Who's Going to Believe a Talking Head?

Everyone who is reading this has heard of Re-Animator, and hopefully has seen it (if not, fix that right now or I will make you drink glow stick fluid). The film turns 40(!) next year and has maintained its reputation for shock and comedy. It’s a film that continues to make my jaw drop at certain scenes despite numerous rewatches over the years, and yet it never fails to feel like a warm hug every time I put it on. While I’m not proud of this per se, I’m so thankful this has kept me reeled in all these years later.

2,100 × 2,100

While you may not know of the source material, you most likely know of the author; H.P. Lovecraft has gained quite the reputation over the years. As far as my knowledge on him? I’m not going to position myself as a scholar or an expert on his work, but I do feel some compulsion to talk about him in order to give some context. Writing during the early 20th century about eldritch horrors incapable of being understood by humans, his short story “Herbert West - Reanimator” initially seems like an outlier in his array of work, dealing with more down to earth topics like medical experimentation and death. Looking further however reveals a common thread found in Lovecraft’s work: fear of the unknown. He tends to use first person narration throughout all of his stories, creating anxiety in readers as they slowly unfurl the mystery that not even Lovecraft seems to know the answer to. “Reanimator” ponders themes of morality and the limits of science, like its inspiration Frankenstein does, but it does so in a bit of a pulpy manner, being much more gory than Mary Shelley’s novel and even other Lovecraft stories. Often decried due to his rampant racism and xenophobia, his ideas have influenced so many writers and directors to the point where it’s hard to discredit him, be it direct adaptations of his stories, the creatures they create, or simply using similar techniques to establish a similar paranoid tone in their works. 

Being an adaptation, Re-Animator does take elements from the story, specifically the first two entries. However, as with most Lovecraft, gothic settings and indescribable tentacle monsters do not always equate to a coherent narrative; there must be more meat on the bones in order to engage most audiences. Initially wanting to make a miniseries consisting of six 30 minute episodes, director Stuart Gordon realized that most television networks were not interested in either the content or the length of what he wanted. He soon hired gothic literature professor Dennis Paoli to help him adapt the script into a feature length film that would take place in the modern era, but still feature pivotal parts of the serial.  

        Using this idea, Paoli turned the script into a story about a medical school student becoming unintentionally drawn into his roommate’s experiments to defeat death, turning his life upside down. Featuring graphic gore, outrageous sexual situations, and an iconic anti-hero, Re-Animator has all the hallmarks of a genre cult classic. Chances are you have seen it and wince at the phrase “giving head” in context to this film; I certainly do! The most curious thing is unlike some well known films of the time (namely The Thing (1982) and The Shining (1980), which were panned upon release and later hailed as classics in retrospect, Re-Animator has never had a critical reevaluation of sorts. Critics loved it when it came out (even gaining positive reviews from Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael), and it has retained similar levels of praise since. The only thing that has maybe held back the film is the choice to leave it unrated; this kept the uncensored version off video store shelves for some time, however once the proper version was put on VHS (and later DVD and Blu-Ray), exposure only grew, and the positive feedback has kept on coming.

        Part of the timeless charm is how the cast is able to find what little quirks each of their archetypes have, and how well they make these work together as an ensemble. Jeffrey Combs brings a domineering energy as Herbert West, never stepping on his co-stars but remaining a force to be reckoned with throughout the film. West does not care that chaos comes in his wake; he just sees any consequences as mild annoyances and goes around them. Bruce Abbott plays West’s foil Dan Cain, the straight man that is supposed to be the audience’s reaction to the mayhem, yet is complicit in all that takes place. The lone female role of Megan Halsey is portrayed by Barbara Crampton, and while I don’t think there is anything special about how she is written, I do think she does an incredible job as the voice of reason in these impossible circumstances, despite how her character ends up receiving some truly horrid treatment. These three have an incredible chemistry with each other, and give the film some of the most memorable exchanges of the film.

