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Re-Animator
- The Movie Tie-in Novel
- Narrated by: Christian Francis
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
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Re-Animator
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Summary
The novelization of the cult horror film Re-Animator, H.P. Lovecraft’s wildly outrageous tale of grisly horror that has become a modern cult-classic overnight, comes to audiobook to haunt, thrill, and delight the mad scientist in us all.
Reanimation, 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 reanimation.
Zombies are loose, and now, West cannot control the very beasts he has recreated. The born-again dead are unstoppable, and 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 are all of his woes coming to a head?
Re-Animator - an intense book of macabre humor.
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What listeners say about Re-Animator
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Norma Miles
- 12-12-20
" 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.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alan Preece
- 18-06-22
A Curiosity of a Book...
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.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Debbie McLean
- 30-12-20
good
a bit difficult to get into but I eventually did and quite enjoyed it xxxxxxxx
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