RE-ANIMATOR (1985)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

The worst H.P. Lovecraft story I've ever read is the six-part HERBERT WEST-- REANIMATOR tale from 1922. Some critics have deemed it a juvenile jape, and there may be truth in that, even though HPL was 32 when he wrote the story-- though still about ten years away from his finest works. But whether or not one agrees that WEST is worst, Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR is definitely a case of taking a sow's ear and making it into-- well, a purse of some material. Silk? Hmm, maybe cotton.

Gordon's screenplay unfolds with the relentless, spare logic of an EC horror-comic. Scientist Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) has, for reasons unknown, become utterly monomaniacal about using his unique chemical experiments to bring the dead back to life. Said experiments result in shambling corpses that ceaselessly shriek in pain and that attack anyone in sight, but this does not deter West even after he gets himself kicked out of a Swiss university. (This may have been a Frankenstein reference, given the original doctor's nationality.)

West obtains entry to the Miskatonic University in Massachusetts, and resumes his experiments after renting a room from another medical student, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). Cain already has his share of problems, in that he's sleeping with Megan (Barbara Crampton), daughter of Dr. Halsey, the school's dean. In addition, one of the university's doctor-teachers, Carl Hill (David Gale), seems anxious to put the moves on Megan. But Cain's old problems seem like happy memories when he sees that his new tenant has brought a dead cat back to life, albeit as a spitting horror.

Cain tries to persuade Halsey that West has come up with a genuine marvel, but Halsey's only response is to bar both students from the university. This provides the inciting factor for West and Cain to attempt a human re-animation-- which, one may well guess, only makes things worse. Doctor Hill sticks his nose into the act, but West kills and decapitates Hill. Then he re-animates the dead head and the dead body separately. Science, you know!

I won't go over every twist and turn of the story, except to re-iterate my comparison that it resembles an EC story that becomes incrementally more grotesque until the mind-blowing ending. The characters are all flat types, which is fine considering that Gordon just wants the straightforward momentum, not complexity. The high point of RE-ANIMATOR is the performance of Gale, who, even before getting turned into a living head, evinces a positive lip-smacking love of being evil. I didn't see any reason as to why Hill is the only re-animation who doesn't become a raving maniac. But Gale is so good in this role that I didn't care.