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Herbert West - Reanimator (2000)

by H.P. Lovecraft(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 3

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review 1: Excellent. Blood-curdling to the core! Spooky atmosphere made spookier by Lovecraft's glorious, archaic prose. As much as I enjoy the 1985 Stuart Gordon film, and really B-movie horror films don't get any better (or campier), but Lovecraft's story is an entirely different animal. The short story, for al its episodic narration, developing over the years the events take place, is a more satisfying, cohesive tale and one I would like to see filmed as it was written. Lovecraft's ending is perfect.
review 2: As a fan of Shelley's "Frankenstein" this is one of Lovecraft's better works in my opinion. It deals with similar issues of bringing back the dead, although Herbert West isn't doing it for any philosophical or moral reasons, he's operating from pure scientific ... morecuriosity. In this story Lovecraft touches on the debate of whether or not a person has a soul or are we simply just creatures of chemistry, biological "machines" that can be repaired. In fact (minor spoiler) West even gets to the point of reanimating body parts just to get away from the issues of complexity with the brain. We the readers are like the narrator, who follows West, knowing what he's doing is wrong on multiple levels, but curious to see the answer to the machine vs soul question. From a modern standpoint, West is the scientist who works for the sake of science without considering the ethical/moral questions. less

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