In 1984, a brilliant theater director and playwright made
the jump from the stage into movies. Stuart Gordon was
virtually an unknown outside Chicago. Out of all his
choices, he decided to make a horror movie, a decision based most on money factors.
Reanimator got a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival as a midnight feature. American movie critics had good things to write about it too.
Gordon’s movie (co-scripted with Dennis Paoli
and Brian Yuzna) deserved all this word of mouth. Although
cheaply made, the writing, directing and acting were
professional and more. You probably won’t think about
this until later—watching this picture is like riding a roller
coaster. But to make the absurdly crazed story work,
everyone involved had to play it straight. To the nth degree. If you’ve seen Reanimator, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
Stuart Gordon; Despite a “too much ain’t enough” approach to
style, he is generous and thoughtful in his interviews
The plot is loosely based on an H.P.
Lovecraft short story. It’s not easy to describe
Lovecraft’s fiction briefly. His great strength was his
imagination—to see further and deeper. Edgar Allan Poe had a
similar gift. The years that passed between Poe and
Lovecraft were filled with scientific discoveries and advances.
Lovecraft used some of these as a jumping-off point.
For example his fascination with other dimensions.
Invisible to virtually all, but still there nevertheless; strange
forces, strange creatures awaiting a chance to break free.
Another gift Lovecraft had– the insight to see
the limitations of science. In other words,
scientists might say– this stuff you’ve dreamed up:
survivors of the Old Gods, creatures from other worlds,
other dimensions, black magic, witchcraft, cannot be proved
scientifically.
I think Lovecraft would answer this way: Science has
its own limitations, it can’t account for everything. No way
can our science disprove it either.
Lovecraft’s biggest weakness? Probably, his characters. Although many of them narrate their stories
in an overstated, borderline-hysterical tone, Lovecraft doesn’t
develop them much. As generous a person as he was said to
be, he doesn’t seem that interested in the people in his stories.
He married and had women friends but few female
characters—the only memorable woman I can remember appeared in ashort story called The Thing on the Doorstep.
Gordon, Paoli and Yuzna had the imagination to
ask: What if Lovecraft had pushed the sexual limits in his
stories as far as they could go, along with everything else?
What would that look like? As far as I know, no Lovecraft adaptations before had asked that question. The
Reanimator team tried something taking realcourage: Take Lovecraft’s vision/imagination and flesh out the characters including their sexuality.
Hardcore Lovecraft fans may not necessarily like what the writers came up with. But I think they would admit that to interpret Lovecraft in any way that does him justice, you need great imagination. I think this movie does that…at the very least.
And briefly: For all his ‘overstatement’
Lovecraft knew how to use a story to set you up. Go back and
re-read The Rats in the Walls…how flat, how
mechanically the narrator tells the story…till the last page.
Crazy things happen–much earlier in
Reanimator, yet slowly but surely its story is
also setting you up for an out of control finish.
You meet Herbert West right away, a
student in a European medical school, unsuccessfully trying to
bring a dead man back to life. The authorities have a strong
suspicion West killed the man. But they let him go, in
return for his promise to get out and never come back.
The next time you see him, he’s a student in
Arkham, Massachusets. The staff at the new school is unsure;
is he is a genius, or a psycho? What they don’t know is that
West is like a silent avalanche coming straight at you. He’s
picking up right where he left off, and they may as well try to
stop a tidal wave.
West–egomania that rolls over everyone in sight
West doesn’t even bother sucking up to the
people in power at Arkham. He’s about as far as you can get
from a people person. West is interested in one thing and
one thing only—a compound he’s created that can bring the dead
back to life. All it takes is an injection of the bright
electric-green liquid. The substances West used are never
explained—you have to take his brilliance for granted. But
for all his genius, he is the ultimate accident about to happen.
The first to be swept up in the tidal wave is
Dan Cain, a bright, kindhearted, dedicated medical student.
Dan is already in a difficult situation. He is in love
with Meg, the beautiful daughter of the medical school dean.
Dean Halsey is a basically good man, but over-attached to
Meg, and an arch-conservative. He’s always gotten along with
Dan, but would go ballistic if he knew his daughter was having sex
with him. And Dan has no money; he is on scholarship, a
scholarship totally at the dean’s discretion.
From out of nowhere, West barges into Dan’s
life. (To ease his money problems, Dan has placed an ad for
a roommate.) In no time, West sizes up the situation with
Dan and Meg. He blackmails Dan into letting him stay.
Meg feels intuitively that Dan is in deep deep shit already.
The reality is even worse. Dan’s cat
goes missing. Meg finds the body in West’s refrigerator.
West denies everything. But days later, Dan hears
ominous noises and follows the sounds down to the basement.
There he sees West, struggling to get the now-crazed cat off
his back.
