I loved the first "Re-animator" when I was younger. I wanted to see it when I was a kid but my mom put the kibosh on that plan, so I didn't see it until I was in college, and I thought it was a lot of fun. Now that I'm old and cranky I probably like it less, it's weird but not as cool as I used to think it was. I should have seen this sequel back in the day, when I was so excited to be watching horror again for the first time in years that I thought every movie was awesome. Let's see what my cranky ass thinks of this one today.
This movie takes place eight months after the events of the first movie. Dr. Herbert West is still wreaking unholy havoc, perfecting his theories about re-animation. Another doctor joins him, Dr. Dan Cain, and the two work together in a secret lab under Cain's house. A nosy police officer threatens to ruin their fun, but they have a solution for him. They try to build a perfect human out of discarded parts (because that worked so well for doctor Frankenstein) and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
I get the idea that Dr. Cain thinks he's better than Dr. West, and maybe h err doesn't act as outwardly awkward and weird, but he does just as much disgusting, illegal, unholy crap, so I got real tired of his "I'm a good person" schtick real quick. Dude, you're evil, just shut up and accept it. Dr. West is as nutso as I remember. Jeffrey Combs is great at what he does, even I have to admit that.
The movie is really gory and icky, and there are even some shots that turned out more artful and poetic than I would have expected from a movie like this. Sometimes I feel like Brian Yuzna (the director of this movie) throws so much into making his movies over-the-top and weird that he gets in his own way and keeps them from being good. I feel that way about a lot of the H.P. Lovecraft adaptations in general, especially "From Beyond," even though everyone loves it. I tend to just roll my eyes and think "yeah, we get it, you're weird, now can we pretend to have a plot now?"
Maybe it's me getting sappy in my old age, but I liked this movie more because of the love story aspect. Yeah Dr. Cain is a douche, but that's not his girlfriend's fault, and she seems to really care about him. It's also not the fault of any of the reanimated creatures that they're monstrous. They didn't ask for this. In that way, this movie works like the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. I feel bad for the monsters. So yeah, this movie has some disgusting gore, but it also has s plot I care about, too, so it impressed me more than I thought it would.
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