“He’s dead!?”
“Not anymore…”
–Re-Animator (1985)
I have many things that I can thank my parents for in this world: Support for my musical ambitions, raising me to have respect and kindness, exposing me to some fantastic artists that have inspired me, helping me in times of need, and raising me on zombie films. My dad has a lot of passions, but zombie movies and zombie books are pretty high on his list of favorite things. They especially were when I was in my early 10’s when I was starting to watch more and more PG-13 and (eventually) R-rated movies. My dad has a huge collection of zombie movies, and he’s seen them all tens of times. I remember being fairly resistant to watching them because I thought they were too scary, but every once in a while, dad got the final word on the movie, and we would watch one. Zombieland (2009), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Shaun of the Dead (2004), and World War Z (2013) among others all stand out so much in my brain. At this point in the development of myself and my peers, I believe that I am probably more familiar with the concept of zombie horror than most.
So, I was fairly excited to be moving into zombie week! I felt like I knew what I was doing. Turns out, I sort of do. It was a successful, productive week, and I’m proud of all the work that I put in (despite a slight error that I may have made).
That slight error comes in the form of my selection of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells as one of my books for the week. I learned only far too late that it is not, in fact, about a mad doctor that creates zombies at all, but about a doctor who creates grotesque human/animal hybrids by way of vivisection. I was really upset by this fact, and even though I managed to still find enjoyment in the book, I also didn’t bother to finish it in favor of other important work that I had to do this week. Regardless, I hope to finish reading it at some point, and it wasn’t a total lost cause. I am able to draw parallels between Dr. Moreau and mad scientists that create zombies. They’re all fairly similar. They’re promising medical students that do secret, morally corrupt experiments involving bodily mutilation, they get kicked out and hell-bent on proving the world wrong, and they continue to commit atrocities under the false pretense of progress. Plus, I got a really sweet copy of the book, and some really upsetting imagery to lose sleep over, so that’s nice too.
The other selection was a little bit more on the money. I read Herbert West-Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft. I really loved this one. It was a brilliant, haunting story that creates a great sinister atmosphere that has a satisfying payoff. It reminded me quite a bit of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley if she had written it to be a whole lot scarier. The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator about his experiences as the only friend and assistant of the brilliant Herbert West who creates a serum that can restart a body and bring it back from brain death. The duo begins their work in college, and the tale ends 16 years later after a whole bunch of zombification. It’s told in six chapters, all with equally menacing titles: “From the Dark,” “The Plague-Daemon,” “Six Shots by Midnight,” “The Scream of the Dead,” “The Horror from the Shadows,” and “The Tomb-Legions.” These chapters were obviously released over a period of time since every chapter begins with a recap of the previous ones. It got a little frustrating to read all at once, since I got to the point where I didn’t want him to explain chapter one to me for the sixth time, but it was all ok. The story does a fantastic job of building on itself; every chapter details some form of experiment that either goes wrong, or too well. There are a few instances where the narrator mentions West’s paranoia due to the fact that there are some seemingly vengeful zombies that may or may not still be out there wanting to kill him. Well, spoiler alert: the tomb-legions are all of his still alive creations coming back to tear Herbert West limb from limb in a gruesome, yet satisfying, conclusion. This is a quintessential zombie tale, and it was great to read it to freshen my memory about zombie specifics.
The film I watched was also an absolute delight in the form of the loose adaptation of Herbert West-Reanimator: Re-Animator (1985). The movie borrows a huge amount from its source material, but it also changes a lot for the better. It names and develops the narrator, adds a few characters, shortens the story to a period of a few days instead of 16 years, and adds a bunch of black comedy. This is another piece that I don’t really want to spoil since it gets a huge recommendation from me, but I also found it interesting how in H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, Herbert West is essentially the antagonist, but in the film, he is more of a protagonist. That was less of a good choice in my opinion, but It was a great thing to see the concept of zombies visualized on screen again as a refresher. It’s been a while.
The song for this week is certainly coming along as well. I had a bit of a head start since I already was so familiar with the aspects of the theme. I’m not 100% sure that it’s going to be one that I record in full, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. I tried to make the style kind of rough and garage rock-y. I think a kind of crunchy, grimy style is a great way to convey the squeamish atmosphere of zombie tales. As far as lyrics go, I could go anywhere. Perspective of mad doctor was something I toyed with but didn’t end up enjoying as much as perspective of a raised zombie that feels like one of the disrespected dead. I thought about focusing on a zombie love story, but that’s so played out and Hot Topic-y that I didn’t feel right doing it, so I decided just to focus on the resentment that the character feels for having a tough go in life, and then having to be brought back from a peaceful death, only to get shot in the head. My brain is just full of ideas. I have to be careful. I don’t want to end up too juicy of a snack.