59 Days to Halloween - Re-Animator

Herbert West sure is his own worst enemy. I thought of that after watching Re-Animator tonight, the first time in probably twelve years. If he doesn’t inject the severed head of a rival, Dr. Hill, after decapitating him, with his lime green re-agent, then perhaps the horrors that come after wouldn’t have taken place. His obsessive quest to re-animate life, this scientist with no other focus in his life but to conquer death and be the one responsible for it, so passionate and forward-thinking towards success beyond all else; Herbert West accomplishes a lot but in doing so leaves quite mess behind him. Much like Frankenstein, cobbling together parts from corpses in graves until he brings life to a man made by his own hands, West wants to bring back to life the brain through his own re-agent. Much like the monster Frankenstein created, the ramifications that can’t be undone, the genie not returning to the bottle once it is set free, are irreversible. West injects this body builder who might have died from steroid use (was my conclusion, anyway), what was he expecting to happen after the episode with Dean’s cat??? The cat was enough trouble, hysterical and maniacal, tearing away at West with a sound and fury he needed Dean’s help to destroy. Revive a muscled weightlifter and inject him with this re-agent, already evidenced to turn a cat psychotic, damn near uncontrollable and crazed, what was the expected result supposed to be? West keeps injecting dead bodies, though, and the results remain mostly the same: the undead corpses are violent and rabid, pretty much animals with very little left resembling their human selves any longer. I couldn’t help but think of Bride of Frankenstein with West reacting as Pretorious does anytime Meagan either interrupts his work with Dean or is just mentioned in conversation but his repulsion and frustration is always evident. And how Pretorious just turned Frankenstein’s life upside down and nearly destroyed him. West does the same and much like Bride, Dean becomes quite involved in something he wished he never had.

 

There came that moment when West uses the paper weight to keep Hill’s head from moving in the bedpan that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Meg brought in by her lobotomized dead father, at the command of Hill, her clothes torn away and body bound to a table; Hill looks to legitimize his lust for her even as he has the serum of life in his hands. Hill sees West’s serum as a means for him to gain control and use that control. The dead, lobotomized and stripped further of their humanity, are his to command. A head held by his body’s hands, bloody lips and slurpy, looks to taste of Meg, doing so on her breasts. This whole scene, playing out again tonight, just blows me away considering it is certainly in such raunchy taste. Crampton, to me, went beyond the call of duty. Whatever Stuart Gordon had, she was willing to give her all to him. Her naked body on the table like that, her character just exposed and vulnerable, Crampton was a pro. Even as Dean and West arrive in time before her body could be further abused, Hill turned loose his minions, and the chaotic finale goes crazy as it all unfolds. Intestines reaching out for West, capturing him, powder dropped on the floor giving the morgue a shroud of white thanks to one of the corpses, while another corpse pulls apart wires causing electrical discharge: it all goes to hell as West starts injecting his serum in violent corpses. The dean grabs Hill’s head, squishing it, while he eventually is ripped apart by corpses in unison. And poor Meg is pinned against a wall, the corpse choking her to death…and Dean not willing to accept her staying that way.

I remember looking for a movie on the VHS tape I borrowed from my uncle, rewinding it to get it to another film (perhaps Return of the Living Dead (1985) which was either recorded before or after it if I recall correctly), coming across the tail end of Re-Animator, wondering what the fuck this was. I actually vividly recall that exact feeling of taken-aback surprise at such madness before my 13-year-old eyes. This was quite a sensory overload of WTF?