View source for Herbert West–Reanimator

{{short description|1922 horror short story by H. P. Lovecraft}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox short story | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name              = Herbert West–Reanimator
| image             = [[File:Weird Tales March 1942.jpg|200px]]
| caption           = March 1942 issue of ''[[Weird Tales]]'' advertising the story as "a new Lovecraft series"
| author            = [[H. P. Lovecraft]]
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| genre             = [[Horror fiction|Horror]], [[Science fiction]]
| published_in      = ''Home Brew''
| publication_type  = Magazine
| media_type        = Print (periodical)
| pub_date          = February–July 1922
| wikisource        = Herbert West: Reanimator
}}

"'''Herbert West–Reanimator'''" is a [[horror fiction|horror]] [[short story]] by [[American literature|American]] writer [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. It was written between October 1921 and June 1922. It was first serialized in February through July 1922 in the amateur publication ''Home Brew''.<ref name=Straub>{{cite book | last = Straub | first = Peter | author-link=Peter Straub| title = Lovecraft: Tales | publisher = The Library of America | year = 2005 | isbn = 1-931082-72-3 | pages = 823, 828 }}</ref><ref name=Joshi>{{cite book |last1=Joshi |first1=S.T. |last2=Schultz |first2=David E. |title=An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia |date=2004 |publisher=Hippocampus Press |isbn=978-0974878911 |page=294}}</ref> The story was the basis of the [[1985 in film|1985]] [[horror film]] ''[[Re-Animator]]'' and its sequels, in addition to numerous other adaptations in various media.

The story is the first to mention Lovecraft's fictional [[Miskatonic University]]. It is also one of the first depictions of [[zombie]]s as scientifically reanimated corpses, with animalistic and uncontrollable temperaments.

==Plot==
Lovecraft originally [[Serial (literature)|serial]]ized the story in ''Home Brew'' Vol. 1 #1&ndash;6, an amateur magazine published by his friend George Julian Houtain.

===From the Dark===
[[File:Herbert West Reanimator - Correll.jpg|thumb|Illustration to the story by [[Richard V. Correll]] (''Weird Tales'', 1942)]]
The narrator recounts his history with the title character, who has recently disappeared. He details his time as a medical student at [[Miskatonic University]], when the narrator became fascinated by West's theories, which postulate that the human body is simply a complex, organic machine which can be "restarted". West eventually realizes he must experiment on human subjects. The two men steal supplies from their [[medical school]] and set up their lab in an abandoned farmhouse. At first, they pay a group of men to rob graves for them, but none of the experiments are successful. West and the narrator then rob graves themselves. One night, they steal the corpse of a construction worker who died that morning in an accident. They take it back to the farmhouse and inject it with West's [[serous fluid|serum]], but nothing happens. Later, an inhuman scream is heard from within the room containing the corpse. Moved by instinct, they flee. West accidentally sets the lab on fire after tripping over a lantern while escaping. The next day, the newspaper reports that a grave in Potter's Field, violently molested the night before, displays the claws of a beast.

===The Plague-Daemon===
Some time after the fire, West's research is stunted when Dr. Allen Halsey, the dean of the medical school, refuses to allow him access to human [[cadaver]]s or the university's dissection lab. West has a stroke of luck, though, when he and the narrator are called to help tend to the many dying victims of a local [[typhoid]] outbreak. West begins injecting his patients with a new serum, which has no greater effect than to cause some of the bodies' eyes to open. Eventually, Halsey succumbs to typhoid, and, as a final act of twisted respect for his former rival, West steals his corpse to reanimate. West and the narrator take the body back to West's room at a [[boarding house]], where they inject it with the new serum. Halsey does in fact reanimate, but, inexplicably, he is less intelligent and more violent than their previous experiment. After beating West and the narrator into unconsciousness, Halsey embarks on a killing spree, beating and murdering over a dozen people before he is apprehended by the police. The [[Human cannibalism|cannibal]] murderer is soon committed to a local mental institution. West curses the fact that too much time had elapsed and that Halsey's brain had deteriorated.

