Bride of Re-Animator

"Re -Animator" extremely well received (quite rightly so) at the time of issue,still stands as a classic of the horror and fantasy genre.Who cared if it was not faithful to Lovecraft?Were the sixties Corman's movies that much faithful to Edgar Allan Poe?Crazy situations,witty lines,and above all an extraordinary skilled actor,Jeffrey -West,Herbert West-Combs who managed to be at once sinister and hilarious.

The sequel is not so exciting;like in most of the follow-ups ,the surprising effect has disappeared.Besides ,the script is too derivative ,borrowing from "the bride of Frankenstein" (James Whale,1935) and from "night of the living dead" (Romero,1968).

Only Jeffrey Combs remains.They put the weight on him and he carries it honorably.During the cast and credits,we can hear the same music ,which is absolute plagiarism:Hermann's "Psycho".

Herbert West and his reluctant sidekick, Dr. Cain, return for another fun, gory round of bringing back the dead in bits and pieces. This time, West cons Cain into an attempt to rebuild his late girlfriend, using her preserved brain and body parts scrounged from the local hospital. From here on in, this film is like a contemporary "Bride of Frankenstien", except the special effects (I love the stop-motion "eye" spider!) are terrific and there's enough gore to please fans. A underrated sequel. See it~

BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR is a great, gory, funny, all around fun film. This time, the good doctor decides that re-animating alone just isn't enough, he has to play "Dr. Frankenstein" and build his own woman!!! (among several other strange "creations"). BRIDE isn't quite as ground-breaking as the original RE-ANIMATOR, because we've already been prepared (sort-of) by the first film. But BRIDE has all the same sleazy, funny, over-acted elements of the original. Both are excellent films, as far as BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR is concerned - leave that one where it belongs...on the shelf. Not nearly as original, funny, or gory - the whole style of BEYOND just doesn't fit with the first 2 classics, in my opinion. 8/10 for BRIDE!!!

Dr. West and Dr. Cain strike back again! This film is very similar to Frank "Basket Case" Henenlotter´s "Frankenhooker", but obviously shot with a higher budget and a more elaborated story. It never reached the status from its predecessor, the unique "Re-Animator" directed by Stuart Gordon, but it´s worth to be watched in any case! Especially Dr. West´s weird creatures like four spider-looking combined fingers, a strange symbiosis between arm and foot, and a dog whose leg was replaced by a human arm make "Bride of Re-Animator" being a bizarre pleasure! At the end Dr. Hill and some creepy zombie maniacs storm the laboratory and destroy the property. Dr. West seems to be dead, but recently I read on IMDb about the production of "Beyond Re-Animator" - starring Bruce Abott and Jeffrey Combs...

It's very hard to make a sequel to an absolute masterpiece that can live up to the original. Let us not forget how bad the Exorcist II and the Howling II were. Like the previous titles mentioned, Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is a true classic in the field of horror, so I was very careful with my expectations towards this film. Yet, several elements showed that it could be a very good film. Jeffrey Combs returned as his memorable Dr. West character and also Dan Cain and Carl Hill are present again. ( well, at least his head is... ) Brian Yuzna took the seat of the director. Good sign, I thought. He knows what he does when it comes to horror. And this film proved itself to be good. It can never reach the level of the original but the complete cast and crew seems to realize that. They just tried to make a sequel worth watching and in that viewing... they succeeded.

TINY SPOILERS FROM HERE ... Dr. West is even more fantastic ( and that means more crazy :-] ) to achieve his discovery of re-animating dead bodies. He keeps convincing Dr. Dan Cain to assist him by claiming he can bring back Megan to live ( Dr. Cains love interest from the first film ) West found Megan's hart in the hospital and they shall create a new woman with it. Great !!! Also, the head of the infamous Dr. Carl Hill gets re-animated and he's only after one thing. Nail Dr. West and avenge his dissection ! By this he gets assisted by another doctor. Thing are even getting more difficult for Dr. West when a fanatic detective follows him around... The bride of Re-Animator (a clean tribute to Frankenstein) is 90 minutes of pure fun. Horrorfans won't be disappointed at all. It's a logical sequel to the original, but also a film that could stand to itself. As far as sequels go, this is a good effort. Now, after 13 years a second sequel is about to come. Beyond Re-Animator ( also directed by Yuzna and starring Combs ) is claimed to be a worthy addition to the series as well. I haven't seen it yet but I sure will when I get the chance.