Re-Animator: The Novelization

by Jeff Rovin

The novelization of the cult horror filme Re-Animator, H.P. Lovecraft's wildly outrageous tale of grisly horror that has become a modern cult-classic overnight, comes to ebook to haunt, thrill and delight the mad scientist in us all. Re-animation, the science of bringing dead creatures back to life, is Herbert West's dream. West tests his secret life-rejuvenating potion on some cooperative corpses at a local morgue. It's a success! But only a temporary one - as the dead spring to life, reacting violently to their re-animation. Zombies are loose and now West cannot control the very beasts he has re-created. The born-again dead are unstoppable, even severed body parts take on life like so many split worms! Herbert West has a serious problem - will he become the first in a new breed of headhunters or all of his woes coming to a head? Re-Animator - an intense book of macabre humor. Based on the screenplay by Dennis Paoli, William J. Norris and Stuart Gordon

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, Zombies, Film, Comedy, Media Tie In

219 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1987

Reviews

[jen]

jeff watched the movie in the 80s and somehow managed to make it gayer in this book.

other than that - it's awful, and it's clear he feels some type of kinship with carl hill, but i enjoyed the overall book. there's clearly something wrong with him though

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was agonizing to read. Only gets 2 stars because it's about my favorite movie so it had a few good scenes just because they were directly taken from the film. Also West was pretty gay, which is a plus. But it wasn't done well.

This was a homophobic, terribly written, painful rendition of a great film. If you liked Re-Animator (1985), don't even bother reading this. Just watch the movie again.

This book focused on all the wrong details and completely missed the main points in the movie. And my gosh was it homophobic. One of the main appeals of the movie is the relationship between Cain and West and this book completely butchered that. Also, Dr. Hill's depiction wasn't nearly as horrendous as it needed to be, which doesn't sit right with me. There should not have been so much of Dr. Hill's point of view. It was the worst.

West was still able to be read as gay, with a few good parts I enjoyed for that reason, but I don't think it was intentional based on how the rest of the book went. And this book definitely wasn't worth reading just for a few moments of jealous Herbert.

Seriously, don't read this. It was upsettingly horrible. 2 stars.

[Taylor Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love that they added more background on the main characters, and I’m glad that they mentioned Dr. Gruber more than they do in the movie, but WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?? Seriously man I gotta end off the book with the gross cop guy?

Whatever, the extra scenes between Cain and West, along with the reintroduction of the hypnosis subplot made it worth it!

(Edit: they had way too many scenes focusing on Dr. Hill, I hate him and every time his pov appeared I think I shed a tear, but like, a tear of anger somehow.)

["Sil" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pensavo peggio.

[Mar]

Jeff this is fanfiction…

I really enjoy the movie Re-animator so when my friend picked up this book I also wanted to check it out. I feel disappointed in a way - it’s like watching the movie but it’s worse. Jeff has definitely taken some creative liberties with this one. The book is also weirdly formatted. Only worth reading so me and my friend can make fun of Jeff together

[17ashtons015]

this book is of the horror genre i enjoyed the book because they take the concept of bring someone back to life but at the cost of there body recommend this book as a good short read and was very injoiable there is also a film about it witch is very good as well

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome, gory movie, banned for a while, a must watch. Herbert with his yellow fluorescent liquid in the hypodermic needle, the brilliant student had mixed emotions about the experiment, one of his earlier experiments was on an idiot he didn't like in his foster home which made his sperm green and dateless haha. This experiment in conjuction with his Professor had stopped his heart. Injecting the yellow liquid to bring back the dead. The Professor screaming, yellow spit dripping down his mouth, greenish gastric juices burning through his fingers, blood dripping from his bugged out eyes. Herbert now in the US at a new university. His arrogance high, zero social etiquette. A class of an autopsy, the incision in the skull, the skin being pulled over the skull, the slurping sound, like peeling a large orange. Herbert brings a cat back to life and then starts on dead people in the morgue. Needs fresh victims. Herbert has a fellow doctor wanting his serum, Herbert cutting off his head with a shovel. The classic scene of the head in a dissecting pan. Bonkers, head severed, headless body moving. Zombies going nuts, 80s classic gore fest.

