Escaping the spectre of his "Re-Animator" character, the actor encounters a series of bizarre new perils.
By Anthony C. Ferrante
The voice on the other line speaks softly, but is still recognizable as that of Jeffrey Combs, better known as Herbert West from the "Re-Animator" series. Having just put his 20-month-old daughter Catherine to bed, Combs is recuperating from an evening performance as Mortimer in a Denver Center Theater Company production of "Arsenic and Old Lace". After professinghis own exhaustion, he asks abaout the physical status your intrepid Fango correspondent, which is countered with a "deadtired" response. "You should know better than to say "dead" around me", Combs shoots back, following with a congenial laugh.
It's nice to know that some actors aren't afraid to carry a little of their roles araund with them. But dspite being perhaps one of the brightest and most verstaile avtors in genre field today, Combs is still living in Herbert West's shadow. With helpfrom long-term collaborators Charles Band and Stuart Gordon, however, he has recently been given a chance to play more diverse parts - something that has eluded him over the years.
"I come from a theatre background, and one of the first things we're taught is that versatility is a real plus, because tonight you're doing Shakespeare and tomorrow you're doing Sam Shepard", Combs explains. "But when you're in LA, it's the antithesis of that. Sometimes when you walk in the door to read for a part, they look you up and down and say, "No, he's not blond." And so you don't get the part, because it doesen't ever occur to them that there is dye."
"So it's been hard adjustment", he continues, "especially finding a new kind of persona, bacause on top of that I have this cult movie everybody knows me for, and it just perpetuates itself."
If his current slte of projects is any indication, Combs may soon have more than just Herbert West as his calling card. He plays the title character in the bran new Band-directed Full Moon project "Doctor Mordrid", and has a major supporting role in Stuart Gordon's first studio project, "Fortress", and an injoke Cameo in producer Brian Yuzna's "Guyver".
"Doctor Mordrid", as Combs notes with asight of relief, will be one of the rare films in wich he doesn't play a bespectacled, off-centered, eccentric madman. "I don't wear glasses and there are no syringes," he confirms. I'm a straight guy in this film; I#m not quirky or weird. I'm just the lead, and I tied to be as honest and genuine as I could."
The storyline of "Doctor Mordrid" is definetly a step removed from Full Moon's usualpuppet/toy-massacre motifs. It concernes a rich but down to earth guy who lives in New York City and has a nice apartment. But like most wealthy recluses, it seems he leads a secret life protecting the world from evil. A master of the black arts, Dr. Mordrid guards the doorway to a fourth dimension into which Kabal, the "source of ultimative evil", has escaped. Mordrid must avert Kabal's plan to bring his band of nastiness to Earth. "He's sort of a mystic guardian - a good sorcerer." explains Combs. "He's quiet and keeps to himself, and monitors world events with the use of a bank of specially-equipped, satellite-linked television sets."
Though he hasn't yet seen "Doctor Mordrids" final cut, having moved straight from the completion of shooting to his Denver stage engagement, Combs believes there will be a few interesting moments in the Coutney Joyner-scripted film. "I like some of the stuff in my apartment - the set designers did a real good job on it, with a mix of antiques and ultra-modern technical devices," the actor says. " And there's a stop-motion battle at the end between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a mammoth that Dave Allen is doing, which should be pretty good." As for "Dr. Mordrid's " place in the Full Moon world, Combs thinks the film will be a pleasant change of pace, since it's more of a supernatural fantasy than the hardcore horror of sco-fi the company is generally associated with.
"Charlie was more passionate about this and it was something he really wanted to do, to point that he wanted to direct it himself," says Combs. "And it was something he was banging around for years, so a lot more care was taken with the production.."
Combs alliance with Band goes back to the mid-'80s, when Empire Pictures released Gordon's cult masterpiece "Re-Animantor" and "From Beyond", both of which toplined Combs. The actor also appeared in the uncompleted Band-directed trilogy "Pulse Pounders", and cameoed in John Buechler's "Cellar Dweller". Now, with Full Moon, Band is giving Combs career another shot in the arm. Combs has already done a small bit as a henchman in "Trancers II" - "There's not much to cover there, I just grew a goatee." Combs comments - prior to his different type of leading turn in "Doctor Mordrid".
"Charlie knows that I'm a good actor and that my name holds some value - and he's never asked me to do a part like Herbert," Combs says. "He's been very good about asking me if I want to do things; I would like to work and I'm glad this came about. I'm very familiar with Full Moon an if a film does well for them, they generally turn around and do another one right away. It's a good deal he has with Paramount. This stuff playas on cable all the time. "Trancers II" was even on tonight."
Another project Combs is excited about is Gordon's new "Fortress", a futuristic action-thriller in wich the actor takes a strong supporting gig opposite Christopher Lambert. Lensed in Australia, "Fortress" is Gordon's first big-budget studio endeavor, and Combs is gratefull that he's becaome a part of Gordon's film ensemble of recurring actors. "I'm glad he was loyal enough to hang on and insist on me," Combs affirms. "It's Stuart's belief in having a company of actors that he has worked with before, so that he can cut through all that,"Hi, how are you, who are you and how do you work?" It's already a well-oiled machine. I'm really appreciative of that, because loyalty is a hard thing to find this town."
