Silly Done Right
January featured plenty of highs and lows on Horror Queers. We started with the brilliant sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (listen) and the silly subversiveness of German film Killer Condom (listen). Then we descended into trash for two weeks with The Covenant (listen) and The Roommate (listen).
Thankfully we wrapped the month on a high with Stuart Gordon‘s playful, gory and mean-spirited adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft‘s Re-Animator (1985).
Featuring a career defining performance by Jeffrey Combs, the film follows eccentric burgeoning scientist Herbert West (Combs) as he befriends/seduces aspiring doctor Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), much to the chagrin of Dan’s girlfriend, Megan (Barbara Crampton) and her secret admirer, creepy Dr. Hill (David Gale).
As the experiments – and the corpses – begin to pile up, it’s unclear who the real villain is. Will Herbert successfully test his serum? Will Dan live to become a doctor? Or will the decapitated head/body of Dr. Hill and his undead army rule the hospital? It’s chaos!
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Episode 267: Re-Animator (1985)
It’s time to revisit H.P. Lovecraft with a dip into horror comedy/exploitation territory and Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator (1985). C/W: sexual assault and the cat dies (again and again)
We’re praising Jeffrey Combs’ perfect performance, the tricky tonal balance (including the Dr. Hill/Megan assault), and the gory practical FX in this mad doctor film.
Plus: a queer reading of Herbert and Dan, multiple editions, naked fight scenes, and why the film deserves to be seen with a crowd.
Cross out Re-Animator!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re headed back to the 40s to discuss an early adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s iconic The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1945)!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for 286 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S01E02, sharks on an underwater plane movie No Way Up, Joe Lynch’s Suitable Flesh and an audio commentary on Heathers (1988) to coincide with our episode on Lisa Frankenstein.
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