Bride of Re-Animator (1990) #394

"Bride of Re-Animator" is a sad, sorry roll of film that should never have been produced. The reasons for the harsh criticism are numerous; characters that were killed off in the original film are back without any explanation or acknowledgment of their previous demise, the main characters return from the original film but fail to have any further development, and a plot that seemed unmotivated and directionless. There were a few elements that reminded me of events from H.P. Lovecraft's original story, so I find that somewhat redeeming as well as Jeffrey Combs reprisal of Herbert West, but overall I was not impressed by this addition to of the Herbert West "trilogy". The film quality was poor, the special effects were tired, and watching this film was more of a chore than it should have been.

Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

Jeffrey Combs is back as my personal favorite mad scientist of all time, Dr. Herbert West! “Beyond Re-Animator” is the third movie involving this arrogant but brilliant “Frankenstein” style scientist, this time serving time in prison for his crimes against humanity, but dead and alive. Directed by Brian Yuzna, it comes at no surprise that the movie was filmed and produced in Spain, including a cast of supporting local actors. I was lucky enough to first see this movie at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in 2003, and I was one of many who loved how Dr. Herbert’s new assistant was lovingly named Dr. Howard Phillips. Like “Dagon”, this was the perfect place to see this movie, surrounded by fans who loved every Lovecraft reference and forgave every cheesy moment.

Young Howie watches his sister get killed by a runaway corpse that wandered away from a local cemetery after being reanimated by Dr. Herbert West. Finding a single syringe of Dr. West’s reanimation solution, Howie internally decides to dedicate his life into becoming Dr. Herbert’s assistant. Thirteen years later Howie is now a young physician and is now called Dr. Phillips. He becomes the resident physician at the prison that Dr. West is serving time in. Howie meets Dr. West when one of the inmates has a heart attack; Howie gives West his old syringe and they try the 13 year old solution on the dead inmate. It works and he comes back but not before wounding a guard and attracting the attention of the Warden. Howie also attracts the attention of a visiting reporter, Laura Olney.

During his time in prison, Dr. West has continued his research and has developed a way to extract “NPE” (Nano-Plasmic-Energy) from the living. With this energy and the solution, the dead that are brought back appear normal and retain their memories and regular motor functions. This of course only causes more problems when chaos breaks out in the prison, including the death of the Warden who has the “NPE” of a rat infused into him. The colorful cast of inmates take full advantage of the chaos and reanimation solution, and the ending is a fun chaotic mess. During the buildup to the big climax, Laura is killed (for a second time), Howie goes insane, and Dr. West escapes into the world to continue his research (aka cause trouble) once again.

Favorite moment – One of the inmates reminds me of Tom Savini and after he dies and is brought back, he runs around the prison missing his lower half. He hates Dr. West for killing his pet rat and tries to get his revenge. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un02Tpqwy5U

Dagon (2001)

“Dagon” was the feature film at the Lovecraft Film Festival in 2001. I loved watching it on the big screen for the first time and then realizing the joy that I was about to see it again on the Sci-Fi channel a week later. “Dagon” is a fun but loose adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s best known stories, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. It was directed by the one and only Gordon Stuart, produced by Brian Yuzna, and introduces Lovecraft movie fans to actor Ezra Godden, who would end up working with Stuart again in the production of “Dreams in the Witch House”. Just like “From Beyond”, “Dagon” was filmed and produced in Spain in order to make most of their budget.

Paul and his girlfriend Barbara are out boating with another couple when the boat hits a reef and becomes stuck far off shore. Paul and Barbara take a life raft to find help at a small fishing village within sight. When they arrive, they find that the town is empty but eventually find help at the local church. Barbara stays behind to find more help while Paul returns to the boat with two fishermen. His two friends are gone so Paul returns to the fishing village but is unable to find Barbara. He rents a room in the rundown hotel. Paul is woken up from a fitful sleep by a mob of odd looking villagers in the middle of the night. This mob enters the hotel and Paul barely escapes and realizes that these fish-like people are hunting him down, for whatever reason. He eventually finds the local crazy drunkard who tells him what has happened to the little fishing village and the evil that has come. Paul is now faced with trying to find his way out before it’s too late….

Favorite moment – The mob attacking Paul in the hotel. It’s intense and well paced and watching the actor play Paul, you can see how he is a lot like a young Jeffrey Combs while being himself. 

From Beyond (1986)

“From Beyond” holds a special place for me for a couple of reasons. One reason is because the first time I saw it was on the big screen at the Lovecraft Film Festival around 2007. Seeing a movie like this surrounded by die hard Lovecraft fans allows you to appreciate all of the fun and over the top moments that you might otherwise judge as silly if you saw it by yourself. People cheer when Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton first appear on the screen and they cheer even louder with every gruesome death that takes place. The other reason why I’m fond of this movie is because I was able to meet Barbara at this showing! She gave a wonderful 30 minute Q&A session during the festival, talking about this film as well as the “Re-Animator”. She is every bit as wonderful and gracious as you could hope.

“From Beyond” is essentially a sequel to the original Lovecraft short story of the same name, picking up right before the story's climax. As I previously mentioned, this films stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, who both starred in Mr. Stuart's "Re-Animator". Joining this stellar cast is another horror heavy weight, Ken Foree, best known for at the time for his role as Peter from "Dawn of the Dead". This film is an improvement upon the "Re-Animator", allowing each of the actors to grow and flesh out their characters. It's great to see Barbara's Dr. McMichaels as the lead, taking control and leading the narrative.

Dr. Pretorius has created a machine called the Resonator which stimulates the pineal gland and allows those near the machine to see creatures from other dimensions. During their first experiment, something comes and kills Dr. Pretorius and his assistant Crawford is blamed for his death. Psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels and police detective Bubba Brownlee take Crawford from the psychiatric ward that he is being kept and back to the house where the Dr. Pretorius died so they can recreate the murder scene and find out what really happened. The Resonator is rebuilt, and throughout the movie both Crawford and Katherine fall under its power and exhibit strange behaviors. The three end up fighting more dimensional monsters and the perverted beast that Dr. Pretorius has become.

Favorite moment - When Bubba is consumed by dimensional bees while saving Crawford and Katherine from the Resonator.

Re-Animator (1985)

“Re-Animator” is perhaps the most famous Lovecraft film to grace the screen to date. Jeffrey Combs portrayal of Herbert West is one of the most entertaining and honest interpretations of a Lovecraft character in my opinion. He has the arrogance, stubbornness, and ambition of the Herbert West found with the original story. Mr. Combs and director Gordon Stuart are able to insert some dark humor into an otherwise grisly tale without ruining the atmosphere. While there are plenty of extra characters added and the overall narrative does not follow the short stories, enough of the theme from Lovecraft’s work is found within the movie; Herbert West is essentially a modern day Dr. Frankenstein who creates more than his fair share of monsters.

The movie begins when Herbert West transfers from The University of Zurich to Miskatonic University after learning all that he could. He quickly gets on the wrong side of Dr. Hill after accusing him of stealing the work of his professor in Zurich. West quickly convinces his roommate, Dan Cain, to assist him in his experiments in reanimating the dead. Dan’s girlfriend Megan doesn’t trust West and by the end of the movie she can pretty much blame everything that goes wrong on him. And Dr. Hill. As West and Cain perform more experiments, they have more monsters to explain and handle until the movie finally ends in a messy gory mess, all in a very 80’s, mid-range budget special effects style of course.

Favorite moment – The opening scene and when West declares “I gave him life!”; it does a wonderful job of preparing the viewer as to what kind of movie they are about to watch.