Beyond Re-Animator
Spain, 2003
Directed by: Brian Yuzna

(Submitted by Asplagis)

"Well... it's just a theory..." - Herbert West on the failure of his so-called "full proof" solution

The green serum is back! The name Herbert West should be easily recognized by any and all horror movie buff as that of the mad scientist with a very good head on his shoulder and one in a dish on his desk. And with good reason too! The first movie of this three part series was the cinematic equivalent of a fair's bumper cars ride - juvenile, silly but highly addictive and fun.

Director Stuart Gordon's debut movie was the original Re-Animator - a completely over the top production about a scientist obssessed with bringing the dead back to life. His theory revolved around the notion of death as a disease formed in the brain, thus, if one were to re-activate the brain functions then the deceased (or is that diseased?) individual would - in theory - live again. Of course, things are never so simple and the re-animated dead tend to be a little pissed off about this unrequested return from the grave...

Gordon's recipe for success included a mix of witty black humour, copious amounts of gore, barely competent acting, wild screaming zombies and, above all else, plenty of nude scenes with the then young and nubile Barbara Crampton (now featured on daytime soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful). For the curious, the original movie has little to do with the short H.P. Lovecraft tale that inspired it. In that version of the story West worked alone and ended up having to deal solely with the re-animated corpse of an army officer and its severed head as opposed to a hospital filled with zombies and the resulting chaos.

The sequel, Bride of the Re-Animator, was handled by the producer of the original (Brian Yuzna) and skipped past the original's ending scene due to the absence of Barbara Crampton. Most fans feel that Gordon's Re-Animator outclassed its sequel. Sure, Abbott and Combs are still great as the unlikely duo of the compassionate Dr.Cain and cold, calculating Dr.West, but the movie seemed to lack the first one's overall energy and fun attitude.

So now we have Beyond Re-Animator, the second sequel in the series and once again Yuzna is at the driver's seat for this crazy ride.

We start off with a couple of kids sharing stories of crazy Dr.West and his mysterious experiments with life and death. Soon enough we have the quintessential (not so) brutal murder of a lovely and nubile young woman at the hands of one of West's shambling creations who, incidently, looks like Romero's infamous Dr.Tongue (the jawless zombie) from Day of the Dead. But the real problem is that the poor girl died in front of her pre-teen brother who couldn't hope to stop the rampaging zombie. Well, being a scrawny teenager never stopped Tommy Jarvis from beating Jason...

West is taken away before the eyes of the confused and saddened boy, but not before dropping a syringe filled with his glowing green serum.

13 years later West is stuck in solitary confinement and left to experiment with whatever he can get his hands on - which isn't much. His cell acts as a makeshift lab and he amuses himself by confusing the dumb lummox who acts as a prison guard.

West, never one to play social butterfly, isn't particularly popular amongst his fellow inmates and he won't make any new friends by experimenting on one of the men's pet rat.

In the meantime we meet with the prison's cruel and sadistic warden along with yet another lovely nubile young female who will surely end up dead sooner or later. This time it's a reporter named Laura who does her best to avoid the ugly warden's busy hands and thinly veiled advances. Laura is here to do a story on the prison but the warden suspects she has other intentions. Soon enough the two are joined by Howard Phillip (ha!), the prison's new medical expert and doctor.

Doctor Phillip requested an audience with the fabled Doctor West claiming to seek some crucial information from the mad scientist. And as you'd expect someone just had to die - just in time for Dr. Phillip to prove his worth to boot! What's a little coincidence or two in a movie such as this?Alas, the prison is severly lacking in terms of medical ressources which includes competent help. As a matter of fact, their current nurse is - as you might have guessed by now - a lovely and nubile young brunette who sports a tight, cleavage revealing outfit but couldn't handle a serious emergency. Dr. West helps out but, cynical as ever, suggests that there was nothing to be done as the man's life was over even before being taken to the infirmary.

Things get a little interesting as Phillips reveals himself to be the young boy who watched West being taken away by the police (I'm as shocked as you are). He also brought along a memento from that evening - the green serum filled syringe! Ah, memories!

Eventually, the whole prison gets turned upside down by West's expriments (well duh). This time, he claims he found the solution to the screaming/murderous zombie problem that's been plaguing his research so far. West believes that he can contain a person's "essence" of sorts within a small glass tube; he obviously refuses to call it the soul and argues that it is in fact completely different - his field is science not superstition. By injecting this essence into the re-animated body, he believes that the mind will regain its senses. As always, everything works in theory but in practice...

So what can I say about this little gem? First, let's get one thing clear: Yuzna isn't Gordon. If you were disappointed by the sequel to the first movie then you'll probably find that this sequel doesn't fall very far from the tree. Purists are likely to complain about the overall silliness of this movie; the zombies here are far from menacing and you're lucky to find even one serious scene in the whole movie that doesn't seem hokey. In other words, it's like comparing the original Evil Dead with its second sequel, Army of Darkness.

Now don't get me wrong, I had trouble keeping a straight face during the first movie's more serious moments, but there are sequences in Yuzna's film where I just felt as if he was trying too hard to get a laugh out of the audience. To me, the funniest scenes were those featuring the horrid acting on the part of Jason Barry (playing Howard Phillips) and Elsa Pataky (as Laura). Poor Elsa has trouble with English and I do wonder how many takes were required in order to get the beautiful blonde to say her lines properly, but at least she looked as if she was trying. Barry on the other hand speaks with a strange mix of a lisp and an occasional southern drawl accompanied by some of the most wooden performances this side of pro wrestling!

To make matters worse the two have little to chemistry together and you can't help but crack a smile at their love scene. Pataky struggles with her English while Barry delivers his lines with about as much passion as one of the movie's corpses - I've seen porn with more credible acting than this!

Of course, the movie's real star is Combs who gives us another classic performance as the perpetually calm and collected Dr.West. His overly serious and "clinical" tone reminds one of a medical tome rather than a Doctor, but this only makes his role as the deranged Herbert West even more fun! I was rolling with laughter at his dodgy reply to an angered Phillips' questions about the full proof nature of his experiments ("well, it's just a theory").

The evil warden and the rest of the crew are little more than glorified cartoon characters. The hot tempered Latin American inmate who looks like Prong's singer and a balding stoner who reminds me of Martin Chong are the only (somewhat) important supporting characters. The level of acting here is actually much better than Barry's, but such stereotypes require little effort in general.

In any case, if anything this movie is entertaining. Yes, there's no chance in Hell that it will replace the original. The gore and effects aren't as inventive (although Screaming Mad George does a fine job nonetheless), the scenes aren't as funny (on purpose or not), Bruce Abbott's absence is an important loss and Pataky doesn't have Crampton's unique charisma and charm. However, I had fun. Yuzna and pals made a valiant effort and got plenty of laughs out of me which is more than I can say for many horror comedies out there.

In the end, this is clearly the Jeffrey Combs show. The bad acting, silly zombies and over the top special effects are all fine and dandy, but your opinion of Combs will determine just how much you'll like this movie. He carried the film on his back and did a fine job of it too; this is a feat few actors in Hollywood today could accomplish. Besides this, the movie has one last ace up its sleeve: a kung-fu fightin' re-animated rat duking it out with a severed penis.

I think that last sequence alone should tell you whether you need to see this movie at all cost or avoid it like the plague.

Overall score: 3.5

(On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 is the worst and 5 the best)