[Doug Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the novelization of the 1985 horror film Re-Animator, starring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Bruce Abbot, and directed by Stuart Gordon. This is NOT the H.P. Lovecraft written serial story. This book is excellent, if you are into movie tie-ins.

[Delphine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Most of my enjoyment from this book comes from the fact that it’s Re-Animator, and I love Re-Animator. There were a lot of gaps filled in with this book that I enjoyed, and it’s interesting to see how the author chose to rationalise some stuff that was explained a different way in the deleted scenes (which he clearly didn’t have access to). The Herbert West backstory was actually so stupid though - why did he have to kill his parents?? Herbert isn’t an evil person, so why would he do something like that? This book didn’t really understand Herbert West’s character and motivations, which is obviously a big flaw. Still, otherwise enjoyable.

[Ripley Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possibly the worst written book I've ever read. The amount of errors, typos and just down right confusing statements is staggering. But I had so much fun!

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

eponymous-ey sentence:
p61: "...It stands to reason, that if one can find extremely fresh specimens and recharge that chemical process--bang, we have reanimation!"

cement:
p114: It was what had started him on his career--as a child, staring at the walks in Toronto, wanting to know how what appeared to be frail and perishable could bend cement to its will.

Gnarly! What a feat it was to pull this off on the silver screen at that time.

[Norma · Rating 3 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"Oh, I have a plan."
A novel based on a 1985 film which was, itself, based on a short story by H.P.Lovecraft, neither of which has been seen or read by this reader. The film, apparently, became a cult classic, labeled 'platter heaven' and given 5 stars by Rotten Tomatoes, and of which the Washington Post wrote, 'A movie with guts: the horror genre itself has been re-animated'. The film went on to spawn two sequels: Bride of Re-Animator in 1990, and Beyond Re-Animator in 2003.

This version of Re-Animator, by Jeff Rovin, is presumably true to the original film, filled with God's and reanimated bodies and body parts, all blundering around with barely controlled blood lust, and mad medical students trying to perform the unthinkab!e. Oh, and of course, there is The necessary love interest. Pretty standard stuff, really, and on laler, not in the least scary. But it is tinny, at times, very funny, and for that it gets three stars from me.

The writing was OK, at least for this type of old fashioned horror genre, and narration by Christian Francis was also fine, although some of his character voices were rather extreme. I was fortunate in being freely gifted with a complimentary copy of Re-Animator, at my request, by the rights holder via Audible Unleashed. Thank you. This version of Re-Animator, by Jeff Robin seems somewhat redundant, however. I think I need to go back to the original Lovecraft version to see how, if at all, it differs from this one.

[Cameron Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun little read to finish within the Canada Day weekend, added some extra details that I like and had a good amount of pulp at the start.

Bought my copy off Amazon that was printed on demand and had an issue with the formating being weird, quotations wouldn't be with the rest of sentance and changes in character pov wouldn't have appropriate gaps in the pages making the reading experience annoying at times.

Also the pervert stuff with Dr Hill took ten extra step too far and the book felt unnecessary homophobic. (Like yeah it's the 80s but the writing about the police officer interrogating West and Cain was WACK)

By chapter 7 I was getting bored and by chapter 10 I was begging to be done with this book, what in the movie was an entertaining third act became 70 pages of the writer describing how dead bodies were slamming into eachother.

[Add a whitty comment about how I want this book to die and not reanimate or something like that idk]

[Abby Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a basic idea of the movie, because I'm not a fan of nudity. Just want to make it clear that I had zero background information on this title, rather than some dork named Herbert who brings people back to life, or, reanimates.

I enjoyed the introduction, it was short and straight to the point. Character goals and made clear: love, fame, success. However, the book really went downhill when Hill was killed off. From then on, the writing became pretty confusing. In the end especially, it all seemed like a jumble of reanimated, mind-controlled zombies going berserk.

In my opinion, the ending was pretty unsatisfying. I love a good cliff hanger, but this was stupid. I have absolutely no interest in re-reading this or a sequel. I haven't seen the movie yet, but with so many favorable reviews, it's ought to be better than whatever this was.

