‘Herbert West: Reanimator’: Horror Cult-Classic From H.P. Lovecraft Is Getting a Modern Remake!!

One of H.P. Lovecraft‘s classic tales of horror is coming back to the big screen. Deadline reports that Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe are penning a modernized remake of Herbert West: Reanimator. The story was previously adapted for the screen in 1985 as Re-Animator.

Although his works are famously difficult to adapt, Lovecraft has been a source of inspiration for a number of successful horror films over the years, including Color Out of Space, Banshee Chapter, and Suitable Flesh. Simon and Metcalfe are no strangers to the horror genre; together, the two wrote the Snoop Dogg blaxploitation homage Bones and the supernatural hit The Haunting in Connecticut. Simon directed the fright flicks Brain Dead and Carnosaur, while Metcalfe penned the horror sequel Fright Night Part 2 and the Brad Pitt–David Duchovny serial killer thriller Kalifornia. The film will be produced by Woodlake Entertainment, and is planned as the first in a series of elevated horror films. No director or cast has yet been announced for the film, which is now in development.

What Is ‘Herbert West: Reanimator’ About?

First published in 1922, Herbert West: Reanimator centers around Herbert West, a medical student at Lovecraft’s fictional Miskatonic University, who discovers a reagent that can return the dead to life. However, West’s revenants come back “wrong,” Pet Sematary-style, and he soon goes mad with power. The story was considered one of Lovecraft’s lesser works, but it became one of the most successful adaptations of his writing when Stuart Gordon directed Re-Animator in 1985. The film starred Jeffrey Combs as West, Bruce Abbott as Dan Cain, West’s roommate and only friend; David Gale as their sinister supervisor, Dr. Carl Hill; and Barbara Crampton as Megan, Dan’s girlfriend and, unfortunately, the object of Hill’s unwanted affections. Full of superb scares and gruesome special effects, the film did reasonable business in theaters, but was a smash hit on home video. Its success made Gordon, Combs, and Crampton horror icons; they’d all reunite the next year for another Lovecraft adaptation, From Beyond. Re-Animator itself would spawn two sequels, both starring Combs: 1990’s Bride of Re-Animator and 2003’s Beyond Re-Animator.

Herbert West: Reanimator will be executive produced by John Simmons and Roger Lewis of Westlake Entertainment, as well as Andrew Trapani, who collaborated with Simon and Metcalfe on The Haunting in Connecticut. Jeffrey Lewis and Keith Previte will produce for Woodlake.