No no, we're not talking about the six short stories written by HP Lovecraft, on which the 1985 film was originally based. We're talking about the novelization of that movie written by Jeff Rovin two years later. It's....well it's a ride.

Hey, when you think of Re-Animator, do you think "I sure would like to spend a LOT more time with the horrible villainous rapist character, but without the visual charm of seeing David Gale rediscover his love of acting?" Well, good news Jeff Rovin and one other person. Other highlights include characters having two different, conflicting backstories within the same book; subplots that go nowhere; pacing that results in a scene from 30 minutes in happening halfway through the book, and SO MUCH homophobia.

Yes, this is the book that all but directly acknowledges what we all knew, that Herbert West is gay, but does so in the absolute shittiest way possible. We waded through it so you don't have to.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of sexual assault, animal mutilation, racism, and homophobia

The Re-Animator Movie Discussion: https://soundcloud.com/user-960635156/re-animator-herbert-west-extremely-queer-mad-scientist

Dawn of Re-Animator (Herbert's 8-pack): https://vraik.tumblr.com/post/143092632232/the-dawn-of-reanimator-comic-is-amazing

Dorothy livetweets the novel: https://twitter.com/dorothynotgale/status/1013853742834151424

Vrai livetweets the novel: https://twitter.com/WriterVrai/status/1020442061064081409

1:00 Background
5:00 Drinks!
9:00 A Brief Recap
12:00 Headhopping, Our Eternal Enemy
16:00 SO MUCH Headhopping POV
23:00 Backstory Roulette
28:00 The Queercoding
33:00 What is Pacing
36:00 Book Dan, Budding Serial Killer
41:00 Meet Officer Homophobia
47:00 Dan, Again (Not Daniel)
51:00 So. AIDS.
55:30 The Three-Year Morgue Fight
58:00 Deliberately De-Sympathizing Herbert
64:00 The Ending

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

Twitter Mentions