Beyond Re-Animator

Dir: Brian Yuzna

2003

****

It was a surprise, albeit a happy one, that Brian Yuzna returned thirteen years later with another installment of the Re-Animator films. H.P. Lovecraft’s Herbert West-Re-Animator story had pretty much been told at this point, so a new film had to have a new story, which is why it was titled Beyond-Re-Animator. However, the story is pretty much a re-hash of the plots from the two previous films. For the past thirteen years, Dr. Herbert West (a returning Jeffrey Combs who is the only actor to do so) has been serving a prison sentence due to a murder at the hands of one of his zombies. With what scant supplies he has on hand in the prison medical center, Dr. West has been capable of performing only extremely basic experiments on rats. However, his lack of supplies does not prevent him from uncovering a key element in his re-animation process. Dr. West has discovered "NPE" (Nano-Plasmic Energy), an energy that can be extracted from the brain of a living organism through an electrocution-like process, to be stored in a capsule resembling a small light bulb. The capsule can then be connected to a corpse and used in conjunction with West's previously developed reagent to restore the former dead to a lifelike state. The NPE prevents the degeneration seen in previous instances, where the reanimated are nothing more than mindless zombies. Used together with the re-agent, reanimated corpses regain their skills, memories, and motor functions and nearly fully resemble normal humans. When a young doctor named Howard Phillips (Jason Barry) comes to work at the prison, West is assigned to assist the new doctor. Due to Phillips' interest with Dr. West's research, West is able to attain the supplies and tools needed to bring his experiments to the next level. It is revealed that Phillips is the younger brother of the teenage girl who was killed by West's zombie (he's shown watching West being taken away by the cops) and came to the prison for the explicit purpose of working with him. Despite his interest, Phillips still maintains an ethical reluctance to allow West's research to full completion. In the meantime, journalist Laura Olney (Elsa Pataky), covering a story for her newspaper at the prison, meets and begins an affair with Dr. Phillips, and they fall in love. This new romance only temporarily postpones West's experiment, however. After the warden of the prison, also infatuated with Laura, attempts to seduce Laura himself, she resists and he angrily kills her. Crushed by Laura's death, Dr. Phillips succumbs to Dr. West's wishes and his experiments are allowed to literally take on new life. West & Phillips revive Laura with the NPE, although it is quickly seen that the dangerous side effects of West's past work are still present with the NPE. Eventually the warden of the prison uncovers West's experiments and moves to put an end to them, but he is killed by West, and subsequently re-animated. West uses the NPE from a prisoner's pet rat, causing some unexpected side effects in the warden's behavior. It quickly manifests itself as the prison descends into utter chaos as a riot breaks out, with vials of the reagent circulating through the population. Soon, it is unclear who is dead, who is alive, and who has been exposed to the agent. When the chaos finally settles from the (very) bloody prison riot, West escapes captivity before the guards appear by stealing Phillips' I.D. (when he comes across Phillips weeping over Laura's decapitated body). As police and authorities take control of the prison, Herbert West is shown putting on his glasses outside the prison, and disappears into the night to continue his research. While the first two films are hard to better, Beyond Re-animator does have its own charms. The plot is nothing special but Comb’s matured version of West is quite striking. He is and isn’t the same character, he has the same drive but he know has more knowledge and more wisdom. He’s still obsessed but he’s far less naive. I love how the film ends once more in a riot – and what a riot it is. The last twenty minutes are glorious and it more than makes up for what is a relatively slow start. The special effects are impeccable, thanks again to the returning Screaming Mad George who sadly seems to have left the world of SFX right after completing the film. Lovers of gore, like my good self, will not be disappointed. From an exploding chest to a severed torso that walks on it's hands; this movie has it all and fans of the originals are given exactly what they want. Sure the story covers old ground but there is a continuation of the story as well and the development of the re-animation process is cleverly written. Bruce Abbott is sorely missed, as is David Gale who passed away during heart surgery in 1991 but everything else is in place, it is the sequel none of the fans expected but had secretly hoped for. The irony is that this is likely the last ever Re-Animator film but the only one where Dr West is clearly still alive at the end. I would love to see another with Combs as an old man but I won’t hold my breath. As it is it is a nice finish to a brilliant trilogy.