Beyond Re-Animator
Beyond Re-Animator
R | 04 April 2003 (USA)
Beyond Re-Animator Trailers

Once again tampering with mother nature to disastrous results, Dr. Herbert West continues his research while serving time in a maximum security prison for his previous exploits. West's limited prison-cell experiments are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a new prison doctor and the brother of the girl who suffered from West's experiments 13 years earlier.

Reviews
Sexylocher Masterful Movie
Ghoulumbe Better than most people think
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
bmoviep Beyond re-animator is the final installment of Stuart Gordon's "Re-animator" series that began in 1985 and like most late installments, comes off as unnecessary and a failed attempt to cash in on a popular title. In the fashion of "Jason goes to Hell", "Freddy's dead: The Final Nightmare" and "Halloween: H20", Beyond Re-animator attempts to restart the series by trying to retcon certain plot elements while pretending to be a legitimate sequel. The result, as usual was a colossal mess of inconsistencies, leaving only the most superficial elements from the original two films without the heart of what made those films so beloved in the first place. We find our protagonist Herbert West imprisoned in a federal jail after his former assistant Dan Kain apparently turned him in to the authorities for his illegal experimentation. We never find out why Dan, a prominent character in the original films would do such a thing and Beyond Re-animator brushes off any details as unimportant. We're also provided with no explanation as to how West escaped the cliffhanger conflict at the end of the last film "Bride of Re-animator". Jeffrey Combs reprises his role as the mad scientist, who continues his devilish experiments on whatever subjects he can gain access to within the confines of his small prison cell. However, everything changes for West when Dr. Howard Philips (Jason Barry) takes over as the prison physician. Philips had witnessed the power of West's reagent serum as a child and has since become obsessed with the science of re-animating the dead. Handing West his iconic syringe containing the glowing green reagent, it's only a matter of time before West restarts his old experiments, and the entire prison is thrown into chaos. The film plays out in the typical fashion that we've come to expect from this series. Characters die only to be used as test subjects for West and Philips who bring them back to life as vicious, murderous monsters. The style blends graphic body horror with ridiculous slap stick comedy. While entertaining at times, Beyond Re-animator does little more than copy it's predecessors and fails to further the story of Herbert West in any meaningful way. The absence of Stuart Gordon is obvious as the film feels more like a what if scenario, rather than a genuine attempt to further an existing mythos. The story is convoluted as the majority of scenes serve little more than excuses to get from A to point B. For example, there's an ongoing joke about one of the inmates having a pet rat. We see West experiment on the rat which serves as an all to predictable foreshadowing of the rat being re-animated as one of West's experiments and eventually attacking his former owner. The characters in this film, save for Herbert West, were all one dimensional and failed to establish meaningful identities for themselves. Herbert West is deranged and lacking in social graces as always, making him the sole source of entertainment. By comparison, the scenes without West were uninteresting and took up far to much of the film's run time. It was fun seeing Jeffrey Combs reprise his most famous role one last time. However, the unoriginal plot and hollow performances by the rest of the cast simply couldn't keep up with him and ultimately dragged him down along with them and the rest of this film. Beyond Re-animator attempted to bring new life to the Re-animator series. Unfortunately, this experiment was a failure.
BA_Harrison As a child, Howard Philips witnesses the death of his sister at the hands of a reanimated corpse, the grisly result of one of mad genius Herbert West's crazy experiments. Thirteen years later, Howard (Jason Barry), now a brilliant young doctor, takes up residency at the Arkham Penitentiary where West (Jeffrey Combs) is incarcerated, in the hope that he can convince the scientist to reveal the secret behind his reagent and use it to help mankind.West, who has been carrying out experiments inside his prison cell using makeshift equipment, is only too happy to help: with proper lab facilities at his disposal, he can continue work on his new discovery—nano-plasm, the energy present in all living creatures—which he believes will stabilise his otherwise violent test subjects. West's ideas are clearly a little flaky (in order for him to harvest the nano-plasm needed to restore a life, someone has to die), but then so is he, and once again, his experiments only lead to chaos and carnage ('You were wrong!' screams an angry Howard at West as he realises the true horror of their actions; 'It was a THEORY' replies the scientist dryly).Beyond Re-animator is the first of the series to be produced under Brian Yuzna's Spanish production label Fantastic Factory, and as such, it suffers from a slightly less polished look and feel to its predecessors (as well as a supporting cast who all bear slight traces of a Spanish accent). Thankfully, Yuzna's sense of humour is just as dark and demented as before and the result is another hugely enjoyable exercise in outrageous splatter, deviancy, and total lunacy.Admittedly, after the excellent opening scene, the film takes a while to get up to speed again, but once Yuzna and his talented team of effects experts hit their stride, there's simply no stopping the madness: there's a nasty warden who, after being killed and injected with rat nano-plasm, becomes a half rodent/half human zombie who wants to use West's glowing green formula to prolong the agony of execution for those on death row; a drug addict explodes after overdosing on reagent; a prisoner's upper torso wanders around on its hands during the films crazy closing riot scene; the prison's sexy nurse (Bárbara Elorrieta) has her dress torn off by a zombie that proceeds to savage her naked breast; Howard's hot reporter girlfriend Laura (the incredibly gorgeous Elsa Pataky) is transformed into a schizophrenic zombie dominatrix clad in a tight corset, black stockings, suspenders, and stiletto heels; and a rat makes off with the warden's severed penis.Oh, and be sure to continue watching during the end credits for what is possibly the film's funniest gag (depending on how warped your sense of humour is, of course).
