Herbert West vs. Victor Frankenstein

"Help! Keep off, you cursed little tow-head fiend - keep that damned needle away from me!" - the words of a corpse reanimated by West, a replay of the corpse's memory right before death...

Firstly, I will announce my bias clearly and without shame. Herbert West all the way. Perhaps it is unfair; That is to say, "Herbert West: Reanimator" was published in 1922, "Frankenstein" in 1818. Plus, Lovecraft was considerably older (by ten years or so?) when he wrote Reanimator than Shelley was when she wrote Frankenstein, therefore clearly making Lovecraft the more experienced writer.

But I digress.

Now, Mr. West - in humble opinion - deserves credit for his relevant education and years of research, making his story more realistic. Lovecraft included in the story his trials and errors, how his experiments evolved from small animals to fresh human corpses, his hardships in obtaining the bodies in the first place, and - for goodness sake - he was in medical school. Mr. Frankenstein studied very outdated natural philosophy (I mean, Paracelsus' alchemy kind of outdated) for years until he went to university and studied chemistry for two years.

 Think Frankenstein would have looooved this show.

Notice that Frankenstein never reveals his methods. It was like - boom! - idea. Like so: After having been at the university for only two years, it took him "days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue" to discover the cause of "generation and life." What's more, he didn't reanimate a fresh corpse; he pieced together body parts (which must have been partially rotted and therefore impossible to renew any trace of the life it once held) to create a new being.

Still, Frankenstein receives credit for actually succeeding in doing in one try what West could not do after years of hideous failures. 

West - 1. Frankenstein - 1. 

As far as the fear factor goes, Reanimator, with its chilling images of partial reanimation of corpses and the disturbing foam produced from West's incubating reptile embryos, sent shivers through me as I read. Frankenstein did not. By part four of the story, West had succeeded in bringing back from the dead three specimens. The first one initially seemed to be a complete failure, but when West and his assistant went to an adjacent room to modify the serum, an earth-shattering scream erupted from the laboratory where the supposed dead man lay. Throughout the story, the whereabouts of this first specimen remain unknown. The next semi-successful reanimation beat the crap out of West and his assistant, jumped out the window, and then proceeded to murder 14 citizens - eating some of them. The third one, thought to be dead, was buried but later clawed his way from his shallow grave and knocked on West's door. Upon opening that door, tell me that wouldn't make you just faint. 

By part six of the story, West isn't even reanimating whole bodies. He managed to bring to life a headless body, which triggered the unexpected reaction of the severed head exclaiming the last thing it spoke just before death, "Jump, Ronald, for God's sake, jump!"

West - 2. Frankenstein - 1.

Even West himself was creepy. He was one of the "quiet ones," which is always the first warning. And, as he became more and more obsessed with obtaining freshly dead bodies, he began looking at healthy, living human beings. His assistant reported that he did not like the way West was starting to look at him. Creeeper.

Frankenstein didn't quite come off to me in that way. Shelley really buttered him up with the perfect and privileged family, a beautiful love interest who never wanted anyone but him, a loyal best friend, etc. etc. She made him extremely intelligent and kind... I honestly think he was a bit of a brat. He got everything he wanted, including being the first to discover the serum to bring what was once dead back to life. This guy seriously had a big head: "A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve their's." 

Upon completion, Frankenstein referred to his creation as "beautiful"........ then, just seconds later, became disgusted with his "ugly" creation and ran away.

In the end, they both end up dead. But, Lovecraft, being the master of horror, keeps the atmosphere very constant to the end. Imagine your hideous zombie-like monsters that you thought were all dead - imagine them hunting you down, breaking down your wall, and tearing you apart. Disemboweling you. Parading out of your house carrying your severed head. As soon as West saw these guys, he merely accepted his fate and  silently gave himself up. That's far more chilling that going down kicking and screaming, isn't it? Shelley wasn't very consistent with the horror/Gothic feel, but she did seem to borrow from other genres, such as romance. Frankenstein's monster was a gentle and benevolent being who loved humanity (until humanity pissed him off). He didn't even kill his creator. He wept at the death of Victor Frankenstein.

For these, I shall reward both of them one point. One for consistent atmosphere, the other for mixing it up a bit.

W - 3. F - 2.

As biased as I am, I did try to be fair, but let's face it.