Herbert West

Herbert West is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "Herbert West—Reanimator", first published in 1922. There have been several adaptations of the story including Herbert West as played by Jeffrey Combs in the 1985 "Re-Animator" movie and its two sequels, "Bride of Re-Animator" and "Beyond Re-Animator".

Summary

Herbert West is the inventor of a special solution that when injected into a main artery of a recently deceased person causes the body's mechanical, living functions to return. However, most subjects that have undergone the "re-animation" process have turned violent and, after failed attempts to return to their own graves, have terrorized the communities into which they were reanimated.

In Lovecraft's tale, Herbert West was ostracized by his fellow medical students because he believed he could overcome death and had only one friend: the unnamed narrator of the story. After a series of less-than-successful experiments Herbert West is eventually torn to pieces by his own experiments.

"Re-Animator" films

The character of Herbert West returned to popular media in the Stuart Gordon film "Re-Animator" and its sequels, starring Jeffrey Combs as Dr. West. These films transplant the character into the modern day (1980s-2000s) and changes his hair from Lovecraft's specified blonde to brunette, but otherwise the character remains unchanged. In the first two films the equivalent of West's nameless companion is Dr. Dan Cain, who finds himself embroiled in West's experiments.

Gordon is reportedly producing a fourth installment in the series, titled "House of Re-Animator"; this film is said to be a political satire wherein West moves into the White House and re-animates a deceased vice-president.

Other appearances

* West will feature as a major character in an upcoming story arc of the comic series "Hack/Slash" - entitled "Cassie and Vlad Meet the Re-Animator" - beginning in August 2008.

* The online flash game "Deanimator" is based on H. P. Lovecraft's original character.

* The "Splatterhouse" video game series features a mad scientist "Dr. West", owner of "West Mansion", the setting for the game series.

* The character of Herbert West has had brief cameo appearances in Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" series novels "The Bloody Red Baron" and "Judgment of Tears", serving as a colleague of Dr. Moreau, Jakob Ten Brincken, and Doctor Septimus Pretorius.

* West is featured in the Dynamite Entertainment comic miniseries "Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator", where he faces off against Ash Williams, hero of the "Evil Dead" film series.

* West is also a character in the Swedish Lovecraftian horror film "Kammaren". The scriptwriters did a Swedish take on the name and it became Herbert Vest. He was played by the Swedish actor Kaj Stenberg.

* Herbert West has a main role in the parody musical "A Shoggoth on the Roof", published by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

* The Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has a perfume called "Herbert West" in its "A Picnic in Arkham" collection.

* "Herbert West" is the title of a 2007 song by UK band Heartwear Process.

* Randy MilHolland's webcomic "Something Positive" contains a [http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp07132007.shtml musical adaptation] of Herbert West in the "Out of Tune" storyline.

* Herbert West is the Doctor Mayor Harvey Dent sees in the Batman Elseworlds comic book series, "The Doom That Came To Gotham"

* The Lovecraft-based anime series "Demonbane" reimagines Herbert West as a guitar-playing lunatic mad scientist.

* West is a main character in the Japanese video game "Operation Darkness", a "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"-style horror/fantasy story involving several characters from Victorian/early-20th-century literature. (In the English version of the game, West is renamed "Herbert East.")

References

* [http://tmoct.co.uk/lovecraft/reanimator.htm "Herbert West : Reanimator" by H. P. Lovecraft]

*cite book|first=Howard P.|last=Lovecraft|chapter=Herbert West—Reanimator|origyear=1922|year=1986|title=Dagon and Other Macabre Tales|editor=S. T. Joshi (ed.)|edition=9th corrected printing|publisher=Arkham House|location=Sauk City, WI|id=ISBN 0-87054-039-4 Definitive version.

*cite book|first=Howard P.|last=Lovecraft|year=1999|title=More Annotated Lovecraft|chapter=Herbert West—Reanimator|origyear=1922|editor=S. T. Joshi and Peter Cannon (eds.)|edition=1st|publisher=Dell|location=New York City, NY|id=ISBN 0-440-50875-4 With explanatory footnotes.

External links

*