[Gavin R · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s definitely a great companion to the movie!! It adds so much backstory and insight, I only wish it wasn’t mostly Carl Hill POV. I would’ve liked to have been in Dan and Herbert’s heads a little more, maybe even Meg’s. Also Herbert is gay af and crushing on Dan and no one can convince me otherwise, ESPECIALLY after reading this.

[Em Charny · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know. Wasn't really expecting much but I came out of it happy and decently impressed with how it was handled.

It's objectively not good. It really isn't. I think it's interesting though, movie novelizations always fascinate me.

[Charlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite bad. I was led to believe Daniel Cain smoked weed in this, and no instances of that ever occurred. One star for the puzzling inclusion of the phrase “bop his baloney.”

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Animator: The Movie Tie-in Novel (by Jeff Rovin) [Narrated by Christian Francis]

It would be an insult to call Herbert West a genius, an intelligence scale has not been created that could encompass his gift. While other doctors fumble with understanding Herbert West is nothing less than a god in his own eyes. It’s just unfortunate that few people see his incredible ability. But he knows that the re-agent will change all that, all he needs to do is get the dosage right, and what if there are a few failures on the way to greatness? Who will even remember that when Herbert West, Re-Animator, has finally conquered death itself?
But there are always those men, those stupid, lazy men, who will want to take from him that which he has created. But they don’t understand that just as he can bring life to the lifeless, Herbert West is not above bringing death to those who do not deserve life, all - of course - in the name of science.

This book has all the things you would expect from a novelization from the time, though this was published some forty-five years later. Its cheezy and superficial vehicle while still managing to expand on the original film in interesting ways. That is the unique quality of almost all novelisations, and the good writers know that they are not there to try to surpass the movie, but just echo it in ways that makes us remember our viewing of it fondly.

Jeff Rovin’s adaptation of Re-Animator does this well, in my opinion. There is no way he could surpass Re-Animator, it’s simply not something most writers could do, but he echos it nicely. He adds some of the movie's deleted scenes which help expand and explain things that don’t really need explaining, but they are nice anyway. Some of the dialogue is changed, possibly due to the script being the source rather than the movie itself, and this does change the characters somewhat. This is inevitable, as a great deal of what makes the movie as memorable as it is are the performances, especially Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, so any adaptation will be “wanting”.

So, in no way should Jeff Rovin’s Re-Animator be considered as a yardstick with which to judge the movie, but as a quick read it’s well worth a fan’s time.

Chris Francis is both an author - though not of this book - and a narrator, and - so far - I like him best as a narrator. Though I’m not entirely certain he was fitting for this particular book. His reading leaned more towards the comedic than I would have preferred. However, he did run with what he had, making the characters very much his own without leaning on the way they were played in the movie, and for this he deserves credit. Not many would want to play Herbert West after Jeffrey Combs had already owned the part. Francis does a good job though, and it has to be understood mainly that my reticence on this comes down to taste, and not any issues regarding his performance.

Well worth reading if you are a fan, and worth it if you are an undemanding casual horror reader, but ultimately Jeff Rovin’s Re-Animator is a curiosity rather than a book in and of itself, and I don’t think it unfair to suggest any strengths it may have are probably due to the excellent source material rather than anything the author adds.

[Hemlock Reverence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just watch the film.

Like, the added background on the main characters is pretty cool, same with the re-introduction of the hypnosis plot and little more focus on the concept of the location of the Will in the body. But…

First of all, the usage of third person omniscient is clearly to mimic the storytelling mode of film, but it doesn’t work here. Because ultimately the horrifying part of Herbert West - in both the 1985 film and the original short story - is supposed to be that he’s a mad scientist and you simply don’t know what his next move is going to be. It’s why I’m honestly torn on knowing Herbert’s background — the added depth is nice, but humanizes him too much for the story to have the same punch as the other iterations, in this regard.

Second of all, this guy didn’t need to add the homophobic cop. It feels like he was only added so Herbert could have narration taking a stand against homophobia. It also reads as a bizarre jab at Dan and Herbert’s relationship frequently being interpreted as homoerotic - and judging by Herbert’s narration, and additional interactions with Dan, it actually reads as Jeff Rovin being a Star-Crossed/Bury Your Gays Danbert Truther.

The action sequence at the end is drug out, the iconic lines are muddled into something else, and it’s overall just a boring beat-for-beat retelling of the film.