===Six Shots by Midnight===
Now licensed doctors, West and the narrator go into practice together in the small [[New England]] town of [[Bolton, Massachusetts|Bolton]], purchasing a house near the local cemetery to have easy access to corpses. The two experiment on several corpses with varying outcomes, but they do not achieve a breakthrough. Still intent upon successfully reanimating a human being, they claim the body of a boxing champion who died of a head wound in an illegal back-alley street fight. Gamblers betting on the fight arrange for West to dispose of the body, as it clears them of any crime. West and the narrator hurriedly take the body back to the lab and inject it with another new serum. When nothing happens, they take the corpse out to a meadow and bury it. Several days later, there are reports around town of a missing child. The child's mother dies during a fit of hysteria due to her weak heart, and the father tries to kill West in a fit of rage because West could not save her. That night, West and the narrator are startled by an aggressive pounding on their back door. Opening the door, West and the narrator come face to face with the boxer's corpse, covered in mildew and dirt and hunched over at the back entrance. Hanging from the boxer's mouth is the arm of the missing child. Almost instantly, West kills the boxer by emptying an entire revolver into him.

===The Scream of the Dead===
Some time after West's killing of the reanimated boxer, the narrator returns home from vacation to discover the perfectly preserved corpse of a man in the home he shares with West. West explains that during the narrator's absence, he perfected a type of [[embalming fluid]] that perfectly preserves a corpse as it is the moment the chemical is injected into the bloodstream; injected at the precise moment of death, the chemical prevents decomposition from even beginning. West reveals to the narrator that the dead man is a traveling salesman who had a heart attack during a physical examination; as the man died before West's eyes, he was able to preserve it with the embalming fluid and has been waiting for the narrator to return so that the two of them can reanimate the body together. West injects the body with his latest serum. Signs of life gradually begin to appear. When the narrator questions the man, he mouths words with seeming rationality and intent. Just before the man returns to the dead, he begins screaming and thrashing violently, revealing in a horrible scream that he was in fact murdered by West.

===The Horror from the Shadows===
Five years later, West and the narrator become involved in [[World War I]] as a means to procure more bodies. Serving as a medic in [[Flanders]], West has gone beyond the point of simply trying to reanimate corpses; his experiments now include isolating parts of the body and reanimating them independently in an attempt to prove their machine-like quality. On the battlefield, West befriends his commanding officer and fellow medic, [[Major (rank)|Major]] [[Sir]] Eric Moreland Clapham-Lee, and shares with him his theories and methods on reanimation. Shortly thereafter, Clapham-Lee suffers near-[[decapitation]] and dies when his plane is shot down. West immediately begins work on Clapham-Lee's body and injects the trunk of his body with his serum and places the head in a vat. The corpse comes to life and begins thrashing violently, reliving its last moments of life. Clapham-Lee's severed head begins shouting from across the room. The building is then destroyed by a bomb shell. West and the narrator survive, but there is no sign of Clapham-Lee's head or body. The two men assume that he was vaporized in the blast, although West is since known to speak fearfully of a headless doctor with the power of reanimation.

===The Tomb-Legions===
A year after returning from the war, West has moved into a house which is directly connected to an ancient system of [[catacombs]] from settler times. While reading the newspaper one night, West comes across an article detailing a series of strange, seemingly nonsensical events involving a riot at an insane asylum. A wax-headed man (Clapham-Lee) followed by a group of disturbing-looking followers carrying a box had demanded that the detained "cannibal" killer (Halsey) be released to them. When the invaders were refused exchange for the killer, they took him by force. West spends the remainder of the night in a near-[[catatonic]] state until someone comes to the door. The narrator answers only to find a group of men. One of the figures presents the narrator with the large box, which the narrator then gives to West. West refuses to open the box and insists that they incinerate it. The two men carry it to the basement and burn it. As soon as the box burns, the zombies tear through the wall of West's home via the catacombs. Leaving the narrator alone, the zombies soon attack West. Realizing that his own death is imminent, West allows the zombies to [[Disembowelment|disembowel]] him. As a final insult, Clapham-Lee decapitates West's corpse before leading his army of zombies off into the night. The narrator does not reveal much to the police about West, and they disbelieve the information he does reveal since the catacomb wall seems intact and undisturbed. The narrator is forever haunted, considered mad, by his knowledge of what transpired and the lack of resolution regarding the raised corpses.

