Revenge of the Revenant Review 2: The one where Jeffrey Combs is scarier than the undead

 

Title: Bride of Reanimator

What Year?: 1989 (copyright)/ 1990 (release)

Classification: Weird Sequel

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

In planning out this feature (see Part 1), I have tried to follow the same rule I adopted for Space 1979: Major “franchise” movies are off the table. That definitely applied to most of the relatively high profile vintage zombie movies, particularly Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Return of the Living Dead. However, I had also freely allowed sequels for consideration, especially if they took a substantially different approach to the source material. With that in mind, there was one that came up immediately, and I decided it was just as well to take care of it sooner rather than later. With that I introduce Bride of Re-Animator, the sequel to one of the most successful zombie movies of the 1980s wave and easily one of the weirdest.

Our story starts briskly with our old (anti?) heroes Herbert West and Daniel Cain in the middle of a Latin American war zone, practicing medicine and testing the glowing green reagent that can bring the dead back to life. When the experiments go awry (as always), they return to the US and somehow find their way back to their old jobs. Dan seems ready to move on, complete with a new Latin lady, but West has new ideas (despite the results of the old ones). He has discovered that the reagent can reanimate severed body parts, and plans to use various pieces to make a perfect specimen, complete with the heart of Megan from the first movie. Meanwhile, someone has rediscovered the head of the not-so-late Dr. Hill, who is determined to seek revenge on West, and a detective with his own secrets is on the trail. The arcs all come together in an even bigger mess than the original, in more ways than one.

Bride of Re-Animator was the second movie based on the story “Herbert West, Re-Animator” by H.P. Lovecraft, using some scenes and material from the story that were left out of the original film’s storyline. The film was produced bye Wild Street Pictures and Re-Animator II Productions, with the original film’s producer Brian Yuzna taking the reigns as director. There was no direct involvement by producer Charles Band or his company Empire International, then in the final stages of bankruptcy. Jeffrey Combs returned as Herbert West, even though the demise of his character was strongly implied by the ending of the preceding film, along with Bruce Abbott as Cain and David Gale as the villainous Dr. Hill. It almost certainly made back its $2.5 million budget, but was poorly received both by critics and fans of the original. The next attempt at a new franchise installment was Beyond Re-Animator in 2003.

I have always had conflicted feelings about this and the original movie. To begin with, I love the original story, which I’m almost certain I read before I saw either film. The first film was by any standard among the very best zombie movies, but I have never quite liked it as much as many others, mostly because of just how many lines it crossed. By comparison, I find enough good in the sequel that I have preferred it in my better moods. It is in many ways more faithful to the story, including a much darker portrayal of West. It also manages a different approach to the concept and source material that at times seems more like a remake/ reboot more than a conventional sequel; in that respect, it resembles Evil Dead 2. The problem is that, like West’s creations, it can’t quite hold together.

The greatest strengths and more conspicuous weaknesses of the film lie in the depictions of the undead and the related effects. My strongest, admittedly subjective impression is that it never looks or feels like the effects guys were simply told what to do and left to find a way to do it. Instead it feels as if there was a more or less equal collaboration with the director and writers, not unusual for low-budget productions. This lends itself to moments of inspired insanity, but also to a hit or miss feel, especially in the finale. By the end, we have the Frankensteinian masterpiece of the resurrected Meg, Dr. Hill’s head gone airborne, and an assortment of surreal creations from West’s reject pile, all vying with each other and usually losing out.

Then there are plenty of issues with the characters and story. Out of multiple secondary characters, only the suspicious detective and his reanimated wife really pan out. In fact, it works well enough that it is tempting to wonder if it could have been better to give them more time and leave Dr. Hill dead. The posited central conflict of Dan, his new girlfriend and the “bride” produced in the lab is in many ways the weakest arc. The new lady is underdeveloped if not bland, and it doesn’t help that she ignores multiple opportunities to exit the proceedings. When she faces off with the bride, we can wish for her survival, but there’s no sense that this represents a conflict between rivals on an equal footing. By the time the quite gruesome creature openly offers herself to Dr. Cain, his response is the only rational reaction available, and the strongest feeling invited from the viewer is a cringey sort of pity for all concerned.

For the “one scene”, my pick is a tellingly early scene where West makes his first try at making a new creature out of an eye and a few loose fingers. The reanimation of the grisly creation is taken care of by stop-motion animation from David Allen, and in his hands it could almost be considered cute. It scuttles along quite nimbly, with a thumb apparently functioning as a tail. West and Cain are then distracted by an argument and a visit from the nosy detective, and do not notice when it climbs out of a pan that holds it. The scene becomes a comedy of manners as the anti-heroes try to distract their visitor long enough to corral the creature. After several close calls, the detective leaves, after tossing aside a binder that lands squarely on top of it. It’s a clever, macabre and funny all at once, and unfortunately, the rest of the movie rarely matches it in tone or effectiveness.

In the final analysis, Re-Animator is one of several movies that I cannot picture leading to a direct sequel, even if I like the actual sequel well enough. (Another would definitely be Robocop.) The ending is so perfect and poignant, what happens next was always best left to the imagination. The most favorable thing I can say of the sequel is that it doesn’t really try to start where the other film left off, but rather sets up a new scenario that doesn’t have to be harmonized with what came before. It all harkens to a time when notions of “canon” were applied loosely and sometimes not at all. It’s a worthy and imaginative follow-up, and if you don’t quite buy it, there’s nothing to deter you from picturing your own if you want to. That’s the style of storytelling that Lovecraft and his peers (especially Robert E. Howard) brought to the table, styled on mythology as much as posited history and “facts”, and it’s our loss if the modern age can no longer appreciate it.