If you’re a fan of either 80’s B-Grade horror or H.P. Lovecraft, chances are you’ve already seen, and likely fell in love with Stuart Gordon’s 1985 masterpiece Re-Animator. Along with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and Peter Jackson’s Dead-Alive, Raimi’s work completes the holy trinity of gonzo 80’s gore films that fuzed absolutely stunning lo-fi practical effects with maniacal humour and metric tonnes of fake blood. I’ll be revisiting Re-Animator in the future, but for the nonce, I’m frankly ashamed that I managed to miss out on this fantastic sequel, directed by Gordon’s partner-in-crime and fellow Lovecraft fanatic, Brian Yuzna.
Full disclosure: Lovecraft adaptations drive me a little nuts. I don’t feel that many filmmakers really grasp the nuance and atmosphere of his fiction, and I’m of the opinion that his work, like that of Dickens and Poe, is particularly tied to the era in which it is set. However, Lovecraft’s story Herbert West - Reanimator is possibly one of the most uncharacteristic of his works, a bloodbath in the fashion of the Grand Guignol theatre, full of over-the-top gore that ascends almost to the level of parody. Lovecraft himself wrote the story out of financial desperation, and filled it with gruesome violence at the behest of his publisher. As such, both Re-Animator and its sequel wind up being some of the most faithful to the source material of all Lovecraft adaptations, for they truly capture the madcap, blood-soaked chaos of the original text.
I won’t spoil the almost non-existent plot, save to say that Yuzna has made the excellent decision to fuse his adaptation (several of the sequences of Lovecraft’s original story are included in this outing) with that of the classic sequel film Bride of Frankenstein. Yuzna’s love of the (ostensibly better than the original) Frankenstein sequel is apparent, and actress Kathleen Kinmont turns in a performance as the titular bride that plays as an impassioned homage to the original bride role performed so wonderfully by Elsa Lanchester in 1935. I won’t deny that it often feels a bit tacked on, as the narrative definitely gets bogged down under the weight of the extra plotline, but the results are just so good that I found myself willing to forgive the hastily written plot and ramshackle editing.
Visually, there’s a lot going on here, and all of it is fantastic. If you long for the days of great practical effects work, this is an absolute holy grail. The effects design is by Screaming Mad George, who clearly earns his moniker on this outing. There is some supremely batshit stuff going on in this film, and I would be doing you a disservice if I spoiled the surprise by describing it. Suffice to say, the main plot of the film revolves around Herbert West refining his re-animating serum to the point that he is able to revive any combination of body parts his diseased mind wishes to fuse. It makes for some absolutely hellish creature design, especially when the bride is finally revealed. No exaggeration, I gasped out loud, at what was without a doubt one of the best designed “creatures” I’ve ever seen on film. It boggles my mind what a small team of dedicated people can do on a shoestring budget when they take real pride in their craft.
Performance wise, the acting is fantastic, and like the original film, filled with great B level actors who are willing to go completely overboard and totally milk their performance. As always, Jeffrey Combs is just a total pro, his Herbert West coming off as the neurotic, intellectual foil to Bruce Cambell’s Ash in Evil Dead. The cast is rounded out by Bruce Abbot, reprising his role as West’s sympathetic assistant Dan Cain, and David Gale, back as West’s nemesis, the gloriously batshit insane Dr. Hill, still a disembodied head, but given a very ridiculous upgrade courtesy of some backroom surgery involving a dead bat. The cast is rounded out by a whole slew of consummate overactors, including some of the all-time best zombie performances I’ve ever seen. By the finale, there’s so much chaos on scream that you don’t know which way to look. It’s a total, glorious car crash of B-grade gore, and pretty much sums up everything I love about low-budget horror cinema.
While I can’t say that the sequel eclipses the original, by the end I was really kicking myself for not checking it out earlier. It’s an absolutely perfect “midnight movie” kind of film, and I’d love to see it in a theater with a rowdy crowd, or even with a few friends, some beer and a big greasy pizza.
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