==Characters==
{{Infobox character
|image       =  Herbert West.jpg
|caption     = Cover art for ''ReAnimator'' #1 (April 2015) by [[Jae Lee]].
|name        = Herbert West
|series      = ''[[Re-Animator]]''
|first       = "Herbert West&mdash;Reanimator"
|last        = 
|creator     = [[H. P. Lovecraft]]
|occupation  = [[Scientist]]
|affiliation = 
|portrayer   = [[Jeffrey Combs]]
|gender = Male
|family = 
|children =
|relatives =
|nationality =[[Americans|American]]
}}
*'''Herbert West:''' The inventor of a special solution, or "[[reagent]]", that can resurrect the dead. He is portrayed as a brilliant, narcissistic, and intensely driven young man of an amoral nature, traits carried over into the 1985 film. His arrogance and lack of respect for life (and death) prove to be his undoing. He is depicted as the inventor of a solution that can [[Undeath|re-animate]] deceased bodies. However, most subjects that have undergone the re-animation process turn violent and, after failed attempts to return to their own graves, wreak havoc. In Lovecraft's tale, Herbert West was ostracized by his fellow medical students because he believed he could overcome death and had only one friend: the unnamed narrator of the story. West was portrayed by actor [[Jeffrey Combs]] in the [[Re-Animator|1985 film adaptation of the story]]. Combs reprised the role in the film's two sequels, ''[[Bride of Re-Animator]]'' (1990) and ''[[Beyond Re-Animator]]'' (2003). In 2013, West as portrayed by Combs was selected by [[Empire (film magazine)|''Empire'' magazine]] as the 42nd greatest horror film character, describing him as "one of cinema's greatest mad scientists".<ref name="Empire 2013">{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-horror-characters/|title=The 100 Best Horror Movie Characters|date=October 29, 2013|website=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|access-date=August 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029123735/http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-horror-characters|archive-date=October 29, 2016}}</ref> Outside of [[Re-Animator (film series)|the film series]], the character has appeared in comic books, novels, and video games.
*'''The narrator:''' West's only friend, the narrator initially attaches himself to West in college out of a kind of hero worship mentality, awed at the daring of West's experiments. Over time, though, as West's experiments become more morally reprehensible, and West seems to lose interest in science and instead indulge in sheer perversity, the narrator comes to fear West and becomes a kind of slave to him, too afraid of West's capacity for evil to outright abandon him. In the [[Re-Animator|1985 film adaptation]], the character is named Dan Cain (played by [[Bruce Abbott]]).
*'''Dean Allen Halsey:''' The Dean of Miskatonic University's medical school. He does not take West's theories about reanimation seriously and the narrator characterizes him as benevolently old-fashioned and closed-minded. Dr. Halsey dies from being severely overworked during a typhoid outbreak and is hailed as a community hero. West reanimates his body as a sign of respect, to convince him – and others – of the validity of his theories. Halsey, however, returns to life as an inarticulate, cannibalistic ghoul. The reanimated Halsey's behavior is mistaken for insanity and he is locked in a mental institution.
*'''Major Sir Eric Moreland Clapham-Lee:''' West and the narrator's commanding officer during World War I. As the narrator does not know him terribly well, little information is given about him, other than he shares West's perverse fascination with cheating death. After Maj. Clapham-Lee dies when his plane is shot down, West decides to "honor" Clapham-Lee by chopping off his head and trying to bring his body back to life. The experiment backfires when the decapitated body revives, acting out its final actions before dying in a plane crash, and the severed head also revives yelling for his co-pilot to "jump". The reanimated Maj. Clapham-Lee, now wearing a head of wax and the original head in a black case, spends the next year finding the "survivors" of West's experiments, which West was not fast enough to kill off, leading them in an assault on West in revenge for his attempts to use them to play God. West is torn apart, while the zombie of Clapham-Lee takes the head, since West took his.

==Inspiration==
According to his letters, Lovecraft wrote the story as a parody of [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''[[Frankenstein]]''.{{Citation needed|reason=we need an actual link to the letters, or better yet, a citation of someone discussing the letters|date=February 2014}} He drops in numerous ''Frankenstein'' references (even hinting at the poetry of [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], as Shelley did).

