of his zombies
captive, slowly leading to the attention of the teacher. While in the book, one
of his creature, a dead boxer beaten to death in a match, escapes and goes on a
murderous rampage, before disappearing, and West becomes completely paranoid till
the end of his days, increasing his madness that slowly got worse after doing
the horrible deeds he did in the name of science.
But the biggest difference between the novel and the
adaptation has to be none other than Herbert West himself. In the book, he was
described as a quiet and charismatic young man highly talented in science, but
still with a slight touch of a sinister plot crawling in the back of his head,
he only really began to lose his mind after he tried multiple times to
resurrect the dead, and by the end, he was but a mere shell of his former self
and was a paranoid self-loathing man who welcomed the sweet embrace of death by
its own creations.
The Herbert West of the movie? A complete and utter scumbag
who parasites off everyone to achieve his goals. He is as mad as a kite at some
points and even supposedly killed his roommate’s cat to experiment on it. He
blackmails, lies and walks on everyone through the movie without caring for
anything other than his experiments.
Do I think it’s a good thing they changed the iconic
Re-animator from the book? Surprisingly, I do. I liked the Herbert West from
the novel, but this one is definitely more at home in the movie, more
dramatical and sometimes straight up scary. You never know how far he is
willing to go to accomplish his goals, or you’re afraid of knowing exactly how
far he’ll go. The actor pulls off the smug face and the insanity perfectly,
along with all his other little mannerisms to really flesh out this character.
My opinion? Good movie, kinda slow but rewarding, give it a
watch if you haven’t already, and while you’re at it, definitely check out
“Herbert West-reanimator” by Lovecraft, not his best story but still a really
good one.
What I’ve learned from "Re-animator":
- Instead of slapping someone in the face with a glove the
students of Arkham have found another way to challenge each other, constantly
breaking off pencils in front of your rival in comedic fashion until he snaps
and question your neurological knowledge.
- Talking without a windpipe? Sure, no problem, hell, you
don’t even need lungs according to this movie, but since this was also in the
book, I guess I have no right to b*tch about it
- Actually, a whole lot about neurology
- Well, never thought they’d top it, but yup, there is a
worse rape scene in this movie than the infamous Evil Dead tree rape, this one
has a decapitated head...
Personal rating: 7.5/10
Critical rating: 7/10