[stevie!! · Rating 3 out of 5]

i know that this book is objectively bad but re-animator IS one of my special interests so i WILL be biased a little biased…
the book is extremely to-the-point. it is not amazingly creative or captivating like its movie counterpart. it sort of feels like a transcript rather than a book. i still like that!! but what i don’t like is that they also made it WAAAYYY less gay. which is very disappointing considering how much of the media’s appeal is pioneered from the queerness!!! they hint at herbert being gay, but after that it’s just weird kind of homophobic subtext (and direct text 😭). while it was sort of interesting to get more depth into hill’s character, i kind of… didn’t care? i think it’s bc of how deeply horrible he is that i just do not care. i wish we had gotten more information about dan!!! i wanna hear about him!!!! overall, this book is not rlly amazing or something to write home about, but it is re-animator, and for that i appreciate it 🤞

[Rocio Voncina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Titulo: Re-Animator
Autor: Jeff Rovin
Año publicado: 1987
Motivo de lectura: #PopSugarReadingChallenge2023
Lectura / Relectura: Lectura
Fisico / Electronico: Electronico
Mi edicion: -
Idioma: Ingles
Puntuacion: 3/5


Comenzaria por decir que "Re-Animator" es una pelicula de terror clasica de los 80's que me encanta (80's baby here!).

Esta novelizacion es complicada de reseñar, ya que Jeff Rovin se tomo ciertas libertades creativas, si esperas leer esto pensando que es una copia fiel a la pelicula, no lo es.

Por momentos esta novelizacion es aburrida, no puedo decir cual es realmente el fallo, y eso que la pelicula me encanta, quizas sea el estilo de escritura de Jeff, no lo se.

[Neil Sarver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, another novelization that's probably closer to 3 1/2 stars than a full 4 and are probably more interesting to fans of the movie than to a new reader.

In this case, this likes to give us a lot of perspective on really minor characters in the movie, which is an odd way in, but is actually kind of fun for me as a fan of the movie.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say about Jeff Rovin's novelisation of Stuart Gordon's film based on HP Lovecraft's "Herbert West - Reanimator"?

Well, to start, this one doesn't have the overt racism of Lovecraft's original. It also fills in a few gaps in the movie, mostly by offering information about Dr Hill's psychic powers that didn't make it into the final cut of the movie.

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine, I suppose - some bits are interesting and add more depth and detail to the story of the movie, but most of it is just the script, only fleshed out a bit. I mean, that's literally the purpose of a novelization so no problem on that part. I just feel rather neutral to it, maybe it's just that it's better as a movie, with the actors' performances and the crazy practical effects... 🤷🏻

[Lili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why was like 2/3 of this book from Dr Hill’s point of view? Like actually what was the point? Plenty of new insight about Carl Hill’s sex life but almost no new insight on Herbert West, aside from him hating homophobic cops.
I felt very sad for Megan, as I always do, but there was an expansion on a few heartfelt scenes between Meg and Dan, and it made me very sad.

[Samael Kovacs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lovely read, espically if you're into movie tie in stuff.

It did exactly what something like this should do, it covers the main story and expends on it in ways the film never ever could.

Sure it adds random stuff in here which shouldn't be in here like a out of place cop character.

But who cares, it's fun it's an easy read.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️ 3.4

Pros: somehow gayer than the movie, Megan has more personality and seems a lot more fleshed out

Cons: relies too much on the movie for context sometimes, other times gives TOO much context. I refuse to believe Hill fucks. Also I could have gone without all the insight into Hill's thoughts.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was, of course, a very campy read, just like the movie. The love scene nonsense was a bit more annoying in book form, and I could have done without it. The zombie action was a lot of fun, as was West's character. Just like the movie, it lacks the eerie horror of Lovecraft's original story, but I got out of it what I was expecting; entertainment!

[William Wessex · Rating 4 out of 5]

An awesome novelisation of Re-animator. Not only it is basically word for word the movie like most novelisations but it flushes it out adding more details and scenes. Was pleasantly surprised. Really enjoyed it.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tad bit repetitive but I'm guessing that's because it was written for daily/weekly/monthly newspaper stories. Otherwise really interesting. Can definitley see the frankenstien influence but also stand alone as it's own unique story