#howard phillips

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Beyond Re-Animator could have worked a little better if they did this with Howard:

We find out that his parents essentially gaslighted him for the last thirteen years. They told him that it was a normal looking man who broke in and killed his sister. And then they blame him for not locking the door, allowing the man to break in. His friend that he was having the sleepover with moved away, his parents used the hush money to do so.

But the syringe he found keeps him from believing the lie. He knows what he saw was real. So he starts to believe Herbert is the only person who could understand him.

By the end of the movie, in the course of a few hours, he finds out his idol isn't who he thought he was, that it really was Herbert's fault Emily died and then Howard's girlfriend that's also a stand-in for his dead sister winds up dead and then a reanimated abomination.

(Related to the last bit, I'd also make him unable to perform instead of that scene where we see his bare ass. Is it because he's messed up or is it because Laura isn't Emily? We don't know. I can't believe I'm saying it but the incest vibes are necessary because being unable to work that out contributes to his mental state. Edit : this is also a parallel to Dan, who always finished and his partners seemed to enjoy it)