El resucitador

"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".

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.

Why don't people think this is a great sequel? I loved this movie and I know it's not quite as good as the first, it kicks much more ass than most sequels(Scream 2, I still know what you did last summer, Inferno(sequel to Suspiria) and umm... any Nightmare on Elmstreet not called New Nightmare) Go see this if you want to see Herbert West help bring his good friend down the road of madness. Dr. West in this installment is more jealous than annoyed by his partner's suave ways with the ladies but this is most definitely hella fun. Dr. Carl Hill is back in the gizame and having a blast... and he doesn't exactly keep his head on straight...

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...

Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and Dean Cain (Bruce Abbott) are up to their old tricks again--reanimating dead corpses and causing tons of gory fun to ensure. And the evil, dead Dr. Hill (the late David Gale) is back again too...

Strange sequel--for starters West and Hill were dead at the end of the first movie. In the special DVD edition of this they show there WAS footage shot to explain how they were back--for some reason it never made it into the movie leaving some gaping plot holes.

In terms of gore this equals the first one (despite the R rating) with some truly extreme sequences--especially the ending which is drenched in blood. It also has the pitch black humor of the first...some of it very funny. But this time around there's just not enough of a plot to fill 90 minutes. Poor Combs says essentially the same speech about reanimation five times! And there are just a lot of scenes not necessary to tell the story so the movie moves in fits and stops.

Still, it is a lot of fun (if you have a very strong stomach) and Combs is having a whale of a time in his role. Gale is very underused--but then he was written in at the last minute.

So this is a definite must-see for horror fans--just don't expect anything as good as the original.

Best line: "My God! They're using tools!"