Bride of Re-Animator

Brian Yuzna, producer of the cult horror film Re-Animator, stepped into the director's chair for this 1990 sequel, which is more black comedy than perverse horror. Jeffrey Combs is back as intense young Dr. West, a scientist continuing his experiments—involving the reanimation of dead tissue—in a basement laboratory next to a mausoleum, with Bruce Abbott once again costarring as his reluctant partner in patchwork. Bride of Re-Animator owes more to the original Frankenstein story, right down to scavenging parts from dead bodies to create a creature from scratch, and West even displays a sense of humor when he treats disembodied limbs as Tinker Toys and brings to life weird little experiments that go scurrying around like organic robots. It's a wild spectacle of squirting blood, squirming limbs, and an extreme case of tissue rejection, and Yuzna pours on the excess in his gory creations. David Gale is the decapitated head back from the original and looking for revenge with his mind control powers (he has bat wings grafted to his head so he can fly around while commanding his re-animated army). Unfortunately, this is a busy, unfocused film that collapses in a muddled mess as it quotes (among other things) the original Bride of Frankenstein and Freaks, but it still delivers an awfully entertaining ride. This dual-format edition features newly remastered versions of both the unrated and R-rated versions on Blu-ray and the unrated cut alone on DVD, with extras including audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and deleted scenes. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)