        This trio of students is complimented by two very similar yet different authority figures; Dean Halsey (played by Robert Sampson) and Dr. Hill (played by David Gale). Halsey is Meg’s father and is rather protective of her, being lukewarm of her relationship with Dan. When he gets wind of the activities Dan has (unwittingly) participated in, he turns against it altogether, just before being killed off and becoming yet another experiment. While he at least starts off having good intentions, Dr. Hill is quite different; upon meeting him, West immediately calls him out on his suspected plagiarism, causing tension that is only resolved when Hill tries to intimidate West into handing over his research. It doesn’t go well for him, and Hill has since become a centerpiece for some of the more memorably comedic scenes due to his… detached state. This doesn’t remove the ominous presence Gale has whenever he’s on screen; his towering height and booming voice nicely contrast the rest of the cast, and he relishes being both a dictatorial professor and an unhinged reanimate.

        While the choices made by the cast to bring out certain nuances certainly are a major part of Re-Animator’s status as a cult classic, the writing also plays a significant role in the element of camp the film brings to the table. While some scenes were helped by the campiness and chemistry of the actors, there are some scenes that don’t need to be played up to be funny. Take when West reanimates Dr. Hill’s head and body separate from each other; he has difficulty getting the head to stand up by itself and puts a noteholder under it! Then he is cursed out by the head and knocked out by the body. Stuart Gordon may have wanted this to be a straightforward film, but little instances like that prove otherwise. Add on top of that the low budget (which make any of the scenes involving the dead cat funnier than they ought to be) and dry one-liners here and there (such as “Who’s going to believe a talking head? Get a job in the sideshow", "oh what will they do, embalm us?”, and “What would a note say, Dan? ‘Cat dead, details later’?”), and you end up with a film that aims to be just as slyly funny as the short stories often are in pure absurdity.

        What to make of all this? Is there anything to make a point of? On the surface perhaps not; in fact when I show this film to people they either love it for the camp, or hate it due to the excess thrown at them. But with a source material expanding upon points of the limits of science and what humans should do, and a director that made a name for himself in Chicago theater by making a politically psychedelic Peter Pan play, I knew there had to be something lying just underneath the surface.

        Rewatching both the film and Re-Animator Resurrectus (2007), the documentary about the film’s making, I realized something very important. This is not a “typical” Lovecraftian story, where the people start out insane and end up even more insane. Most of the characters here are just regular students and are very relatable throughout the film. They have normal human reactions to the madness around them, and while they may succumb to the hellscape around them (figuratively or literally), they ultimately remain who the viewer roots for. Through this, Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli are able to create a domestic drama that pushes the limits of horror. Dan is the center of a love triangle of sorts, being constantly pulled at by West’s desire to cure the ultimate disease, and by Meg’s desire to continue a fulfilling life, regardless of the hurdles it may take to reach that. Simply put, it's the work life balance we all struggle with in our daily lives hidden just behind the morgue doors. 

        Re-Animator also brings to the forefront the themes of mortality, and just how great a gift like reanimation could be to humanity if put in the correct hands. Herbert West is not this, even if he fully understands how great it is; rather, he seems to relish in this idea for himself, often coming off as arrogant. When I showed my mother this film (that’s a story for another time), she thought he was a creep. I simply replied “well in his eyes he’s just better, and he can’t help if he has a scientific breakthrough in his roommate’s basement”. He sees something commonly accepted as permanent and turns it on its head; does his experiment need rethinking, or are we just not ready? Maybe the answer in context to this is obvious, but it does beg the question of what we should do and when regarding science and ethics.

        Now, how the hell did this come into my life? Strangely enough, this isn’t something I’ve known about for all the years I've been obsessed with horror films. I had to do what I thought was some digging to find out about this, and having Dead Meat (my favorite YouTube channel at the time) cover it some years ago made me even more curious. While I love the mainstream classics just like anyone else, there is something special about becoming obsessed with something that no one else really knows about, especially in your early teens. By that time I was used to having glaring blindspots however, and simply pushed it aside in favor of comic books and My Chemical Romance.

