The Unclean

After being expelled from the Zurich University Institute of Medicine in Switzerland, Dr. Herbert West arrives at Miskatonic University in New England in order to further his studies. He rents a room from fellow medical student Dan Cain, and converts the building’s basement into his own personal laboratory. Cain, meanwhile, is secretly dating Megan, daughter of school dean Alan Halsey.

There is an instant animosity between West and faculty member Dr. Carl Hill. Hill’s theory of brain death bears a remarkable resemblance to that of West’s mentor, Dr. Hans Gruber, a professor in Zürich. In the opening scene, West brings this dead professor back to life with horrific side-effects; a result, as West explains, of having given Gruber an overdose of his re-agent. Undaunted, West continues his personal research at Miskatonic, soon re-animating Dan’s dead cat, Rufus. Dan discovers West’s experiments and West quickly recruits him as his partner.

Soon the two sneak into the morgue to test the re-agent on a human subject. The corpse revives and goes on a rampage, attacking both West and Cain before escaping into the autopsy room. Dean Halsey stumbles upon the scene and, despite attempts by both West and Cain to save him, is brutally killed by the re-animated corpse. Armed with a bone saw, West finally manages to dispatch that which he’s only just brought back to life. Hardly fazed by the violence and excited at the prospect of a fresh dead subject to work with, West injects Halsey with the re-agent. Halsey returns to life, but in a zombie-like state.

Dr. Hill discovers West’s work, imprisons and eventually lobotomizes Halsey, while forcing West to continue the research so that Hill can take credit for the serum’s discovery. West kills Hill, decapitating him with a shovel, then re-animates both his head and body. Hill knocks out West and escapes, carrying his head, stealing the serum and sending the lobotomized Halsey out to kidnap Megan. Meanwhile, Dan and Megan find evidence of Hill’s secret obsession with her and that Hill had lobotomized her father, forcing him to obey Hill’s wishes.

Cain and West track Halsey to the morgue where they find Hill molesting a restrained Megan. Cain frees Megan while West distracts Hill. Hill reveals that he has re-animated and lobotomized several corpses so they will do his bidding. However, Megan manages to get through to her lobotomized father, who fights off the corpses long enough for Cain and Megan to escape. In the ensuing chaos, Halsey is torn to pieces by the other corpses and West injects Hill’s body with what he believes is a lethal overdose of the serum. Hill’s body takes on a horribly monstrous new form and attacks West, who screams out to Cain to save his work before he continues fighting with Hill.

As Dan and Megan run from the morgue, Megan is attacked by one of the re-animated corpses and killed. Dan takes her to the hospital emergency room but is unable to revive her. He injects her with West’s serum. Just after the scene fades to black, Megan screams.
The film is based on the H. P. Lovecraft story ‘Herbert West: Reanimator’.
Directed by Stuart Gordon
Written by Stuart Gordon & William Norris
Starring Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton & David Gale