"Fortress" features Combs as D-Day, a retro, "back-to-the-60's" electronic/machanical whiz holed up in a high-tech computerized prison, where he teams up with Lambert and other inmates to beat the system. "It's an automated prison that self-perpetueates itself by using prisoners as labor. It's run by a private corporation and there are no guards; it's totally computerized. D-Day is just this little ferret/hermit who's been beaten down so far that he hides in his corner instead of getting involved with anything. In comes Christopher Lambert, who was unjustly put into prison. Lambert's courage at standing up to the forces that be inspires D-Day to join him in his effort to escape.
In an attempt to move away from the West persona as much as possible, Combs donned a long wig and huge wire-rimmed glasses that gave him a pseudo-John Lennon look. "The glasses were an interesting technical problem. How do I wear these big glasses for my scenes, then see myself and what's going on without breaking my kneecaps once the camera stops rolling and I walk off the set? I went to an optometrist's office in Australia, and they came up with a clever idea. They gave me contact lenses that were opposite the power of the glasses. So when the two combined, it was back to my original prescription and my eyes didn't know the difference."
While many directors fall prey to the mainstream sensibilities of the Hollywood system once they break into bigger leagues, Combs notes that Gordon still retained his creative vision throughout. The film's relatively small budget (under $15 million) and distant locale (Australia) kept the studio from breathing down the director's neck. "It was really a kind of indipendent movie," offers Combs. "Stuart also had new toys to play with. There's much more motion in this movie because of the technical equipment that he had. When you see the movie, there are a lot of cool, fluidly-moving crane shots that start 50 feet up and then come weaving down and roll right into a tight close-up. It's Hitchcock stuff, and it was all done with computers."
Also in the "Fortress" acting group is Kurtwood (RoboCop) Smith, with whom Combs has been friends with for nearly 20 years: the two have worked together on stage, but "Fortress" is their first mutual film foray. In addition, "Fortress". reteams Combs with Tom Towles, his costar from Gordon's "Pit and the Pendulum", a film that inspires mixed memories for Combs. He feels that the movie was slightly hurt when the script had to be retooled for a smaller budget, after such name stars as Peter O'Toole and Billy Dee Williams bowed out.
"The script was redesigned to fit the budget," Combs reveals. "We originally had different locations, but it was trimmed down to utilize cheaper settings. A major character was also cut, and the budget had something to do with that."
Monetary constraints aside, Combs did revel in playing the sadistic yet pristine Francisco, a character who provided the Poe film with a great deal of it's delicious black comedy. "It's written that I'm kind of funny and times foolish, but at the end,I kind of take over. I had to have a bit of seriousness to me, so I walked this line between Keystone Cops and Stalin. It was a weird sort of balancing act. I couldn't go too far with the humor; otherwise I'd lose credibility as a right-hand man. It was sort of a hard thing to do.
Eye apparel seems to be a recurring motif in Comb's work, especially in Gordon's films, and "Pit" was no exception. The old antique glasses his character sporadically wears actually came out of research Gordon did on that period. "Being able to read and write was considerd a great power in theses days, because hardly anybody could. You also worked on candlelight all the time, so your eyes wore out and you had to wera glasses to get by. So the fact that my character would wear glasses for close work is historically based."
Herbert West fans will appreciate Combs' cameo in yet another current genre project, the live-action monster mash "Guyver" (aka "Mutronics". In this Ninja Turtle-style adventure, Combs pops up as a humorous West derivative - Dr. East. "It was pretty silly, but Brian Yuzna felt it would be neat for me to do this little cameo, a scene with David Gale, and yet do it totally different from Re-Animator. I'm clowning around in that, and not serious at all. I tried to play him as Herbert's ditzy brother."
Last year, audiences were finally able to see the two actors in "Bride of Re-Animator", and although the film wasn't a huge success in America, Combs still look upon the sequel fondly. But he cautions against comparing "Bride" to it's predecessor. "I didn't watch the first before I worked on the second, and there's no way you could match it, because the original has such a cult following," Combs points out. "It was a good story, and Brian felt that when we did it again, we should do something different. But I got to explore Herbert a little bit more, and it had a great style. I loved the homage to "Bride of Frankenstein" with the lightning crackling, the thunder and all those grand speeches. It was really operatic."
As for the proposed "Beyond Re-Animator", Combs is ready and willing to return to the fold and further explore old West. "I really like Herbert, and I don't think he's done with," he affirms. "I wish there could be a third one. Brian and I have talked about it, but frankly, the second one just didn't do well enough to prompt the money to come on to do it, so Brian is working on that."
What the 37-year old actor will be doing next is still undecided, but he doesn't count out the possibility of another "Mordrid", likening it to a TV series. "I'll get another shot at developing the guy, and there are still many unanswered questions left open in the movie," adds Combs. Full Moon is also in the preliminary stages of developing several new H. P. Lovecraft stories in which Combs may appear. Two possibilities being discussed are the long-awaited "Shadow over Innsmouth", along with "The Lurking Fear". "Charlie's trying to get Stuart involved as well," Combs affirms. "That's down the road. Stuart also has a project that he's trying to get done at one of the cable companies that's a comedy satire."
But while films keep Combs busy, another complex job awaits him when he comes home everry day - being a parent. "It's hard work and great responsability," Combs affirms. "I look at the years ahead and think, "My God, I have to go through this and I have to steer her awy from that... And don't let her see these movies," he laughs.
"Actually," he concludes, "I think that by the time she sees them, they'll seem so tame that the films will have a kind of nostalgia about them, and not be so disturbing."