Re-Turn to Re-Animator Sequels

Click here for the original film

Bride of Re-Animator 1990

West's Advancement- Learning from Doctor Hill's living head that that his re-agent COULD work on individual body parts, not just whole corpses. This knowledge led to the new experiments in the movie, and also him going the full Frankenstein build-a-body path. As a bonus: for his work West invented a chloroform like substance that induces cardiac arrest instantly... which is a fantastic (if morally questionable) way for helping him get fresh subjects.

Corrupt Authority Figure killed and reanimated for a bad reason- Lt. Chapman, a policeman investigating the Miskatonic massacre (the last film) ... 

But he's really trying to cover himself for beating his (now re-animated) wife to death. He continues pursuing the protagonists after being re-animated. He is one of several figures, such as the Dean, that got killed in the normal shenanigans of these films (via monster or self defense) and was revived to cover that up... poorly.

Chapman's undead wife is a Heinous Horror Hag, as befitting a production with makeup effects by KNB, the team that formed when working on Evil Dead II.

This one ups both the horror and humor, oddly shooting away from the mean in both directions, sometimes simultaneously. 

West's part combinations were darkly ridiculous for most of the film. The finger eyeball thingy (which escaped in a scene both wacky and icky), the "Lieutenant's hand on the lady's Dog" (which West was naturally surprised she got upset about) and the "arm and a leg" (which attacked him.)

Doctor Hill was truly terrifying in the first movie, and he still was when his head was in its dish in this one. However, the blue screen effects of his head propelling itself around on the bat wings the appropriately named morgue pathologist Doctor Graves sewed onto his ears was goofy as heck.

This time, Dan had a new love interest, the Italian Francesca (Fabiana Udenio) who was involved in a Peruvian civil war (somehow) with her dog in tow (somehow) where at the start of the story Dan and Herbert have escaped to (somehow) become fully fledged doctors in (somehow) and are getting away with continuing re-animation experiments in the equivalent of a M.A.S.H. tent (somehow).

Follwoing a brief opening scene, everyone came back to Miskatonic, where Dan and Herbert were quickly put back on staff (again... somehow) with only Chapman questioning if this was a good idea. Francesca (and her dog) showed up there on her own, and she and Dan continued their romance. Dan's major internal conflict had him torn between his relationship with Francesca, and the loss of Meg from the previous movie.

The latter feelings of loss convinced him to continue helping West, as he built the Bride around Meg's heart with other hand selected parts. This was one element where the horror ratcheted up. The Bride was very clearly made of a mix of bits, and very clearly held together extremely loosely. This made the bride as physically unstable as she was mentally.

There was also the weird shifting in both directions coming from the fact that the left over re-animated individuals were more "standard movie zombies" as opposed to "realistic looking corpses," making them straight on monsters but less "oozy" and unsettling.

But the biggest flip flop from comedy to horror was at the climax. Herbert revealed he had been bricking up all of his "bits" experiments through the wall in the cemetery conveniently located next door. Naturally, this was the only way the doctors could escape the lab in the final moments. Geniuses often forget to have good back up plans. It likely comes from being right all the time. The practical effects of the massive group of abominations in there went from "icky-cute" and silly earlier in the story to uncanny valley, and "whoah, that is really messed up" in a flash. 

Dan chose the fully alive woman over the collection of parts that literally tried to give him her heart, and the living couple escaped while Doctor West was assaulted by his creations and buried under collapsing rubble.

Don't worry, he'll be fine in thirteen years. (see below)

Again, Jeffrey Combs's speeches were magnificent moments.

The way he described the Bride also highlighted his pride, and the artistic way he approached his science:

"The feet of a young ballet dancer, who ended her life when she lost her ambition. 

These legs... walked the streets. You remember the hooker who was killed in ER by her pimp last week? Think of all the bodies these legs have wrapped around. What was the value of her life, to end up being picked apart by the likes of Dr. Graves and his bumbling students? 

And here, the womb of the virgin, struck down before tasting the pleasures of life, you remember? Her skin, so soft, so warm, but so cold in death. 

The arms of the waitress. 

The lawyers hand - case dismissed. 

Look at this delicate piece, what do you think? A sculptress? A harpist? Would you believe, a murderess? 

But they're all equal now, nothing but cast off remnants of a meaningless existence."

His boasts about his abilities as a creator went way beyond Frankenstein's famous "As God as my witness, now I know what it feels like to be God," exclamation:

"I created what no man's mind nor woman's womb could ever hope to achieve."

He expanded on that with increasing power:

"Blasphemy? Before what? God? A God repulsed by the miserable humanity He created in His own image? I will not be shackled by the failures of your God. 

The only blasphemy is to wallow in insignificance!

I have taken refuse of your God's failures and I have triumphed. 

There! THERE is my creation!"

Shout out to Kathleen Kinmont for being believable as both the sympathetic, terminally ill patient (and unwitting head donor) and the confused, yet still monstrous, Bride.

Even though he knew he used Meg's heart as the reason to keep Dan involved, West was incensed when the Bride was drawn to Dan instead of himself. This was clearly not for romantic reasons. (Combs himself described West as asexual.) But when he yelled, "I MADE YOU!" it was fully clear, once more, that his only true emotions were connected to his work, his pride in it, and his demand for recognition. Combs put a bundle into those three words. 

Re-Animator Beyond 2003:

Fortunately for everyone involved this was nothing like my proposed sequel. 

West's Advancement- The discovery of "Nano-Plasmic Energy." (NPE) West believed this electricity of the brain that is released upon death was the key to stabilizing re-animated individuals. (Spoilers- Not quite.)  Surely, as simple energy, there would be no connection to who or what that energy came from. (Spoilers- There was.)