West talks about his discovery. His
formula will work on lifeforms dead less than 12 minutes, and
their brain not traumatized. He mentions overcoming the “6
to 12 minute brain death,” something Dan knows well. (He
lost a patient, only days before; someone he was sure he could
revive.) West’s words strike a deep chord in Dan: “We can
defeat brain death.”
Dan–in awe of the possibility of defeating death
Dan is torn between disbelief, disgust, and an overwhelming wish
to give mankind this great discovery. He allows West to
inject the cat—again.
“Don’t expect it to tango,“ he tells Dan.
The cat screeches quietly, then loud. “Birth is
always painful,” West says.
Dan sees that West is out of control—anyone
with a pulse can tell. But West’s self-confidence,
his dream of defeating death—all this touches something in
Dan. He doesn’t want to lose another coded patient when he
could be using this weapon.
West reminds me of Hitler—a man who believes in the
purity, the ultimate greatness of his vision. He will let
nothing stop him. Humanity, individual lives are minor
factors compared to the supreme force of his will, translated into
heroic deeds.
Dan is like the German people who followed
Hitler. They took a leap of faith in the man’s character,
because they wanted so much to believe in the greatness of his
vision. They were desperate for someone who told them…You
want glory? I can give you glory beyond anything you’ve ever
dreamed.
Again and again, Dan does his best to clean up
the mess that West (actually both of them) has caused. He
ignores what he sees; that reality means little to West.
That West sees every obstacle life throws them as one more
chance to use his liquid and observe the results.
If you have never seen
Reanimator, you may be getting the wrong
idea—that this is a tragic story, a grim experience. A plot
about missed opportunities, like the Hammer
Frankenstein series. But the movie changes;
slowly but surely its irony, its twisted sense of humor begins to
show itself. Speaking just for myself, horror and comedy
are usually a miserable combination. But every once in a
while, adding subtle comic elements does work. The Howling (I)
is a good example.
The humor starts to bubble up to the surface
at just the right moment—West and Cain have reached the point of
no return. West is confident again after bringing the cat
back. Ready for the big enchilada…human beings. But
you can’t perform this experiment without some major risks.
Their plan to minimize the risks means
sneaking into the morgue. Then look for the best possible
subject—a body recently deceased, the least amount of head trauma.
And still, things go wrong…big time.
Their cadaver of choice, a big muscular guy, is suddenly
awake, psychotic, throwing the two men around like rag dolls.
Dean Halsey shows up at the worst possible moment. By
the time the cadaver is dead again, it has strangled Halsey to
death.
West may be crazy, but he can think on his
feet. And he has a plan—his usual. When in doubt,
whip out the liquid and his syringe. He injects the dean.
Halsey is back…insane but alive. West
somehow creates an explanation made-to-order. No criminal
charges (yet) for West and Cain.
They don’t realize yet they have a problem as
serious as criminal charges. Turning Halsey into a lunatic
has opened the door for a sociopath who’s waited a long time for
this. Dr. Hill. Only Halsey held more power than Dr.
Hill, whose quiet, thoughtful manner hides a devious, sleazy core.
Hill sees West and Cain as enemies he must stamp out.
Dr. Hill–even his severed head is dangerous
Cain’s dream of benefiting mankind is already
evaporating fast. What started as a quest for progress has
now turned into duel between West and Dr. Hill. For Hill
it’s all about power and fame. Lobotomize Halsey so that he
can never be cured. Force Meg to marry him—he has always had
a secret obsession with her. And steal West’s formula.
Two egos the size of Mt. Everest, about to butt heads
Much of Reanimator’s humor is the “did he just
say what I thought he said?” variety. In one scene, West
injects his liquid into a severed head. The head lies silent
on West’s table. West taps it impatiently with a pencil.
The eyes struggle to open. West’s scientific
curiosity is unending. “What are you thinking? How are
you feeling?” he asks the head.
West–unending curiosity
It’s easy to forget how well-done the characterization and acting
are, in the midst of so much bizarre, nonstop action.
Gordon’s creative view includes this: A movie can’t
scare you if you don’t care about the characters. Meg,
played effectively and more by Barbara Crampton is one example.
You definitely care about her. She searches for some
way to stop the madness that the man she loves—Dan, is getting
pulled into. And her father becomes a near-zombie; you feel
her desperation.
On the DVD’s commentary, Gordon does not come
off as I expected… chuckling like crazy over his own ingenuity.
Instead he is gracious in praising the acting of Crampton
and David Gale (Hill) under trying circumstances.
Paoli talks about the creative process; how attached he
became to West’s character. How he (Paoli) could move his
story ahead, based on how alive West had become, in his mind.
I think the filmmakers’ decision to leave out
any tongue-in-cheek attitude was absolutely right, the only way to
play this. They got what they wanted and I am grateful.