Beyond Re-Animator

After causing the Miskatonic University Massacre,Dr.Herbert West has been serving a prison sentence for the past 14 years.Far from overcoming his scientific obsession with bringing dead organisms back to life,he has had no choice but to continue his experiments on the only specimens he can find in his cell:rats.When Howard,a new young doctor,comes to work as the prison MD and requests his assistance,Dr.West discovers that the young protege has something he left behind 14 years ago..."Beyond Re-Animator" is an enjoyable horror flick that offers plenty of gore.It's nice to see Jeffrey Combs again as Herbert West.The acting is okay and and there is a lot of zombies running around plus a nice dose of black humour(a bitten-off re-animated penis which has a rather hilarious fight with a re-animated rat).This film is surely not as good as "Re-Animator",but if you want to be entertained give it a look.7 out of 10.

I think they had the right idea. The basic concept for me had potential. This special element representing 'the soul', energy that could be used to revive someone back to normal once re-animated. Having to kill one source to bring back another has a nice twist to it.

The opening and closing of the film was cool (with the intro of West and him walking away into the mist). I could deal with the new protege, Howard, or whatever his name is, though I would have rather he used his native accent to give the film some more flavour. (but having Dan Cain back would have been so much better)

My first biggest problem with the film comes from what they do with the basic concept. To me, they never fully realized it. I kept waiting for everything to go to the next level... especially when the riot broke out, I was hoping they'd take the massacre at the end of the first movie and just let loose. That never happened. Instead, they opted for a couple truly idiotic moments and what at the end of the day felt like a stale re-mix of elements from the first and second. I didn't want to see reflective moments from the first, though that might have been fine in a better movie... nor of Bride. I wanted something taken to a new level, much like Bride did after the original.

They had the concept. They had the setting. And I believe that Brian Yuzna can still direct a decent movie had he a good script and cast to work with. More and more, I wish they could have convinced Stuart Gordon to come back and take his rightful place as director of Beyond Re-Animator. I loved Dagon, very much showing he's still got it (not to mention the fact I love Re-Animator and enjoy From Beyond), and I could only imagine what he could have done with Beyond Re-Animator.

I think the script is the biggest fault of the film. Performances or the direction of those performances is next. The only truly golden character in the film is obviously Herbert West, with Jeffry Combs doing a wonderful job given the material he has to work with. I would rather they focused more on West than the silly little romance between Howard and that reporter (with an annoying voice recorded, which I believe must be because of bad dubbing to hide a thick accent. And if it wasn't dubbing, please dear god go back in time and cast someone else). The reporter subplots would have been better written out than to have to sit through them again. The only part I could get behind with that whole mess was at the end, when Howard had lost it and he was going back and forth calling out Emily (his sister) and Laura, the reporter, mixing the two up in his head, and just before that cradling her head in his hands. From that point on, the film was back on target... exactly as it should of been all along. Too bad there was only a couple minutes left in the film.

Don't get me started about the final Rat shadow sequence.

All I have to say in regards to the Warden was that he was no Dr Hill.

Overall, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth. A disappointment. At the back of my mind, there was a hope that it'd be at least on the level of Bride. Not great, but a decent Re-Animator fix. The final result is anything but.

I loved the first Re-Animator movie. "Bride of Re-Animator" was OK. This one is over-the-top, completely twisted, and just plain clean, gory, bloody, guts spattering about, eyeballs crawling around, penis-attacks-rat fun.

This isn't a movie that takes itself seriously, and you shouldn't, either.

Jeffrey Combes is wonderful, as always, as Dr. Herbert West. Dr. West has figured out (or so he thinks) what was missing in his previous "experiments." Needless to say, it doesn't work as planned (hey, it's "just a theory"), and much mayhem ensues. Much. Much more than in the first two movies. Think "Attica" meets "Night of the Living Dead" meets "Freaky Friday." Yes, it's that far off the deep end.

