| Re: reanimator ending??
I know what you mean about the ending, but I disagree with your conclusion.
I think the ending, while slow and a little anti-climactic, was pretty well thought out. Of course I may be assuming too much, but here's what I thought:
*****SPOILERS*******
West had been on a course of moral degradation through his pursuit of re-animation. He starts out noble, but then we watch his morality being comprimised further and further by his own choice. Then it is pushed further by murdering the salesman then later using a peer's body.
It becomes obvious that the results from re-animation are less than human creatures! And we later realize that, in fact, NONE of West's subjects were true failures. ie: the large black laborer that digs himself out of its grave. (By the way, I despise Lovecraft for putting that image of that guy at the door with the arm in my head!! LOL).
So now we fast forward to the end. And this is where I think things are thought out.. not just a 'wrap up' ending.
The first thing that I thought was sort of a creeping terror was the taking down of the basement wall. Its such a normal act (methodically and carefully taking down the brick) in such surreal circumstances (..by flesh eating zombies!!). I think part of the 'magic' of the end was how its pointed out the method of taking the wall down... while West and the narrator are standing watching.. knowing their fate. There is no description of West panicing trying to save himself (the obvious choice for a writer)... his understanding of the situation helps us understand what is going on. West's 'creations' have become sufficient numbers, and organized, to stop more abominations from being created (and probably revenge for themselves).
And the final scene of the zombies REASSEMBLING the wall. They have shut off the cycle of reanimation and now want to disappear back into the ground.. where they belong. It would have been easy to write them just tearing apart West, then running away. But Lovecraft was very specific and unexpected in what he describes in my opinion.
If someone knows of something from Lovecraft himself that explains this further, it would be interesting to hear.
Mike |