Beyond Re-Animator

Better than it had to be. I'm not gonna lie - I liked it more than Bride. It's more cohesive. It's zany without the over the top acting like Bride had. I like that after all these years - it stays true to the original. It still has that 80's spirit. This is a treat for fans who needed one more fix of that Re-Animator goodness!

It's been well over a decade since we last saw Herbert West and now he's finally back. It seems his past has finally caught up with him as he is now currently serving a jail sentence for the gory mayhem his re-animated corpses have caused. The arrival of a new young doctor, who wants to help West, results in West being back in business. The best thing about this film is Jeffrey Combs. He slips back into the role of Herbert West effortlessly. The gore effects courtesy of Screaming Mad George are also a highlight. While not as good as the original, it's about even with Bride Of Re-Animator. I hope there'll be further instalments.

Oh and continue watching during the end credits.

I loved the first Re-Animator movie. "Bride of Re-Animator" was OK. This one is over-the-top, completely twisted, and just plain clean, gory, bloody, guts spattering about, eyeballs crawling around, penis-attacks-rat fun.

This isn't a movie that takes itself seriously, and you shouldn't, either.

Jeffrey Combes is wonderful, as always, as Dr. Herbert West. Dr. West has figured out (or so he thinks) what was missing in his previous "experiments." Needless to say, it doesn't work as planned (hey, it's "just a theory"), and much mayhem ensues. Much. Much more than in the first two movies. Think "Attica" meets "Night of the Living Dead" meets "Freaky Friday." Yes, it's that far off the deep end.

I would recommend this film highly to anyone who enjoys a humorous splatter flick. If you're not a deranged gorehound, you probably won't like this one. Speaking as a longtime deranged gorehound, however, I can safely say that this is one of the finest films ever made in its genre, and certainly worthy of several Academy Awards.

I did mention that I was deranged, right?

Yeah, I did. And if you are, too, see this movie. And don't forget to watch the absolutely classic "Move Your Dead Bones" video that also comes on the DVD. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll like it better than "Cats."

Kudos to Brian Yuzna!

Any movie that includes a character named after the Great Lovecraft himself is bound to attract the attention of quite a few enthusiasts, even though in this case said character is dull and mostly thinly constructed, yet this is a sequel to the epic of Doctor West and his uncanny obsession, as such it was bound to create a certain momentum.

Which it does, up to a certain time. The opening scene is quite unexpected if not remarkably brilliant and although the movie seems to lag off during its middle sections, encompassing a completely unnecessary and mostly painful romance, it gains strength as it marches towards a complete onslaught of mangled bodies re-animated, a sinister warden now possessed with the spirit of a nasty rodent, an exploding junkie and a forest of not quite-dead bodies merrily twitching away.

Obviously, there is no plot worth mentioning, and only West's zeal to proceed through the insanity and protect his work manages to cause some impact in terms of psychologically rendering a character above a simple stereotype.

As it has already been mentioned, in this movie insanity reigns supreme, until it seems clear the director was more interesting to enjoying the pandemonium than anything else.

***Spoiler***

A perfect example of this is the rat-fighting-penis scene, perhaps one of the most hilarious and strangely concocted images to have surfaced the big screen ***Spoiler****

Also, a few scenes are reminiscent of some horror cult icons, which further stress that Beyond Re-Animator, like the whole series, is a product to and for the genre that fostered it, without trying to reward any viewer not in sync with the dictates of horror from the gory kind.

***Spoiler***

I found it most satisfying that West makes it through it all simply to walk away at the end of the movie, clearly all other characters were somewhat perfunctory and it would seem too much anti-climax to dispatch the good doctor or not grant him his liberty ***Spoiler***

Overall, a very amusing piece of horror that is not the work of a genius but is far from being completely without worth.

As a big fan of the Re-Animator series, I was quite excited when I found out that a second sequel was being made. Unfortunately, however, due to poor distribution in the UK; it has taken me over a year to find a copy. But now that I've finally seen it, I am pleased to report that Beyond Re-Animator doesn't disappoint! It is now 13 years after the infamous massacre of the second film and Herbert West has found himself in jail. However, you can't keep a good re-animator down, and being in jail doesn't stop his experiments, especially when a new doctor; Dr Howard Phillips arrives on the scene.

Jeffrey Combs returns as the insane scientist, Dr Herbert West. Unfortunately, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) from the other two films doesn't return, but Re-Animator was always Combs' series anyway, so although it's a loss; the show must, and most certainly does go on. Jeffrey Combs was made for the part of Herbert West; his portrayal of the character is absolutely wonderful. He catches just the right atmosphere of a man obsessed by his work in all three films. He also manages to tie a lot of humour in, which is obviously a good thing for a tongue in cheek movie such as this. The rest of the cast acts as a support to Combs, and succeeds fairly well in that respect but none really impress much on their own. Jason Barry (who had a small role in the rubbish movie; Titanic) acts as Dan Cain's replacement and Herbert West's new understudy; Howard Phillips. He never really impresses in the movie and it would seem that his main objective in the movie is to make West look more insane, and through his subdued performance; he does that well. Elsa Patasky looks good as the lady of the film, but her performance is terrible; even embarrassingly bad at times. Simón Andreu is the only member of the cast other than Combs that really impresses, and he plays the prison warden; the villain of the piece.

Gorehounds won't be disappointed with this film, I can guarantee you that! Re-Animator became infamous for it's heavy amounts of overly gory sequences, and this movie features lots of them too; from an exploding chest to a severed torso that walks on it's hands; this movie has it all. Many sequels, particularly horror sequels just recap the original with more gore, but the Re-Animator sequels haven't so far, all have something new. In Bride of Re-Animator (Re-Animator 2), a new idea about animated different parts of a dead corpse emerged, and in this film the new idea is adding the 'soul' to the re-animated body. It is admirable for the series to take that route as for a film of this ilk, more gore could simply be added and it's fans would almost certainly happy, but here you get a story to chew on aswell.

The last two films ended with a riot, which has become a part of the Re-Animator tradition, and this film doesn't break that great tradition. The last 30 minutes or so are absolutely insane, with many things going on all at once and that is sure to please fans of the original movies. Overall, Beyond Re-Animator is an incredible gory ride and is recommended to anyone with the stomach for this sort of movie.