When genre fans saw evidence of a new film with the RE-ANIMATOR title show up online, many began to wonder if this project could somehow to be connected to the RE-ANIMATOR trilogy that was shepherded to the screen by Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna (a trilogy that consists of RE-ANIMATOR, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, and BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR). It would be a logical conclusion to jump to, since there has long been talk of further installments in that franchise – in fact, at one time there were plans for three more movies: HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR, RE-ANIMATOR UNBOUND!, and RE-ANIMATOR BEGINS. Unfortunately, they never got off the ground.
This new RE-ANIMATOR project now in the works is called RE-ANIMATOR: EVOLUTION, and it actually has nothing to do with the BRIDE / BEYOND films. Sure, it shares the RE-ANIMATOR title and features the character Dr. Herbert West, but it's not a sequel, prequel, or remake. It's a separate adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft source material, which is public domain. Anyone can make their own RE-ANIMATOR movie if they want to.
This adaptation of Lovecraft's 1922 serialized story Herbert West – Reanimator has the following synopsis:
Pursued by the police, an ambitious neuroscientist uses a neutrino impulse to bring his dead wife back to life, unintentionally unlocking within her dormant powers that threaten the existence of everyone he knows.
Serge Levin is directing the film from a screenplay he wrote with Johnathon Schaech (pictured above), who also stars as Dr. Herbert West. Schaech is joined in the cast by Brad Dourif as Dr. William Blackmore, Lin Shaye as Meredith, and Levin himself as Dr. Ed Softly.
Although EVOLUTION started off as an original project called ANTIHUMAN, Levin has told That's Not Current that his film will be "more true to the original material of H.P. Lovecraft":
My original story Antihuman was more science driven and had nothing to do with zombies. I don’t like the zombie genre overall. It had to do with harnessing neutrinos to stimulate any living cells. It just so happened that my original concept overlapped [with] the H.P. Lovecraft Re-animator and we decided to adapt my initial script.”
Keeping it mind that it's not meant to fall in line with the Gordon / Yuzna films, I'm willing to give RE-ANIMATOR: EVOLUTION a chance.
RE-ANIMATOR (1985)