Beyond Re-Animator

October 8, 2003

I’ve been waiting a long time for this one…not as long as Freddy Vs. Jason, but at least a year or so.

Wow. Jeffrey Combs is back and this time he’s pissed. Is it me or has he not aged since the last one? Actually, I take that back, not only has he not aged, has he gotten younger? He looks about the same as in the last movie, but he looks so, so much younger than he did in The Frighteners, over seven years ago. Hmmmm…

Speaking of The Frighteners, I swear this movie had the same exact score…except that it is really the music from Re-Animator. Or is it? Maybe they all sound alike? Danny Elfman did the Frighteners score, while Richard Band did the Re-Animator scores. Whatever, they are really, really similar. Maybe it’s an auditory hallucination, since they both star Jeffrey Combs?

For the third film in the series, this really wasn’t a bad effort. I’d even say that it was better than Bride of Re-Animator, maybe by a hair. Prison is a really good setting for a horror movie. It’s a good closed environment where violence is a way of life. The acting (all except Combs) was as bad as you’d expect. The cast is mostly Spanish unknowns…it was filmed in Spain, so why not? The special effects were actually phenomenal, especially the flying torso. I appreciate sinking a little extra money into the effects instead of spending it on the cast, because come on, all you really need is the Re-Animator himself.

I caught this Saturday night on the Sci Fi Channel, where it was being marketed as a “Sci Fi Original.” That is total bullshit. I know this thing has been in Distribution Hell for a while, but it’s already made the Festival Circuit and been in the theaters. Just because Sci Fi ponied up a little cash, doesn’t mean they get to put their name all over it! What it really means is that they get to cut all the language, all the nudity and all the good gore. I also heard that they cut a duel between a errant penis and a rat out of the closing credits. Sooo…guess I’ll be getting the DVD when it comes out at the end of the year…I can’t miss that, now can I?