==Reaction==
Lovecraft claimed to be unhappy with the work, writing it only because he was being paid five dollars for each installment.<ref name=Straub/> He disliked the requirement that each installment end with a [[cliffhanger]] and begin with a recap of the previous installment.<ref name=Hallcom>{{cite book |title=Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914-2008 |url=https://archive.org/details/comedyhorrorfilm00hall|url-access=limited |last=Hallenbeck |first=Bruce G.|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|year=2009 |isbn=9780786453788|page=142}}</ref> The book ''Science Fiction: The Early Years'' called "Herbert West–Reanimator" "wretched work".<ref>[[E. F. Bleiler]] and [[Richard Bleiler]]. ''Science Fiction: The Early Years''. Kent State University Press, 1990. (p.454). {{ISBN|9780873384162}}.</ref> In an overview of the ''Re-Animator'' films, Bruce Hallenbeck commented that "'Herbert West: Reanimator' is not one of Lovecraft's better tales; it's over-the-top, clichéd and blatantly racist. ... What it does possess in abundance is a love of the [[Gothic fiction|Gothic horror tale]]; ultimately, the story is both an homage to and an affectionate parody of Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''."<ref name=Hallcom/> Lovecraft scholar [[S. T. Joshi]] claimed that "Herbert West–Reanimator" is "universally acknowledged as Lovecraft's poorest work".<ref>[http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/lovecraft.html Scriptorium - H.P. Lovecraft] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050718080221/http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/lovecraft.html |date=2005-07-18 }}</ref>

In 2013, West as portrayed by Jeffrey Combs was selected by [[Empire (magazine)|''Empire'' magazine]] as the 42nd greatest horror film character, describing him as "one of cinema's greatest mad scientists".<ref name="Empire 2013" /> When the list was updated in 2020, West placed 43rd.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-horror-characters/|title=The 100 Best Horror Movie Characters|date=October 31, 2020|website=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|access-date=August 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804005148if_/https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-horror-characters/|archive-date=August 4, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Adaptations and appearances==
===Comics and periodicals===
*"Herbert West, Reanimated", written as a round-robin serial by [[Robert M. Price|Robert Price]] and others, for ''[[Crypt of Cthulhu]]'' #64 (1989), is a sort of sequel in which Sir Eric Moreland Chapman-Lee resurrects and reassembles Dr. West, who then escapes, kills and resurrects his assistant, and resumes his increasingly wild experiments with life & death, leading to mind-transfers & cloning.
* [[Adventure Publications]], an imprint of [[Malibu Comics]], published two series related to the films starting in 1991. First was a three-issue comic-book adaptation of the first film, scripted by Steven Philip Jones and drawn by [[Christopher Jones (comics)|Christopher Jones]]. It was followed by an original four-issue prequel titled ''Re-Animator: Dawn of the Re-Animator'', written by Bill Spangler. In 2017 [[Arrow Video]] included reprints of these comics in their [[Blu-ray]] DVD collections of the two films.
*In issue #14 of the magazine ''From the Tomb'' (released in June 2004), edited by Peter Normanton, various other 1950s horror comics' homages to Herbert West are discussed, including "Atlas' Adventures" in ''Weird Worlds'' #24, where Dr. Karl Veblen created a "life generator" serum. He had a co-conspirator arranged to revive himself after death with it, but the co-conspirator returned [[Cleopatra]] instead.
*More recently, [[Dynamite Entertainment]] has produced a comic, ''[[Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator]]'', a crossover with Herbert West from Lovecraft's short story, "Herbert West–Reanimator", and well known from the film ''Re-Animator'' and its sequels. However, ''Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator'' is inspired by neither the film ''Re-Animator'' nor the original short story; instead it portrays West as an immortal supervillain in league with [[Yog-Sothoth]], battling [[Ash Williams]] from the [[Evil Dead (series)|''Evil Dead'' film series]].
*In 2016 [[Caliber Comics]] published all six Herbert West stories in "H. P. Lovecraft's Reanimator Tales." The book was edited by [[Steven Philip Jones]]. An original sequel, "The Empty House on Harley Street," and a radio script for [[From the Dark]] written by Jones also appear alongside Lovecraft's seminal essay [[Supernatural Horror in Literature]].
* Herbert West is the doctor that Mayor [[Harvey Dent]] sees in the [[Batman]] ''[[Elseworlds]]'' comic book miniseries, ''The Doom That Came To Gotham''.
* Herbert West makes a guest appearance in the [[Devil's Due Publishing]] series ''[[Hack/Slash]]'' (#15-17) in a crossover called "Hack/Slash vs. Re-Animator" where the father of the main heroine, [[Cassie Hack]], is an assistant to Herbert. During one of his experiments, he reanimates her mother, the Lunch Lady, who almost starts a killing spree. However, with Cassie's help, he destroys the Lunch Lady and eventually disappears from Cassie and Vlad's sight. It is hinted that the government is now interested in his work.
* West is a main character in the [[Zenescope Entertainment]] comic ''Chronicles of Doctor Herbert West'', essentially a modern retelling of the Lovecraftian novel in which the ''hidden narrator'' is now Megan, who is his lover and girlfriend while in his college years, and his obsession with death is now explained as the byproduct of a childhood trauma: while going to church with his devout family, he saw his mother and sister run over by a bus.  He renounces the idea of an immortal soul reaching a heavenly afterlife, swearing that he will find a way to bring back his loved ones. It appears to currently be on hiatus.
* Randy MilHolland's webcomic ''[[Something Positive]]'' contains a [http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp07132007.shtml musical adaptation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227213648/https://somethingpositive.net/sp07132007.shtml |date=2019-12-27 }} of Herbert West in the "Out of Tune" storyline.

