chasing dreamscapes, always running

I am taking these movies so seriously I promise

this is beautiful

So y'all know how Jeff Combs was doing a theater production which someone involved with Re-Animator saw him in, and how he's suggested that the character he played there influenced how he played Herbert West.

I relayed this to @andalusiapunk and they were like "Oh! That explains it! He's theater-acting!"

I am not an expert by any means, but I did misspend my teenage years in a magnet school as a theater student. I understood immediately what they meant by theater-acting and I'm mad I didn't come up with it.

A lot of this has to do with Herbert's overall physicality. We all love talking about how he's hyper-dramatic, right? How he moves in a particular way that is extremely precise and sharp and, to be on point, theatrical. How he spins the tape recorder in his hand; how he offers Meg's heart in BRIDE; how he fumbles or manipulates syringes in various scenes.

None of that's in the script and it's not necessarily justified by what's happening... unless you're trying to make sure the audience in the backass end of the theater can see you're holding something small, like a tape recorder or a syringe or a human heart. As I observed elsewhere, you can trick the audience into 'seeing' or 'hearing' things that aren't present onstage or screen if your body language insists on its reality.

And, not to get into super-nerdy film history, but: originally theater-acting and movie-acting were one and the same. Early films are blocked like plays, they have extended sequences without constant cutting between shots (like an audience watching a play), and the extremely clear, over-enunciation of a play-actor trying to make sure those poor bastards in the back can hear what they're saying. And like a play, all acting was heavily rehearsed and expected to hit the same points and produce the same results every time.

What changed this was Marlon Brando introducing the idea of improvisation into movie-acting, a choice which also led to a greater flexibility in movie-acting... including delivery of lines. A more "natural", verisimilitudinous delivery became acceptable for films. This doesn't make either style bad, to be clear: each serves its purpose.

Bruce Abbott (to name the most obvious example) is doing movie-acting. He's got some Protagonist Accent going for him, but he has a clear variety of tone and a great deal of subtlety with his facial expressions and delivery. The same goes for the rest of the cast, although David Gale kind of straddles the line between these two styles.

Herbert's delivery is pure theater-acting. When he and Dan invade the morgue, Dan is whispering--but Herbert is stage whispering, which is why he hisses so much. I've made jokes on here before about how Herbert was born on Skid Row in Little Shop of Horrors-verse, and he thinks he's supposed to be in a musical... and, you know, LSOH is a film based on a play, only in that movie, EVERYBODY is theater-acting.

Anyhow, lotta words to find a different way to compliment Combs and the rest of the REANI cast on their acting, because I live for sorcery enjoying these damn movies.

Theater acting vs movie acting really is two different animals. And I honestly LOVE it when they blend...

Got tired of working on this, but it was a fun practice

What is wrong with these guys

PRETTYYYYY

Why did she quote this

LMFAOOOO BARBARA YOU ABSOLUTE LEGEND

new edit yay

this fucks so hard

Re-agent comes in a little glass vial...?

cat dead, details later

(oh hey is this my every year's toxic-green-gremlin acrylic fanart? woaaah? there are 2023 and 2022 btw)

Reanimator AU where everything is the same except whenever Dan and Herbert make super intense eye contact they actually kiss each other on the mouth 💕💕

EXCUSE ME THESE ARE FUCKING *STUNNING*

Thinking about dropping Dan and Herbert into The Thing (1982) and what might happen and the only conclusion I can come to is that they would survive but Herbert would actively make everything worse. He’s mixing his reagent and the thing’s cells to see what will happen. He’s intentionally infecting people for science. Everyone thinks he’s infected but he’s not he’s just a fucking problem. Dan nearly dies several times but always escapes and he’s the only thing standing between Herbert and MacReady putting a bullet in his head.

I didn't know how badly I needed this crossover until this very moment...thank you

Hannibal / Re-Animator / Bride of Reanimator

oh hello, extremely specific intersection of my particular brainrots

Ngl bride of reanimator drives me insane sometimes

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this fucks severely

Personal favorite

I AM SCREAMING