I would recommend this film highly to anyone who enjoys a humorous splatter flick. If you're not a deranged gorehound, you probably won't like this one. Speaking as a longtime deranged gorehound, however, I can safely say that this is one of the finest films ever made in its genre, and certainly worthy of several Academy Awards.

I did mention that I was deranged, right?

Yeah, I did. And if you are, too, see this movie. And don't forget to watch the absolutely classic "Move Your Dead Bones" video that also comes on the DVD. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll like it better than "Cats."

Kudos to Brian Yuzna!

After thirteen years in a prison ruled by a very mean director, Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is invited to be the assistant of the new-comer Dr. Howard Phillips (Jason Barry), a brilliant resident, in the penitentiary infirmary. After being introduced to each other, Dr. Phillips discloses that the last experiment of Dr. West killed his sister thirteen years ago, when he was a boy, and he became fascinated with the possibility of bringing dead people back to life. The journalist Laura Olney (Elsa Pataky), who is covering a matter for her newspaper in the prison, has an affair with Dr. Phillips, and they fall in love for each other. However, the experience of Dr. West looses control and the place becomes a branch of hell. "Beyond Re-Animator" was a great surprise for me. I did not expect anything interesting in this sequel, but I decided to risk, based on the names of Brian Yuzna and Jeffrey Combs. When I saw twice the microphone mistakenly in the scene in the beginning of the movie, when Dr. West is having a conversation with Sergeant Moncho (Lolo Herrero) in his cell, I thought that I was going to lose my time watching this film. However, "Beyond Re-Animator" is an excellent and very funny trash-movie, with a great potential of cult-movie. The story is very bloody and has lots of black humor and gore, recalling the style of Peter Jackson's "Braindead". This movie is a worthwhile sequel of the cult "Re-Animator" and "Bride of Re-Animator". Along the credits, there is another very funny scene. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Re-Animator – Fase Terminal" ("Re-Animator – Terminal Phase")

This third Re-Animator movie delivered what any fan of the series would expect. The formerly dead jitterbug about after receiving a dose of reagent from Herbert West. West again has a love stricken assistant. West's assistant is again in a love triangle with West's would-be nemesis. So, why not pop Re-animator or Bride of Re-animator in if there is nothing new? Good question. Here are some reasons

1- The effects in this film are top notch.

2- Jeffrey Combs again shows his acting chops playing Herbert West.

3- There is a new twist to the re-animation process that shows some promise in `clinical trials'.

There are some really convincing effects throughout the film. Makeup and effects are more than window dressing in a film of this nature. Inadequate attention to either would have dropped the value of this film immediately. You believe that these guys have been dead and now no longer are. They are much more believable than JarJar Binks.

Herbert West is over a decade older in this film. Combs takes this maturity and adds it to the character he molded in the previous efforts. It's obvious that he is the same Dr. West yet it is also obvious that time has added to the character. Even more interesting, at the beginning of the film is a flashback where Combs plays the younger West. It's an opportunity to compare the two portrayals almost side by side. The essence of West remains, the speech pattern, the physicality remain. What Combs added to West's character is a veil to the intensity. What was once a roaring fire is now under control. He is no less determined, just a bit more subdued in expressing it.

The addition to the re-animation process, which I will not discuss in particular, adds another moral dimension to the question of the correctness of bringing back the dead. Although this moral dimension is directly addressed in the film, Medical Ethics 101 it is not. The ethical question is covered briefly and in the context of the fate of West's nemesis. As with all Re-animator activity conducted by West time is valuable and little of it is wasted. Events are happening rapidly and under less than ideal circumstances.

The DVD version has an music video on it, which was a surprise. It also has a `making of' short that should have had about another five or six days of work done to it before including it. It does have interviews with the principle actors and with the director. Have your subtitles turned on, the actors, with two exceptions speak Spanish even during the clips from the movie included in the short.

As any good sequel will, this one leaves open the possibility of yet another Re-animator movie. Hopefully the production quality will continue its improvement. Maybe Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton can be re-animated for the fourth film.