Re-Animator Poster # 2 Jeffrey Combs w/ headless Dr. Hill Zombie Horror

Description

Re-Animator is a 1985 American science fiction horror comedy film based on the H. P. Lovecraft story “Herbert West–Reanimator.” Directed by Stuart Gordon, it was the first film in the Re-Animator series. The film has since become a cult film, driven by fans of Jeffrey Combs (who stars as Herbert West) and H. P. Lovecraft, extreme gore, and the combination of horror and comedy.

The idea to make Re-Animator came from a discussion Stuart Gordon had with friends one night about vampire films. He felt that there were too many Dracula films and expressed a desire to see a Frankenstein film. Someone asked if he had read “Herbert West-Reanimator” by H.P. Lovecraft. Gordon had read most of the author’s works, but not that story, which had been long out of print. He went to the Chicago Public Library and read their copy.

The biggest makeup challenge in the film was the headless Dr. Hill zombie. Tony Doublin designed the mechanical effects and was faced with the problem of proportion once the 9–10 inches of the head were removed from the body. Each scene forced him to use a different technique. For example, one technique involved building an upper torso that actor David Gale could bend over and stick his head through so that it appeared to be the one that the walking corpse was carrying around.

Re-Animator was followed by Bride of Re-Animator in 1990 and Beyond Re-Animator in 2003. Both sequels were preceded by another film based upon an H. P. Lovecraft story, From Beyond; though this film featured a story unrelated to Re-Animator, it was also directed by Stuart Gordon and starred both Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton.

In 2011, a musical adaptation opened on Broadway, which director Gordon participated in.

Jeffrey Alan Combs (born September 9, 1954) is an American actor1 known for his horror film roles such as Re-Animator and appearances playing a number of characters in the Star Trek and the DC Animated Universe television franchises.

Combs’s best known horror role was as Herbert West, the main character in the movie Re-Animator, which he has reprised in the film’s two sequels. He also portrayed the part of author H. P. Lovecraft (creator of the Herbert West character) in 1993’s film Necronomicon: Book of the Dead. Combs has starred in eight H.P. Lovecraft adaptations.

Near mint condition.