Re-Animator II, la fiancée de Re-Animator

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...

I have loved the original "Re-Animator" since I first saw it as a demented little boy way back in 1986. So naturally, I was quite excited when I got the chance to see the sequel when it premiered on Cinemax in 90 or 91. Although I was satisfied with "Bride of Re-Animator" when I initially viewed, I some how managed to avoid seeing it again for the next decade. I am not quite sure why that is, especially considering I have been enjoying the original on dvd for quite some time now. Looking back I think it's because I had the realization that, as I have grown older and my tastes have matured, things that were "great" when I was kid are often terrible these days, rendering films that were merely "oky" even worse. In other words, I was afraid of watching "Bride" and just hating, thereby tarnishing the legacy created by the still fabulous original. To get to the point, I recently decided to take a chance and I broke down and bought "Bride" on dvd. Going into it with my expectations totally lowered (since I couldn't remember much from watching it 10 years prior), I was pleasantly surprised by this worthy sequel to one of my all time favorite horror flicks. Sure, "Bride" still somewhat pales by comparison, but it would be safe to say that it compares to the original the same way that the competent "Halloween 2" stands up to it's classic predecessor. In other words, this isn't a great flick, but much of the magic that made the original work is still here, and the film has a few surprises of it's own. I won't go into the plot because everybody else on here has already explained it, and besides, I find the plot to be one of the areas where "Bride" is most lacking. I will instead try to concentrate on the things I like about this film, namely, some snappy (and extremely DRY) one-liners, hilariously over-the-top gore effects and another great turn by Jeffrey Combs as the titular "re-animator". "Bride" relies on the mix of outrageous horror and dark comedy that defined the original, this time leaning just a little more towards the comedy side without becoming a parody of the first one. With stronger direction and more a more fleshed-out screenplay, I believe this one could have had the potential to be as good as the original-but who wants to see classic overshadowed? "Bride of Re-Animator" stands well on it's own and as a nice afterthought to the original it should please most fans. I also highly recommend the feature-loaded dvd release, and although some would argue this film gets a slightly grander dvd treatment than it deserves, who can really complain about a plethora of special features?

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!!!

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!"

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...