The Re-Animator Franchise
 

So I just saw Re-Animator and Bride of Re-Animator.

Jesus what rock was I living under? I can't believe either of these escaped my notice for so long (still haven't got Beyond Re-Animator).

So basically the first one which I saw yesterday was a complete surprise. I had no idea what it was about and whether or not it was regarded as a classic or a dud. Suffice it to say its definitely a classic! It has that 80's charm to it. Practical effects, full effort from the cast (Dr Hill in particular was a laugh, really liked him).

But again I've always been a fan of the Mad Scientist genre. Bride of Frankenstein is one of my all time favourites for instance. And the similarities are here, this feels like a three-way combination between The Evil Dead, the Universal Frankenstein films and Pet Semetary.

It all builds up to a thrilling climax which is easily the best part of the film...




Overall perfection. An 80's classic, worthy of standing next to Day of the Dead, Fright Night etc...

The sequel I watched today. My expectations were high: very risky move as usually in cases like this I get let down. But... You know what I really liked this one as well. I'm not quite sure if its just as good but it was very well done. It didn't feel like a rushed cash in, the magic was still present.

The best thing about both of these films and presumably the third one is Herbert West. What a character. This was the role that the actor Jeffrey Combs was born to play. He didn't disappoint the first time round and here I think he's even better. I appreciate that the characters from last time (Meg aside) all came back as well. This is very much like Bride of Frankenstein which worked so well because it continued the story with much of the same cast.

In fact... The whole film feels like a Universal horror film. Not just a Frankenstein one, because here we're in crypts and everything, just like Dracula or Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman at the start. We have a flying head that belongs to with bat wings stitched onto it flying around... And yeah another class ending taking place both in the laboratory and the crypt...

Yeah sure this one might not get the praise the original seems to get based on what I read online but I liked it a lot. They work well together watched either together at once or within a day of seeing the first one.

Regarding what happens in the third one I know that West is in it (not a spoiler as it kind of spoilers it on the DVD case haha). How exactly he survived the end of Bride I don't know but I look forward to seeing it when I can...

I dearly love the original and also very much like the first sequel. Beyond Re-Animator was pretty disappointing imo.

btw Surprising how close to Lovecraft, the first 2 films are.

I too like the sequel more than it's reputation, think it's a solidly entertaining film and can't see why people put it down.
I really didn't enjoy the third film though.:confused:

I love Re-Animator and I really like Bride of Re-Animator. Beyond Re-Animator is disappointing.

Check out the Integral Cut of Re-Animator. The unrated version is director Stuart Gordon's definitive vision of the film, but this extended cut is well worth a watch as an alternative version. If you're interested, I wrote a piece about the three different cuts of the film - just click the Diabolique link in my sig.

Re-Animator is still a killer movie! :hail: :rockon: :clap:

Regarding Integral version of Re-Animator, it's approx 20min of extra footage.
Is it only dialogue scenes or do we also get to see extended gory stuff?
I have Anchor Bay's R1 dvd, this is a great 2 disc edition.

I can watch the Integral version on Youtube for free.
However if it's only extra dialogue scenes I won't bother wasting time watching it.

I have Bride of Re-Animator on german laserdisc.
This was the best and longest version available 1oomin playtime.
I haven't had time watching it yet.
Watched this movie as a VHS-bootleg back in the youngblood days in the 90's.
My copy was not perfect, maybe a 3rd - 4th generation copy with poor picture quality.
Therefore I never liked this movie or bothered to watch it again until I got my hands on the german LD.
When I have the time I will watch it.


I'm not sure, I can't remember if I have seen Beyond Re-Animator or not?
Is it worth buying?
Is it gory in many scenes not making this movie boring to watch? :scared:

Thanx

I see many don't rate Beyond Re-Animator.

I actually think it's much better than the second film.

Prefer From Beyond to all of em' though. :D

I like Beyond Re-Animator too, but it’s definitely the worst of the three IMO

I think it was perhaps in the order i watched them on disc that i preferred Beyond to Bride.

If i remember rightly Beyond Re-Animator came out on dvd before any of the others, certainly before the multi disc green boxed Re-Animator releases, so it seemed a breath of fresh air having not seen a Re-Animator film in years.

It's the old dvd release i have from Mosaic.

I didn’t see Beyond until Arrow Video released the DVD a few years back, I already owned DVD copies of the other two films and had watched them to death, so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it and have watched it a few times since :nod:

I’m definitely gonna pick up the Blu from Umbrella that is due out in June and more than likely their blu of the other two when the price is right (not that I actually need any more copies :lol: )

I'm with you on this.