The Official Website of Jeffrey Combs

I am very sad to report that according to an interview Fangoria posted today with Stuart Gordon, House of Re-Animator is officially (and very unfortunately) not moving forward.

The plot of this fourth film would have been that the vice president unexpectedly expires and Herbert West is called in to “re-animate” his corpse to continue running the country. The script is aimed directly at the present party in power and no one wants to fund something that is so specific to the current presidency.

Gordon is quoted as saying:

“We could not find funding for it; I think people are still too afraid of offending the Bush administration…I mean, here’s RE-ANIMATOR, which is a very successful franchise, but nobody wanted to do that story. People are definitely afraid. These guys are known for payback. Everyone is just counting the days until they’re out of office…It was sort of specifically about what’s going on right now. Maybe we could rethink it or something, at some point. But it’s just one of those missed opportunities.”

You can read the full article here.

Jeff has mentioned that a Re-Animator film with a more Doctor Strangelove angle would be easier to fund, and I tend to agree. It would also be more timeless as if they go with a definite “Busheney” angle, the film would be stuck in a single generation. Twenty years from now, new fans, perhaps not even aware of the magnitude of today’s political climate would be scratching their heads, trying to comprehend all the direct associations, instead of enjoying a more wide political satire in which the characters could possibly be political figures in their lifetime.

It would also be interesting to see the possibility of one of Brian Yuzna’s concepts for the Re-An franchise come to fruition, in which Herbert would venture into R’lyeh to do battle with shoggoths and other Lovecraftian foes…possibly even Cthulhu it/himself!
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The project has been up in the air for so long, that this isn’t surprising, yet it’s still incredibly disappointing. Doubly so because both Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton were signed on to the film as well. At this point, I personally don’t care what the plotline is, I’d just love to see a reunion of the original three main cast members in a film together!

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On a more positive note, Gordon also mentions his upcoming Lovecraft adaptation The Thing on the Doorstep. They’re still casting the film, but ever since I first read the story, I’ve thought Jeff would be ideal as the narrator, Daniel Upton. This is also one of Lovecraft’s only stories that features a strong female lead character. If anyone wants to read this great story, it’s available here. More possible details soon if Jeff has any involvement in this adaptation!