Bride of Re-Animator

 



Director - Brian Yuzna (Society, The Dentist)
Starring - Jeffrey Combs (Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation, Star Trek: Enterprise), Bruce Abbott (Re-Animator, Interzone), and Claude Earl Jones (Battlestar Galactica, Quantum Leap)
Release Date - 1989
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "Date. Mate. Re-animate."
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I like remakes and sequels unlike most horror fans I know.  The idea of a story that I enjoy going a step further or reimagined really excites me.  Hell, some of my favorite films just happen to be sequels.  When I was younger I rented the original Re-Animator from Blockbuster and fell in love with it.  It quickly became one of my favorite movies.  It would be a few years before I was able to watch the sequel (thank you Columbia).  When I did I was blown away.  How could the sequel to the damn near perfect Re-Animator be better?  Recently Umbrella Entertainment released the film as a double feature with Beyond Re-Animator.  I was lucky enough to get a review copy in.  Thanks Umbrella for sending this one my way. 
     The film picks up several months after the events of the first film.  Herbert West and Dan Cain has left America for Peru where the country is torn by war giving them plenty of opportunities to try their serum on the recently deceased.  When their camp gets overrun they flee back to the U.S. and Miskatonic.  They continue their work and using parts from the morgue but a investigator starts snooping around West in hopes of uncovering the truth behind the Miskatonic massacre that unfolded earlier.  To make matters worse a doctor studying the bodies left over in evidence from the massacre beings Dr. Hill's back and he has a vendetta against West. 
     Re-Animator is one of those horror films that I can pretty much quote from beginning to end.  I've watched it so many times that I can start watching from any scene and enjoy it just as much as if I had watched the entire film because I have it memorized.  I was blew away by the sequel and how it not only turned up the gore over the first film but took the story in a direction I was not expecting.  The acting in this one is on the same level as the previous film.  Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Abbott are fantastic together and their characters compliment each other so well.  I could have watched an entire saga centered around these two.  The supporting cast is great as well.  There is several other great performances and characters that are just as entertaining as West and Cain.  The story for this one follows what was established in the first film with West enlisting the help of Cain to resurrect the dead but this time they piece together the perfect body and use the agent to bring it to life.  This takes on a gruesome aspect and works very well.  The pacing is great and the laughs move in at the perfect time as to not take away from the tone of the film.  Finally, this film may not have a lot of deaths but there is still some fantastic effects and gruesome scenes.  These scenes use a high amount of imagination and practical effects in the same way the Yuzna directed Society does.  These scenes are highly entertaining and shows just how far practical effects can be pushed.  Overall, Bride of Re-Animator takes what fans love from the first film and amplifies it.  This is a must for any horror fan and fans of H.P Lovecraft a like.