While the work of H.P. Lovecraft is polarizing, to say the least, that hasn’t stopped filmmakers and creators from using it as source material for much less problematic adaptations. Michael Grossman (The Christmas House) will be directing a new adaptation of Lovecraft’s Herbert West: Reanimator. The 1922 short story was adapted by Jade Sandberg Wallis (World’s Most Talented Pets).
Herbert West: Reanimator
The upcoming film stars Joseph Morgan (Vampire Diaries) and Katie Cassidy (Arrow). Morgan will play the titular role, with Cassidy portraying Kate Locke, a pathologist with a troubled past. Together they try to defeat death itself.
They star alongside Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
“As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death,” the synopsis reads. “Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession. Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Reanimator
Stuart Gordon previously adapted it into the iconic 1985 cult classic Reanimator, starring Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. We have a feeling a certain scene in that film won’t be replicated in the upcoming version. Mostly because it wasn’t in the original short story, since Lovecraft normally avoided non-reproductive sex in his work. (A severed head, alive, dead, or reanimated, can’t do anything reproductive).
Morgan and Cassidy will also executive produce alongside Jeff Lewis of financer Woodlake Entertainment. “I’m beyond excited to be taking on the role of Herbert West, a man inspired by the mysteries of life, obsessed with conquering death, and haunted by the consequences of his own ambition. Inhabiting this emotionally complex character is truly one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. Alongside the undeniable creative satisfaction I’m discovering every day on set, it’s also turning out to be a hell of a lot of fun,” says Morgan.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about Herbert West: Reanimator as the project develops.
