Herbert West, horror’s titular Re-Animator, has starred in three films, but an unmade fourth saw the resurrection of president George W. Bush. Based loosely on the H.P. Lovecraft story Herbert West - Reanimator, director Stuart Gordon’s first Re-Animator film hit theaters in 1985, and quickly became known for its willingness to push the envelope regarding gore and nudity, as well as dark humor. In fact, the film was released unrated, back in a time when that kind of thing still happened on a semi-regular basis.
Re-Animator remains a cult classic to this day, and earned its first sequel, Bride of Re-Animator, in 1989. Gordon didn’t come back to direct, turning those duties over to Brian Yuzna, who produced the first film. With Jeffrey Combs back as Herbert West and Bruce Abbott returning as West’s hapless colleague Dan Cain, Bride of Re-Animator proved just about as fun and uninhibited as its predecessor, albeit without popular scream queen Barbara Crampton reprising the role of Meg.
The third, and to date final, Re-Animator entry came in 2003. Beyond Re-Animator again saw Combs’ West return, this time conducting re-animation experiments inside the prison in which he’s an inmate, with Yuzna back as director. However, there were once plans to continue the saga with a politically-charged Re-Animator 4, titled House of Re-Animator. Sadly, the idea never came to pass, but here’s what we know about it.
House of Re-Animator: Re-Animator’s Unmade Political Sequel
News of plans for House of Re-Animator first emerged in 2006, right in the middle of the presidency of George W. Bush. It seems almost quaint to remember in the age of Donald Trump’s many scandals, but Bush was considered a very divisive, controversial figure as commander-in-chief. House of Re-Animator would’ve seen Stuart Gordon finally return to the franchise as director, and would’ve brought back Dan Cain after he was absent from Beyond Re-Animator. The story would’ve revolved around a very Bush-esque president that dies in office during his term, leading the government to enlist Herbert West and his reagent serum in order to revive the POTUS.
While the president in question wouldn’t have explicitly been George W. Bush - after all, killing off the current president in one’s movie is likely to draw unwanted attention - House of Re-Animator’s inspiration was planned to be pretty obvious, being like W in all but name. Where things get really surprising is that acclaimed actor William H. Macy was actually at one point attached to play the Bush-like president in question. As for why this particular version of Re-Animator 4 never happened, Re-Animator producers are said to have had cold feet due to fear of getting on the bad side of the actual White House, and by the time the project had any momentum, Barack Obama had just become the new U.S. president. Naturally, this kind of dampened enthusiasm for a zombie satire about the Bush administration.
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