The Queer Legacy of Re-Animator (1985)
Happy Pride to the mad scientists and their (very) devoted assistants.
It’s Pride Month! Queerness, like horror, revels in the odd and the strange, celebrating deviation from the norm. In the midst of increased attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community, we continue living, loving, and fighting for equality, including protective legislation. ATTN: QUEER PEOPLE IN HORROR! Do you have a project that needs awareness or funding? Send me a message to be included in next week’s newsletter!
40 Years of H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator
Thank you, Ignite Films for the Blu-ray! New 4k restoration available for purchase on their website and wherever films are sold.
What makes a cult film? They’re usually box-office bombs, re-ignited for an underground theater circuit by a dedicated fanbase. Always weird, obscure, and beloved, often campy and queer.
When third-year med student, Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) transfers to Miskatonic Medical School, he finds a research partner in Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) to aid in his obsession with Death, and defying it.
Unlike the revivification obsessives in Pet Sematary (1989) or Bring Her Back (2025), West’s is not a journey guided by grief; he, like Dr. Frankenstein, is playing gee oh dee.
The addition of The Assistant is a variation from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that’s also present in the 1922 H.P. Lovecraft short story “Herbert West—Reanimator.”1 When the two meet in college, Lovecraft’s unnamed narrator is the only person sympathetic to West’s cause. He also probably thinks he’s sexy, mentioning West’s blonde hair and blue eyes no less than 5 times.
“I was held to him by sheer force of fear, and witnessed sights that no human tongue could repeat.” Well, that’s convenient. It’s definitely not his crystal blue eyes I mentioned 5 times.
Our introduction to Dan in the film is him giving CPR on a patient beyond the point of return; he’s a doctor who cares, cursing the cruel mistress of Death. He’s also living in the sick and boring world of heterosexual - engaged to blonde, beautiful Megan (Barbara Crampton), the daughter of the dean, he’s got a successful, lucrative path ahead of him.
Enter Herbert West. Arrogant, assured, intense. He openly defies their professor to the cuntiest tune of breaking pencils in class every time he disagrees with him. Once he answers Dan’s ad for an apartment, he takes over Dan’s life and thoughts to the point where Megan is too distracted by all the Herbert to have sex with Dan.
Dan and Herbert don’t have a sexual relationship in the film, but Herbert’s unflinching ambition and Dan’s gravitation toward him Under The Guise of The Cause portray a dynamic that rings a bell with many other twosomes in horror history; Theo and Nell in The Haunting sticking together like glue ‘to explore the haunted house,’ David’s homoerotic hazing of Michael in The Lost Boys ‘to follow his master’s plan.’
In the original short story, the two medical students build that basement laboratory together; in the heat of a New England summer, perhaps Herbert, his thoughts far away of reanimating the dead didn’t notice the jolt of life he imparted on Dan as their fingertips brushed together reaching for a cold beer.
Obviously, not all queer representation, even implicit, is good representation. Herbert West murders without remorse, his presence corrupting the straights around him, destroying the family and life of the kind, beautiful Megan and the career of the rising star, Dan.
But I have a soft spot for villains, especially The Obsessed. What a fantasy for your sexuality not to be the monstrous thing about you.
Recommended Watchlist
More heavily queer-coded films from 1985 - likely written around the height of the AIDS crisis.
Fright Night (1985)
The fantasy of seeing homosexuality as a lesser monstrosity to vampirism. Amazing special effects and an iconic performance by Chris Sarandon.
Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
Internet Archive, Netflix, Shudder
This movie was hated at its debut for discarding the dream conventions of the original and its undeniably queer themes. Tragically, the writer tried to shirk the gay textual themes onto its closeted star, Mark Patton, deeply affecting his life and career (check out his story in the 2019 documentary, Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street.) Not the best NOEM by far, but a fun, queer stand-alone nightmare!
Thanks for reading! Yes, it’s Thursday, but today is Frankenstein’s birthday!!! My beloved olde english bulldogge is 4.
Note: I’ll be highlighting some queer horror projects next week, so if you’re part of the community and have something that needs funding or awareness, send me a message asap.
xo,
a room so silent there's only the inhale and exhale of your breath, the beating of your heart, the gurgle of your stomach, the rushing of your blood, and undeniably allie lembo’s high, bright, cruel peels of laughter
Director Stuart Gordon was a Lovecraft fan, but at the time, this story was so out of print he needed a special white-gloved appointment at the Chicago Library to read their rare copy. I love da internet. It’s a fun read, not his best. Warning if you’re somehow not aware: Lovecraft was racist-for-the-time racist. Great storyteller, but YEESH.
Happy birthday Frank!