#anyway yeah maybe i should've touched on how this definitely makes it seem very canon that herbert is asexual as well

[orbmanson7]

What do Herbert's experiments represent?

In Bride of Re-Animator, we see a variety of experiments Herbert has created, outside of his initial work in reanimating corpses, and there are a few separate moments where we see the actual process of these experiments in action. Surely these experiments have some kind of meaning to them, right?

But what could that meaning be?

First, let's talk about the finger-puppy or eye creature, whatever you wanna call it... I like to call it finger-puppy.

Finger-puppy consists of five fingers and an eyeball that Herbert likely acquired from the hospital they work at. He unveils these laid out pieces to Dan, excitedly showing him as he assembles the pieces together and uses his reagent to bring it to life.

I think it's important to note Herbert's demeanor here in this scene. First, he is excited and eager to share this with Dan. So much so that he lays everything out like a presentation, neatly organized and ready for assembly. He had intended to show this to Dan, he had planned this moment out.

But throughout this part of the scene, he is mostly focused on the task at hand and not what Dan is trying to talk to him about.

Everything leading up to this moment also indicates to us that Herbert is in good spirits, he seems happy and content. He spooks Dan from behind the wall and laughs, he excitedly explains how they practically share a wall with an old crypt in the cemetery, and even when Dan stops him to talk (to ask what he did with the last cadaver, to which he simply says he was 'finished with it'), he determinedly shows off the progress he's made on their 'work', and then ends on displaying and constructing his finger-puppy experiment in front of Dan... which then prompts Dan to finally drop the ball about how he wants to move out, and Herbert looks up at him, confused. When Dan reiterates his statement, Herbert loses any excitement and happiness that was present just moments before, now seeming upset.

This is a great scene to show that Herbert has been content and satisfied with their work lately, but also that his focus has been so primarily on that work that he's been neglecting Dan's concerns and needs. He's also still using misdirection when Dan asks him questions, manipulating him by bringing Dan's attention back to their work so he doesn't have to explain himself about the cadaver or why they would need to block the hole in the wall.

Dan isn't stupid, so even if he has gotten caught up in the moment by what Herbert's doing in the past, he likely realizes later that he didn't get his answers and that he'd gone back at square one in trying to address things. In this particular instance, Herbert's misdirection doesn't work, that's why Dan is able to relay information Herbert is stating right back to him, because he's heard it before and understands it. He's not fooled this time, and is determined to just get to the point of telling Herbert that he wants to move out.

And this scene really set all that up perfectly, ending it off with Herbert's newest experiment, through bringing life to mere parts, hence the finger-puppy.

While I don't think this is the first time he's done this kind of experiment (he'd been collecting parts before this, after all, and also purposefully lied about why they needed to block the wall to the crypt), it's important to note that he is presenting it to Dan here and wants to see what he makes of it. Not just the finished product but the entire process, how he constructs it, applying the reagent, and then watching it come to life.

This seems to be something he wants to share with Dan specifically, whatever the experiment itself represents for him.

Now, fast forward to his other experiment where he connects a leg to an arm. The scene makes it clear that the experiment itself isn't as important as Herbert's motivation for conducting it.

In this moment, Herbert has been left in the basement alone after working with Dan because the doorbell rang and Dan went to answer it. Dan had forgotten he'd invited Francesca over for a date and they would be cooking and eating a meal together, so he stopped his work with Herbert to go enjoy his time with Francesca.

Herbert is clearly shown to not appreciate this, as the scene starts with him frustrated and annoyed, seemingly unable to focus on whatever work he's doing. He doesn't like that Dan's attention was taken away from their work and now that he's stuck down there, he has the thought to connect these two parts together, seemingly on a whim.

Throughout this experiment, he consistently stops to look up at the ceiling, indicating he's extremely aware of Dan's activities upstairs.

What's also interesting is that, unlike the finger-puppy, this leg-arm experiment is not given much focus from him at all. He's very distracted by what he is assuming of Dan's activities upstairs (which he obviously can't see or hear from where he is in the basement, but he can guess pretty easily). This lack of focus shows that this experiment has absolutely nothing to do with his work, it's not really about creating life at all, it's meant to be a distraction from how he feels about what Dan's doing without him. He also goes from tinkering about with the experiment to aggressively pouring the reagent on the combined body parts, the aggression matching his growing annoyance at Dan's behavior upstairs.

And after Herbert completes the leg-arm experiment and it retaliates against him, he immediately shoves it into a biohazard bag and tosses it into the crypt to get rid of it.

We see later on in the film that he must have been doing this kind of thing a lot because the crypt is full of these experiments, these bizarre amalgamations of parts. And considering his insistence on moving the metal cabinet in front of the loose bricks to the crypt that he was purposefully using to dump these experiments, it also means he's hiding these experiments and wants very little to do with them.

And also considering he showed Dan the first one he made, this means that the rest of these experiments are specifically being hidden from Dan.

So what does that say about the first experiment, the finger-puppy? Why was it so different from the others? If the leg-arm was merely a distraction to avoid his feelings in the moment, and he's purposefully hiding this from Dan, then what does that mean?

Well, not counting the finger-puppy, he's been hiding these experiments, and hiding implies shame. He's not proud of this particular work, it doesn't technically add to the overall work they're doing (it's something superfluous) and it was initially something he was happy with until Dan showed distaste for it and then almost got them in trouble with a cop. So it needs to be kept hidden so they're not both seen as suspicious, but Dan already knew about the first experiment, so he doesn't need to hide it from Dan.

