ARCHIVIST’S CHOICE—ARCHIVE

For the week of December 8, 2025—

 

RE-ANIMATOR

1985

My all-time favorite Frankenstein adaptation… the one and only Re-Animator, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, and Bruce Abbott as Daniel Cain. This movie was my second Frankenfilm, after Rocky Horror, but I was so ardently obsessed with it for the following year that I tend to overlook Rocky. I first watched Re-Animator a few months after my first read of Frankenstein—some Pinterest fanart caught my eye, and suddenly I was in my basement at midnight, chugging a Celsius, and spiraling into madness. After my first watch, I resolved to memorize all the bones in the human body. I switched my bedroom lights to neon green, put on “Weird Science” by Oingo Boingo, and three hours later, I had achieved my goal. I had sketched detailed depictions of the human skeleton in a raggedy composition book, and written down the names of every piece. They were committed to my mind, and still are. I wasn’t diagnosed with autism until over a year later. 

Embarrassingly, when I think back to what inspired me to pursue medicine, it’s definitely Re-Animator. I wish I could say it was Frankenstein—I mean, that would make so much sense, especially if you knew me in real life. But truly, it wasn’t until I saw Herbert West’s sweaty face on that screen, that I knew I wanted to be a doctor. 

I soon visited my mother at the hospital where she works as a nurse. As I walked the halls of the peri-op unit, I was practically bouncing from excitement. This was just like my stupid little movie! But excitement accompanied another feeling—an intense longing to absorb the secrets of the human frame.

Oh my God.

I changed my entire life path. I scheduled AP Bio & Chem classes. I dual enrolled at a career-focused school to get my PCT certification. I triple enrolled at my local community college to learn phlebotomy. Currently, I only take one non-science class. When I recently applied for university, I decided to take the pre-med track. I constantly beg my friends to let me poke them with needles. I learned how to do my first testosterone shot from the deleted scene in this movie.

I’m nervous. Like Dr. West, I don’t have great bedside manner. I’m mildly (but noticeably) autistic. I’m not joining the profession to “help people”, or even for the money. I’m pursuing medicine because, like West, and like V. Frankenstein before him, I yearn to know the inner workings of the human form. And I think that’ll go alright for me.

Well, I figured the first installment of this newsletter would be on Re-Animator. After all, most of my online friends met me through this movie back in 2023 (shoutout freaks!). This movie made me write my first-ever fanfic. I have some TERRIBLE reani-art from my sophomore year. This movie, however objectively awful, unfortunately changed my life.

Yours anguishingly,

The Archivist