Re-Animator 2

Dr Herbert West and Dr Dean Cain are back to their old ways. West isn't trying to bring back life now- but actually trying to create life from spare body parts. But along the way they have a police inspector snooping around and Dr. Hill is back.

This is a reasonably stylish, but crazy sequel to the very good original. Keeping with the tradition of the original it sticks to the black, campy humour we loved and also being soaked in blood & gore.

The story is pretty much the same as the original with West's freaks of nature causing havoc again. Though just like the title implies, it parodies the film 'Bride of Frankenstein'- but the repetitiveness' this time really shows throughout the film. It has some plot holes that aren't explained on from that of the first film- but it didn't fault the story, the humour or pace of the film.

The director this time around was the producer from the original, Brian Yuzna- he brings some nice added touches and a morbid sense to the film, though it might have been much better if Stuart Gordon held the realm.

The performances are good, with the ever-reliable Jeffrey Combs delivering the eccentrically insane Herbert West, Bruce Abbott as the sympathetic Dean Cain, Claude Earl Jones as the mischievous police detective, Fabiana Udenio as Cain's concerned girlfriend Francesca Danelli and finally David Gale as Dr West's Nemesis the deviously evil head (Yep, that's right) of Dr. Carl Hill.

The atmosphere is truly stunning- from the dark basement filled with enthusiastic experiments and West's bizarre creations to the coldness of the eerie mortuary and hospital. The cheese ball performances, along with the witty script and dazzling special effects add up to equal a lot of fun.

3.5/5

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~

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...

I did not start watching this with the highest of expectations. I am sure that many of you did not/will not as well. There were two main reasons for me:

1. Its a sequel

Generally, sequels are a bad re-hash of the first, or some misguided attempt to bring the story and characters to a new setting. This movie is neither, instead we get a (semi) natural continuation of the first film, which attempts to slip in more of the original Lovecraft Novella, which ultimately, neither film lives up to. Sure, characters that had little to no hope for life return with out a bat of the camera's eye, but this is a horror-comedy people, not The Godfather: Part II type of sequel, and I'm willing to ignore this to an extent. it never got on my nerves, anyway. Escapes the "horror movie sequel trap" quite well.

2. Bad Reviews

For some reason, this has terrible reviews most places, while the first film is praised and given **** and ***** star ratings, this puppy is tossed into the "worth a rental for genre fans" bin, with nothing above a ** rating in any professional reviewers opinion. This is really a shame, although I do admit, if you are not a fan of the first film you probably may as well skip this one. I also strongly recommend that those of you who have not seen Re-Animator backtrack and watch it first, as it definitely would (or maybe I should say "should") heighten your enjoyment level of this film.

Bride of Re-Animator is an excellent chunk of horror-comedy, which gets over looked when standing next to its beefy pappy. Personally, I found that elements of the film surpassed the first, atmosphere and gore f/x being the most clear ones. I really have to hand it to the f/x design team, because this is currently one of my favorite horror films as far as "creatures". The many experiments highlight the film when ever they appear, and the Bride herself is an excellent piece of gore design.

As far as the atmosphere goes, it is surely darker then its predecessor in this respect. Perhaps only the climax of the film truly shows the best aspects, as for the most part it reflects a similar attitude to Re-Animator, if slightly watered down. However, at the end we are treated to multi-colored lighting, fantastic zombies, smoke and some well used gauze, used to invoke the dress of the Bride in Bride of Frankenstein. Not to mention the earlier stated creature effects.

At any rate, this is a very worthy follow-up to a horror classic. Perhaps the script is not as strong, the quotable lines fewer and farer between and supporting characters more forgettable. But admit at least, nay-sayers, that if nothing else you loved it when Dr. West yelled "My God! They're using tools!"

7/10

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!"