[Gothmogxx]

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...

SPOILER:

Its all quiet, besides Dr Hill, Megan, West and Cain. By this point you are kind of expecting mass mayhem from all the undead but as we've already seen, they re-animate slowly and one at a time so you don't think its coming yet anyway. As such its great to see the film break our expectations when literally EVERY SINGLE CORPSE IN THE ROOM JUST JUMPS UP! Its so brilliant and unexpected with Dr Hill controlling them. From then on its just chaos and gore exactly as it should be. And the ending with Megan getting brought back to life reminds me very much of Pet Semetary, its essentially the same thing.

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

SPOILER:

Dr Hill

with bat wings stitched onto it flying around... And yeah another class ending taking place both in the laboratory and the crypt...

SPOILER:

We have three subplots all coming to a head here. Firstly we have the Bride getting contructed and waking up. Secondly we have the feud between West and Hill concluding. Thirdly and finally Franchesca shows up to face off against the Bride as the re-animated corpses just cause bloody mayhem everywhere as everything either breaks or, as is the case with the crypt, completely caves in on everybody except Cain and Franchesca. This all happens in such a short space of time and it works.

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...