Herbert West

Herbert West is a fictional character played by Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator and its sequels.

Related Topics:
Jeffrey Combs - Re-Animator

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Herbert West is the inventor of a special solution called a reagent, that when injected into the top of the spine of a recently deceased body, causes the body's mechanical living functions to return to the body. However, most subjects that have undergone the 're-animation' process have turned violent and shown barely any control over their higher level functions, such as talking and thinking.

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In the stories by H.P. Lovecraft, Herbert West was ostrasized from his medical students due to his beliefs in his ability to overcome death, and had only one friend- an unnamed narrator from whose point of view the stories were told.

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In the adaptation by Stuart Gordon, West is a transfer student to Miskatonic University who's been working with a Swiss doctor on his solution. He's thrust into the life of one Daniel Cain, a star student and the boyfriend of the Dean's daughter, Megan Halsey. Several bad things happen, and at the end of the film, Herbert West appears to be dead. This doesn't stop him from reappearing in two more sequels though.

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Let it be noted that the Herbert West stories were hated by H.P. Lovecraft himself, who called them drivel written down to the masses when he was in need of money.

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Herbert West is developing a fan following to rival that of Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees on select sections of the internet, and several people have written fan fiction about him or characters related to him.

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