        It was when I was in my junior year of high school that I found myself wanting something new but old, comforting but intriguing. By this point, my parents had finalized their separation and I began to see my father more often. Every other weekend I fell into a deep depression that not much could pull me out of. One day I put a small streaming service on the TV and found Re-Animator, and was reminded of how underground this seemed to me when I first heard about it, then realized I still didn’t know jack shit; I needed to watch the damn thing! So I did. And I fell in love.

        Like most things I was into during high school, I didn’t understand a lick of why I loved this gross thing. Maybe some relief that it didn't cause my interest in pathology or body parts (blame Forensic Files for that), but I was still confused. Even after watching its two sequels, Bride of Re-Animator (1990) and Beyond Re-Animator (2003), I just didn’t get why I liked this at all. Then it hit me: I saw myself in the characters on screen. Partially because my girlfriend at the time told me I roughly resembled Jeffrey Combs, and partially because the characters are both captivating and campy.

        “Why pick this when you could go be like every other teenager and be obsessed with more mainstream horror films?” Yeah, I know. But upon doing some actual digging (not just poster searches on IMDb) I found something very unique that I was a little shocked to come across - the rabid fandom that has appeared online. Most major horror franchises have a large fanbase thanks to new installments and constant pop culture references (I’m looking at you, Scream and Halloween). Re-Animator is unique in that there hasn’t been a new film in some time, yet there are multiple individuals online that have latched onto the trilogy, specifically the first two. A significant part of this is the homosexual undertones that audiences have detected; much like A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), the relationship between the two main characters is very… choice at times. Both the writers and actors have somewhat acknowledged these aspects, with producer Brian Yuzna including an essay in a release of Bride regarding the admitted closeness of the two characters, and Abbott and Combs joking about Dan and Herbert living together despite both being practicing doctors at a hospital on the DVD commentary. Unlike Freddy’s Revenge, however, the undertones here are unintended, which makes it all the more interesting.

This is my art; if you steal just know I have your IP address!

With these revelations in mind, a small community has taken these ideas and ran the mile with them, creating fan fiction, edits, and fan art of the two doctors. I always say if you want something, you can find it on the Internet, and if you want to see an edit of Dan and Herbert grabbing each other in varying situations of panic, it’s out there (not a joke, I don’t blame this person for creating this). Multiple fans have also caught onto small behavior patterns of Herbert’s that could point to him being autistic; he’s rather blunt and antisocial, always seems to be fidgeting with something, and is laser focused on his scientific pursuits. I doubt this was an intentional characterization by either Paoli or Combs, but it makes total sense as you watch him interact with other characters. Others have theorized that due to his height, higher voice, and a certain hubris-fueled monologue about blasphemy and creation in Bride that West may be transgender. While an interesting characterization, I draw the line there; it doesn’t sit right with me to force a particular gender identity on a fictional character unless explicitly stated, and I am happy to let West express his ideals in whatever way he feels appropriate (and to let Jeffrey Combs be a short king). ‘Tis the magic of creativity I suppose; I can’t say I haven’t been entertained by the volume of work out there. As a matter of fact, it actually helped me feel a little less weird that there are other human beings that have the same interest. Pointing out these small quirks that the creators didn’t intentionally try to get across somewhat validated my thoughts that there was something besides a bunch of hamburger meat.

Thus is the duality of B-movies - they can be completely nonsensical but also hold multiple points of merit for viewers to become engrossed in. It’s the gift that continues to keep giving, no matter how worn out your disc or friends become. I know everyone who listens to this podcast or reads my articles has a story like mine where there was a moment they fell in love with genre films, and never expected to have a film like this become so impactful in their life. For me, that moment is turning on Re-Animator in my eerily quiet room away from my family and finding comfort in the chaos. I cannot understate how important this film is to me; it was the true start of my ventures into cult films that has led me down a road of inescapable hell filled with joy, and for that I’m forever thankful.

Parker S.