With the 80's finally dead, how would the 90's welcome Lovecraft? Brian Yuzna, producer of the first
Herbert West tale, would take over as director. Yuzna was no stranger to the director's chair by this point, having the film Society under his belt by this point.
Eight months have passed since Re-Animator. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), despite being strangled by sentient intestines in a hospital morgue, is alive and working as a medic in Peru. Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) is still working alongside him. West believes he has figured out the flaw in his formula, mostly that the bodies aren't fresh enough. With a civil war raging around, he isn't at a loss
for new volunteers, but when shell fire destroys yet another specimen, West declares it is time to go home.
Returning right back to Arkham and getting jobs as doctors (despite not actually passing medical school, and the whole hospital massacre thing), West and Cain set up shop in a stylish house with a spacious basement and convenient access to the local cemetery. It is in the basement that West makes a rather interesting doodle...made of fingers and an eyeball. Yes, as it turns out you don't even need the whole body. With the right amount of reagent one could animate just certain parts.
Which works out rather nice for him, as inside the hospital morgue there is a special collection of parts. These limbs and organs, including the severed head of Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) and the heart of Megan Halsey, are quite odd. Eight months old and yet so fresh you'd think they were still alive. There's also a sample of West's reagent. When Dr. Wilbur Graves (Mel Stewart) finds the glowing green vial, he figures why not inject into the severed head? Dr. Hill thanks him and then takes over the man's mind.
While this is going on, Lt. Leslie Chapman (Claude Earl James) is looking very close at the newly arrived doctors. Barging into the lab, he finds West's latest work. One quick fight later, and Chapman is now in a state very much like his wife (Marge Turner). Officially insane, yet with a distinct lack of pulse.
While Chapman's new state and Hill's return occurring, West is focusing all his energies on his greatest creation to date, the titular bride. Taking parts from the morgue and a few unlucky patients, plus Megan's heart, West creates a bride. Mostly because he wants to, not out of any romantic notions. Dan, at first, is behind this new being, but his own heart has been captured by the reporter Francesca Danelli (Fabiana Udenio).
With zombies coming up from the basement and the Bride falling apart upstairs, will West succeed at last?
Not bad, but very weak when compared to the first one. Scenes do have a habit of repeating, but Combs steals every scene he's in. The man can convey more in one raised eyebrow than some actors can with a whole body. Honestly I'd pay to see Combs and Gale just hamming it up for 90 minutes.
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