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Re-Animator was a wonderful movie, it was gory, funny and had some excellent performances by the main cast. Because of this making a sequel was always going to be a tough task. Could they relive the magic? The short and simple answer to the above question is no. But don’t let that dissuade you from watching this as it certainly does have its moments.
The movie begins with us joining Herbert West and Daniel Cain in the depths of war torn Peru. They are working as doctors, tending to injured soldiers. Of course that doesn’t stop Herbert West from experimenting with his re-agent in his attempts to reanimate the dead. No surprises there then.
This is all very short-lived though, and after an explosion or two and a couple of dead soldiers the action soon switches to the more familiar surroundings of Arkham hospital: the setting for most of the first movie. Quite how West and Cain got their jobs back is beyond me, but they have. Especially after what happened in the first movie. If you don’t know what I am talking about I suggest you go out and get yourself a copy.
This time around though West isn’t just content with reanimating the dead, he wants to create a living breathing person. One that doesn’t just attack people! So with the help of the reluctant Cain, the whiny little git, they go about their business.
Alongside this main plot there is also a side plot involving Dr. Graves, who is the new Chief of Medicine at the hospital. The police are still investigating the bloody events from the first movie, and one single solitary detective pays Dr Graves a visit to ask him a few question. This results in the Graves discovering the re-agent that is in together with all the evidence (or body parts) collected from the hospital massacre. Being the inquisitive sort that he is Graves decides to experiment and before you know it he has a Fulci-esque bat flying around his office. Not content with that he soon injects some into the severed head of the original villain, Dr Carl Hill (who is completely wasted in this movie).
Hill, we learn, still has a bee in his bonnet about being decapitated and reanimated and sets forth a plan to get revenge on West. I know, it’s all a little far fetched, even more so than Re-Animator.
In the meantime West has obtained the heart of Cain’s dead girlfriend Megan, and plans to use this as the starting point for his new experiment. He knows that he can use this to convince Cain to help him, being as that Cain is still a blubbering mess and will do anything to have his woman back.
Bride of Re-Animator does have some good ideas, and for the most parts is enjoyable enough to watch, however there is just something missing this time around. Sure there is plenty of gore, that is to be expected, as well as the over the top humor, however it just didn’t feel right to me. The main problem for me was that for the most part the movie just felt disjointed. It was as if the central plot involving West and Cain wasn’t enough, so the writers forced the side plot involving Dr. Carl Hill and Dr. Graves into the mix, and it does show.
On the plus side Jeffrey Combs gives another wonderfully over the top performance as Herbert West, delivering some great lines and giving the viewer plenty of laughs, the whole time paying it totally straight. The special effects on the whole were incredible to watch, with the exception of a dodgy animated finger beast thing which just plain stunk. Apart from that though it was all very impressive. I think the best way to describe this movie would be to say that there were some wonderful individual ingredients, but when they were all thrown in the pot to cook something was lost in the mix.
That being said, as a stand alone movie it is fairly enjoyable, it is only when you compare it to its predecessor that you really get to see all the cracks.
Fuck all. Yes, there are fuck all extras on this particular Artisan release. The main menu consists of two options, which are Play and Scene select. Quite frankly that is not acceptable in any way shape or form. In fact it is a fucking travesty for any release if you ask me. The strange thing is there was also a Region Free version back in 1999 (this being the 2003 release) that did contain a few decent looking extras, so quite why Artisan decided to release this no bones abortion is beyond me.
Overall this is not a terrible sequel, but it could have been much better had the screen-writers taken a little more time over it and added a little more cohesion to the events portrayed within. This is a movie to watch when you can’t get hold of the original but still need a fix of Herbert West.