kclipper That diabolical genius, Herbert West is back for the follow up to Re-Animator and Bride of Re-Animator. This unrelenting horror comedy is not only a blast from the past but an excellent action packed encore of blood and gore along with some new surprises. For anyone who doesn't know; The original Re-Animator (1985) was based on the classic twisted novella by the bizarre horror maestro, H.P. Lovecraft. It tells the story of Herbert West, A doctor who invents a serum that can revive the dead after subsequent brain death eventually resulting in a torrent of mindless zombies. However, director Brian Yuzna delivers a comic touch. Now fast forward to 2003, and we have a new twist on the story. West is in prison, and invents a way to contain a part of the soul called Nano-Plasmic Energy and injects it into his patients via electrocution! This flick has it all! Flesh ripping, eyeball popping, hungry rats, severed private parts, wicked wardens, corrupt guards, and the absolutely gorgeous Elsa Pataky in a role worthy of zombie scream queen status! All this happens during a full scale prison riot, and the mild-mannered, immoral doctor is behind it all. Its loaded with H.P Lovecraft homages and bare breasted action as well. I have to rate this as one of the most demented and amusing horror/comedy sequels of the new millennium! Even if your not a Re-Animator fan and you're in need of an evening's entertainment, THIS IS JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED!
Witchfinder General 666 Stuart Gordon's satirical Horror masterpiece "Re-Animator" of 1985 is a personal favorite of mine, and Brian Yuzna's 1990 sequel "Bride Of Re-Animator" was a sequel as gory, hilarious and great as one could possibly hope. While Yuzna's second sequel, "Beyond Re-Animator" does, in my opinion, not quite reach the quality of its predecessor, it is nonetheless a gory, funny and outrageously entertaining film that no Horror fan should miss. Our favorite obsessed scientist Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) has been serving the last thirteen years in prison, which is ruled by a mean and sadistic warden (Simón Andreu). West has since been working in the prison's medical station, and secretly experiments on rats. The young Dr. Howard Phillips (Jason Barry)then begins to work as the prison doctor, and he shows great interest in West's work... Once again the film is full of extreme gore and macabre humor. Jeffrey Combs is once again great as Dr. West. The guy is a great actor, and he has played many other memorable roles, but Herbert West was the role he was born to play. Someone other than Combs to play the role is simply not imaginable. Jason Barry is also good as the young doctor (basically a replacement for Dan Caine played by Bruce Abbott). David Gale (who died in 1991) is severely missed as the evil Dr. Carl Hill, but Simón Andreu is a very good replacement as the scumbag character. The stunningly beautiful Elsa Pataky is very welcome as the new female character, the sexy and ambitious journalist Laura. The prison setting is, in my opinion, not quite as cool as the settings in the predecessors (simply because it is more limited), but they made the best out of it. While sequels to masterpieces often tend to disappoint, the opposite is the case with the "Re-Animator" sequels, probably because they kept the style and humor of the original. The great score, the gore, the humor, and, above all, the wonderfully obsessed Dr. West. I am already looking forward to "House Of Re-Animator" which is due in 2010, and for which Stuart Gordon will return in the director's chair. "Beyond Re-Animator" is a must-see for all my fellow Herbert West fans, and a treat for every Horror fan. Do not miss!