“Re-Animator” is perhaps the most famous Lovecraft film
to grace the screen to date. Jeffrey Combs portrayal of Herbert West is one of
the most entertaining and honest interpretations of a Lovecraft character in my
opinion. He has the arrogance, stubbornness, and ambition of the Herbert West
found with the original story. Mr. Combs and director Gordon Stuart are able to
insert some dark humor into an otherwise grisly tale without ruining the atmosphere.
While there are plenty of extra characters added and the overall narrative does
not follow the short stories, enough of the theme from Lovecraft’s work is found
within the movie; Herbert West is essentially a modern day Dr. Frankenstein who
creates more than his fair share of monsters.
The movie begins when Herbert West transfers from The
University of Zurich to Miskatonic University after learning all that he could.
He quickly gets on the wrong side of Dr. Hill after accusing him of stealing
the work of his professor in Zurich. West quickly convinces his roommate, Dan
Cain, to assist him in his experiments in reanimating the dead. Dan’s
girlfriend Megan doesn’t trust West and by the end of the movie she can pretty
much blame everything that goes wrong on him. And Dr. Hill. As West and Cain
perform more experiments, they have more monsters to explain and handle until
the movie finally ends in a messy gory mess, all in a very 80’s, mid-range budget
special effects style of course.
Favorite moment – The opening scene and when West declares “I
gave him life!”; it does a wonderful job of preparing the viewer as to what
kind of movie they are about to watch.
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