===Films===
[[File:Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs).jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Jeffrey Combs]] as Herbert West in ''[[Bride of Re-Animator]]''.]]
*[[Stuart Gordon]]'s film ''[[Re-Animator]]'' (1985) is the most famous adaptation. Updated to a contemporary setting, ''Re-Animator'' takes its plot and characters from the first two episodes of the serial, depicting West as a medical student at Miskatonic University. The film is set over a fairly short period of time where West and Cain are still medical students, whereas the short story played out over the span of decades. The ''[[Bride of Re-Animator]]'' (1990) uses material from the last two episodes. In the first two films the equivalent of West's nameless companion is Dr. Daniel Cain, played by [[Bruce Abbott]], who finds himself embroiled in West's experiments. ''Bride'' was followed by ''[[Beyond Re-Animator]]'' (2003), which moved Herbert West to a prison and had very little to do with Lovecraft's story.
*Director Dylan Mars Greenberg has produced and directed a film titled ''Dr. West : A Reanimator Parody''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://allevents.in/kings%20county/first-look-at-dr-west-a-reanimated-parody-free/1781519182105756|title=First Look at DR. WEST: A Reanimated Parody Free|website=allevents.in|language=en|access-date=2019-12-27|archive-date=2019-12-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227001420/https://allevents.in/kings%20county/first-look-at-dr-west-a-reanimated-parody-free/1781519182105756|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*In 2017, Italian filmmaker Ivan Zuccon made an adaptation filmed in Italian titled ''Herbert West: Re-Animator''. It stars Emanuele Cerman as Herbert West and Alessio Cherubini as Herbert West, Junior.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q110460200|title=Herbert West: Re-Animator}}</ref>
* West is also a character in the [[Sweden|Swedish]] [[Lovecraftian]] [[horror film]] ''Kammaren''. The scriptwriters did a Swedish take on the name and it became Herbert Vest. He was played by the Swedish actor Kaj Stenberg.
* Herbert West appears in a post-credits scene in the 2020 film ''[[Castle Freak (2020 film)|Castle Freak]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/castle-freak-2020-post-credit-scene-herbert-west-reanimator/|title=Castle Freak 2020: How A Post Credit Scene Teases A Re-Animator Remake Movie|last=Bachman|first=Mara|date=December 12, 2020|website=[[Screen Rant]]|access-date=August 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804004606/https://screenrant.com/castle-freak-2020-post-credit-scene-herbert-west-reanimator/|archive-date=August 4, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Games===
* The story's narrative forms part of the plot of a video game based on Lovecraft's work, ''[[Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land]]'' (2012).
* The online flash game ''Deanimator'' is based on H. P. Lovecraft's original character.
* West is a main character in the Japanese video game ''[[Operation Darkness]]'', a WWII-era tactical-RPG/third-person shooter about an Allied special forces unit that possesses supernatural abilities. West is the team medic. (In the English version of the game, West is renamed "Herbert East.")
* In the video game ''[[Obscure 2]]'', the player picks up a keycard in the hospital belonging to a man named Herbert West.
* In the endless runner game ''[[Zombie Carnaval|Zombie Tsunami]]'', the player at one point unlocks a potion called "Herbert West's Finest Reanimation Serum".
* In the video game ''[[Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter]]'', a pamphlet promoting ''[[Bethlem Royal Hospital|Bedlam Asylum]]'' states to "Contact Dr. Herbert West for questions"