And yet, Herbert doesn't want him to know about the other experiments. He can't let Dan see evidence of these experiments lying around with their shared work, so he hides it in the crypt, and this is either because he doesn't want Dan to be disgusted again or because he doesn't want to bother him with it.

This puts a whole new perspective on what these experiments represent, because Herbert's actions regarding them are always specifically about Dan. The first one, he shared with Dan excitedly, the next one, he was jealous about Dan leaving to spend time with someone else, and after that, he apparently added a human arm to Francesca's dog for some fucking reason, likely as a thoughtless retribution of sorts considering Dan and Francesca spent the night together. All these other experiments are hidden away from Dan, meaning they occurred when Dan wasn't around, which further implies their existence stems from Dan's absence, and especially in Herbert's feelings about Dan.

A very long-winded way of saying it, but, yes, I think these experiments are a representation of Herbert's romantic feelings and interest towards Dan. It's why he's so excited to show him at first, why he's upset that Dan is bothered by them once he knows about them, why he's so quick to hide them afterward, why he gets angry when they retaliate against him, and why he calls them "rejects" and mistakes. He's ashamed that he has them at all, despite the fact that he can't seem to stop himself from making them (and also never chooses to kill them, he just hides them away instead).

And coming back to finger-puppy again, it's interesting to note the natural curiosity and slight mischievousness that's very prominent in this little creature. It seems to want to wander and explore, something very different from the other experiments who seem to want to attack Herbert directly.

Maybe it's because it's so small in comparison and therefore mostly harmless, but finger-puppy seems to represent a more hopeful and positive concept than the other experiments. And if these experiments are representations of Herbert's feelings for Dan, well this little finger-puppy could probably be compared to a crush, or the initial spark of romantic interest, something small and simple that doesn't mean any ill-will.

But Dan rejects it outright and calls it "morbid doodling" when he sees it. And then, immediately after, he tries to shoo it away and get rid of it when the cop shows up at their house. Dan himself has to act suspicious to try to keep the cop from noticing this thing running around wherever it damn well pleases, and eventually Herbert picks up the book the cop slammed down on top of the creature to see that it had been crushed to death.

Hell of a way to show that someone's hopes were dashed.

So if Herbert then keeps up these experiments afterward, not really focused or thinking about them as they happen, and then wants to remove and hide them once they've come to life, it could imply these experiments are coming from his own emotions bubbling over, combined with carelessness and whims that match those emotions, all things that have no place in their work in reanimation, and yet he can't seem to stop himself from making them. The more they keep popping up, the more he has to hide them, after all, so why not just stop making them...unless he can't?

Working under this assumption, this could mean that these feelings for Dan refuse to go away and also that Herbert doesn't exactly hate them (or that he doesn't want to outright kill them), but he still sees their existence as a mistake. He doesn't want these feelings because Dan didn't want them from him and they don't actually contribute to their work anyway, right? He believes the science should be more important, so why does he keep coming back to these pointless experiments unless he can't help it? After all, it's not like you can just will emotions and feelings to go away if you don't want them. It just doesn't work like that.

And, of course, this all eventually culminates in the whole lot of Herbert's experiments getting out. Notice that the scene in which these experiments get free and attack (mostly) Herbert only happens after Dan rejects the Bride that he and Herbert worked on together throughout the film.

It's not until after the Bride starts to come apart that Herbert's experiments get loose and shit really hits the fan. Despite thinking he could be proud of their work in creating the Bride, once Dan rejects it and calls her a monster, Herbert is quick to agree that she's just a bunch of parts.

But...well, so were all his experiments this whole time, right?

The only difference was that this one was supposed to work - this one was supposed to appeal directly to Dan, to give him what he wanted. But, in the end, he said he didn't want her, and that likely means that he couldn't accept what Herbert could give him, either.

It's been said before, so this isn't a new concept, but the Bride being Herbert's way of expressing his feelings for Dan makes a lot of sense. And alongside my theory here, I think the Bride really was one big, intentional experiment, and maybe leans to why Herbert takes so much ownership of her ("I made you!") up until the moment that Dan rejects her.

Dan's reason for rejecting her simply being that she's "not Meg" also doesn't bode well for Herbert, either. He can't be what Dan wants, so nothing he does will ever work to change that.

Harkening back to the scene near the beginning of the movie, where he asks Dan what it was he loved about Meg, this ending moment shows that it didn't matter what parts Herbert tried to use or recreate, he could never give him Meg back and he could never be her for him.

And it's a sad ending to the movie, emphasized by Herbert's experiments all attacking him at once, as though knowing he can't escape them, falling to the consequence of those actions. Sad, but telling, because if those experiments represent his feelings for Dan, then that's a hell of a way to go out, succumbing to those emotions.

All in all, I think it makes sense to interpret Herbert's experiments throughout Bride of Re-Animator as a representation of his romantic feelings for Dan, and that the creation of the Bride itself was a genuine attempt for Herbert to appeal to Dan in that way.

The Bride's sole focus on Dan appealed to what he wanted, what Herbert wasn't giving him before. The desperate scream of asking Dan "then what do you want?" certainly lines up with Herbert's misunderstanding of their situation, not understanding why his methods didn't work. And going so far as to pull her heart - Meg's heart - out of her chest and offering it to Dan, paralleling Herbert's actions earlier in the film, can be seen as Herbert's efforts to do so much of this for Dan and it all going to waste, simply because the Bride - and Herbert - cannot be Meg for him.