Corrupt Authority Figure killed and reanimated for a bad reason- The prison warden was truly a horrible individual, corrupt and sadistic to the core, and gaining personal thrills from tormenting, hurting and killing others. He was the first one in this franchise to think bringing people back from the dead shouldn't be to reunite with loved ones, or as a demonstration of brilliance, but to allow him to torture prisoners eternally. West moved up a couple of notches in toughness after thirteen years in prison, easily taking out Warden Brando when attacked by him... then re-animating him as a test subject to see if the Nano-Plasmic Energy worked. 

While it was used as an in story explanation for the actors not returning over a decade later for a film made in Spain, it was nice to see someone in one of these goofy horror flicks finally display some common sense. After escaping the carnage with a fully living Italian girlfriend, Doctor Dan immediately went to the police and turned evidence on all the horrible crap Herbert West had caused with his experiments. Though incarcerated in a hell hole of a prison for thirteen years, West continued his experiments on local rats, and really, we have to love him for that. 

That's a big step this movie takes. We're drawn to West in the earlier films, mostly because Jeffrey Combs is awesome, but his work and blind, amoral focus led to terrible things happening to several more conventionally likeable characters. In this film Doctor Herbert West becomes much easier to root for. The awful Warden has been mentioned, and the prison guards were also corrupt and cruel. By this point, the idealistic Dan had distanced himself from the carnage. West's new assistant, the appropriately named for a Lovecraft inspired franchise, Doctor Howard Philip, chased his connection to the tale, following a much more monstery and less realistic looking re-animated corpse killing his sister. Howard got himself assigned to the prison on purpose, for motives that are never perfectly clear (and likely connected to his obsessive and uncomfortable relationship to his sister) but were clearly unsavory. Doctor Philip brought the syringe of re-agent he found thirteen years ago when West was arrested, sending the plot into full motion. Howard's girlfriend was not like Dan's love interests, the innocent young medical student Meg, or the geographically misplaced freedom fighter Francesca. Laura was a reporter with very little scruples or boundaries when it came to getting the story, and it would be difficult to find a character she was completely honest with, even the smitten (because she reminded him of his sister...ew) Howard. 

Everyone else in the cast was a criminal that had done deeds worthy of being sent to the awful jail.

It was very easy to be there for Herbert, because he hadn't changed at all. His drive to experiment and learn had always been his core characteristic. He observed the wildest and most insane things with entertaining clinical detachment, including when Speedball, a "try anything" addict, overdosed on re-agent and continued talking after almost all of the soft parts literally exploded off of his body Herbert's time in prison made him quieter and more contemplative though, he had multiple impressive quips, but no proclamations to rival his glorious past speeches.

Throughout his experiments West was convinced that that the NPE was just that, energy, with no other properties. 

When he learned this was wrong...

Because Laura turned into the warden, and the warden turned into a rat, like ya do...

West's reaction was wonderfully aloof and boiled down to saying, "How about that?" while taking notes for future work.

It was a cheer inducing moment in my home theater for one when, while the entire prison was in the middle of a riot, fires, and several other disasters, DOCTOR West took the time to change out of his prison uniform and into his iconic white shirt, thin tie, and lab coat. 

Doctor Herbert West is back, baby!

He did have an excellent reaction to the doctor he was supposed to be assisting, who eventually became his assistant through the dominance of genius. Howard became confused that the warden may have taken Laura, since they were both dead at one point. (He did recently help removing Laura from that state.) 

Doctor Philip asked, "The warden... but he's dead."

Herbert West- *Knowing stare*

Howard Philip- *hysterical*  "GOD DAMN YOU!"

Herbert West- *calmly, as if giving a lecture* "Religion has got nothing to do with this."

Combs is always fantastic, but his surroundings lacked a bit compared to the previous outings. I'm not sure if it was because everyone was dubbed in this Spanish production except our "hero," or that b-movie acting in the Eighties was much more fun and over the top than in the early 2000's, but that element was missing. Also, the digital effects looked too clean. The morgue accurate corpses, and uncanny valley combinations from the earlier tales were replaced by things like a rat loving prisoner cut in half chasing West and others around by his arms. It was goofily gross, but less scary in the cleanness of the digital movements and images. 

I paused the film for an old man bathroom run, and found myself thinking, 

"Really, only an hour in? What else could happen?"

Fortunately, Mr's Combs and Yuzna could be trusted and I laughed my butt off for the entire remaining half hour.

Because of the positioning of Herbert West as the good guy (or "least bad guy" anyway) the ending was different. The first two films finished with just about everyone except Dan dead, including Herbert in some horrible fashion, which they would ignore for the next installment. This time, just about everyone else was dead, insane, undead or some combination of the three. 

However, Doctor Herbert West made it out of the prison (after swiping Howard's ID ... loser.)  with his blood stained lab coat, simple shirt and tie, medical bag and re-agent, adjusted his glasses and slipped triumphantly away into the night.

For those that have seen this film, it's obvious that I have left out details of the part of the warden that got torn off, but continued an undead unlife, and then had a climactic fight with a re-animated rat. 

Sometimes, no description can fully capture the magic of movies.

Good news! From Beyond (1986) finally got re-released on disk.

For that film, Gordon, Yuzna, Combs and Crampton said, 

"Oh... you thought Re-Animator was an F-ed up Lovecraftian adaptation?

WATCH THIS!"

Bonus final thought- I always figured Jeffrey Combs's appearance in The Man with Two Brains was a nod to RE-Animator. This is because I experienced both films on cable first and had no clue when they were released. The Steve Martin flick came two years earlier! Maybe West's fascination with returning a deceased brain to life came after his residency under Doctor Hfuhruhurr?