===Literature and audiobooks===
*An [[audiobook]] version of the short story, published in 1999, is performed by [[Jeffrey Combs]], who played Herbert West in the three film versions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=976 |website=SFFAudio|title= The future never sounded so good|date=7 March 2007 }}</ref>
*Audrey Driscoll's novel ''The Friendship of Mortals'' (2010) expands on Lovecraft's story. Driscoll's primary focus is the relationship between West and the narrator, who is neither nameless nor a physician, but a Miskatonic University librarian named Charles Milburn. The plot roughly follows the original but adheres to the premise that West is undone by his experiments. He also the main character in Driscoll's ''Islands of the Gulf'' (2012) and ''Hunting the Phoenix'' (2012).
*A radio-drama adaption of the short story was published in 2017 by the [[Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast]], with Herbert West being played by Patrick Kelly and the narrator being played by Jamie Keagy.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thesecretcabal.com/Home/ArtMID/426/ArticleID/200/Tales-from-Beyond-the-Grave-Herbert-West-Reanimator|title=Tales from Beyond the Grave: Herbert West - Reanimator|work=The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast: A bi-weekly podcast about board games, card games, miniatures and role playing games.|access-date=2018-02-08|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209002919/http://www.thesecretcabal.com/Home/ArtMID/426/ArticleID/200/Tales-from-Beyond-the-Grave-Herbert-West-Reanimator|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*In 2015, writer Joshua Chaplinsky remodeled the cover of the film ''Re-Animator'', starring [[Kanye West]], and created a spin story where West tried to revive a dead [[hip hop]] scene.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Yeezy gets Lovecraftian in 'Kanye West - Reanimator'|work= EW|url = http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/20/yeezy-meets-hp-lovecraft-kanye-west-reanimator|access-date = 2016-01-08|date=August 20, 2015}}</ref>
*Herbert West and elements form ''The Plague-Daemon'' feature prominently in ''Lovecraftian: The Shipwright Circle'' by [[Steven Philip Jones]]. The ''Lovecraftian'' series reimagines the weird tales of [[H. P. Lovecraft]] into one single universe modern epic.
* The character of Herbert West has had brief cameo appearances in [[Kim Newman]]'s [[Anno Dracula series|''Anno Dracula'' series]] novels ''[[The Bloody Red Baron]]'' and ''[[Dracula Cha Cha Cha (novel)|Dracula Cha Cha Cha]]'', serving as a colleague of [[The Island of Doctor Moreau|Dr. Moreau]], [[Alraune|Jakob Ten Brincken]], and [[Doctor Septimus Pretorius]].
* West is an important, but peripheral character in Pete Rawlik's novel ''Reanimators'' (2013), in which his previously unnamed colleague is identified as Daniel Cain, using the name assigned him in the Stuart Gordon movie. The novel tells the story of a previously unknown rival of West's, as well as the secret history of Lovecraft's Arkham country.

===Anime===
* The Lovecraft-based [[anime]] series ''[[Demonbane]]'' reimagines Herbert West as a guitar-playing lunatic mad scientist.

===Music===
* "Herbert West" is the title of a 2007 song by UK band Heartwear Process.
* "Herbert West" is also the title of a 2008 song by US band Pipe Supply, named by Jiggly J. Slickwood as a tribute to the Re-Animator movies.
* "Herbert West Starter Kit" is the title of a 2016 song by US rapper Extra Kool.
* "Herbert West" was also the name of a rock band based in Barrow-in-Furness in the 1980s.
* Herbert West is referenced by name in the song "Re-Animator" by Brazilian metal band "Blasfemador", the song pays homage to the short story.<ref>https://blasfemador.bandcamp.com/track/re-animator#:~:text=os%20planos%20de-,Herbert%20West,-O%20grito%20do</ref>

==Other appearances==
* A resurrected Herbert West appears in the short story "The Empty House on Harley Street" by [[Steven Philip Jones]] in the anthology "Reanimator: The Grewsome Adventures of Herbert West" from [[Caliber Comics]] [https://www.amazon.com/H-P-Lovecrafts-Reanimator-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/163529827X?asin=163529827X&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1].
* Herbert West is one of the characters in the novel "Lovecraftian: The Shipwright Circle" by [[Steven Philip Jones]] and published by [[Caliber Comics]] [https://www.amazon.com/Lovecraftian-Shipwright-Steven-Philip-Jones/dp/1635298997/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LXRZIM7ZB4ZW&keywords=lovecraftian+the+shipwright+circle&qid=1660671031&s=books&sprefix=lovecraftian+the+shipwright+circle%2Cstripbooks%2C185&sr=1-1]. The "Lovecraftian" novel series reimagines the stories of [[H. P. Lovecraft]] as a [[single-universe narrative]].
* Herbert West has a main role in the parody musical ''[[A Shoggoth on the Roof]]'', published by the [[H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society]]. 
* [[BPAL|The Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab]] has a perfume called "Herbert West" in its ''A Picnic in Arkham'' collection.
* "Herbert West" appears in the radio drama series ''Our Fair City'' as a slightly crazed re-animator/scientist.
* The story, along with "[[From Beyond (short story)|From Beyond]]", was adapted into the 2022 web series ''[[The Resonator]]'' for [[Full Moon Features]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=EXCLUSIVE: Behind the Scenes of 'Miskatonic U: The Resonator' |url=https://signalhorizon.com/exclusive-behind-the-scenes-of-miskatonic-u-the-resonator/ |website=Signal Horizon|date=22 January 2021 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |first=Howard P. |last=Lovecraft |chapter=Herbert West&mdash;Reanimator |orig-year=1922 |year=1986 |title=Dagon and Other Macabre Tales |editor=S. T. Joshi |edition=9th corrected printing |publisher=Arkham House |location=Sauk City, WI |isbn=0-87054-039-4}} Definitive version.
* {{cite book |first=Howard P. |last=Lovecraft |year=1999 |title=More Annotated Lovecraft |chapter=Herbert West&mdash;Reanimator |orig-year=1922 |editor1=Joshi, S. T. |editor2=Cannon, Peter |edition=1st |publisher=Dell |location=New York City |isbn=0-440-50875-4}} With explanatory footnotes.
* {{cite episode |author=Taniguchi, G. |author2=Daitoku, T. |author3=Terakawa, H. |date=2008 |title=Mystery of the zombies! Hogback's nightmarish research laboratory |series=One Piece |publisher=Fuji TV}} TV episode.
*[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/reanimator.htm ''Herbert West : Reanimator'' by H. P. Lovecraft]
*{{cite book|first=Howard P.|last=Lovecraft|chapter=Herbert West&mdash;Reanimator|orig-year=1922|year=1986|title=Dagon and Other Macabre Tales|editor=S. T. Joshi|edition=9th corrected printing|publisher=Arkham House|location=Sauk City, WI|isbn=978-0-87054-039-4}} Definitive version.
*{{cite book|first=Howard P.|last=Lovecraft|year=1999|title=More Annotated Lovecraft|chapter=Herbert West&mdash;Reanimator|orig-year=1922|editor=S. T. Joshi |editor2=Peter Cannon|edition=1st|publisher=Dell|location=New York City, NY|isbn=978-0-440-50875-5}} With explanatory footnotes.

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Herbert West: Reanimator}}
* [http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hwr.aspx Full-text] at The H. P. Lovecraft Archive
* {{ISFDB title|41885}}
* {{librivox book | title=Herbert West: Reanimator | author=H. P. LOVECRAFT}}
** [http://librivox.org/collected-public-domain-works-of-h-p-lovecraft/ Free public domain reading of the text]

{{H. P. Lovecraft}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert West-Reanimator}}
[[Category:1922 short stories]]
[[Category:Biopunk novels]]
[[Category:Cthulhu Mythos short stories]]
[[Category:Fiction set in the 1910s]]
[[Category:Horror short stories]]
[[Category:Resurrection in film]]
[[Category:Short stories adapted into films]]
[[Category:Short stories by H. P. Lovecraft]]
[[Category:Short stories set in Belgium]]
[[Category:Short stories set in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American short stories]]
[[Category:Works originally published in American magazines]]
[[Category:World War I short stories]]
[[Category:Short stories about zombies]]
[[Category:Literature first published in serial form]]
[[Category:Short stories about missing people]]
[[Category:Short stories set on farms]]
[[Category:Fiction about zombie outbreaks]]