Crazy Herbert West (Combs) and sidekick Doctor Dan Cain (Abbott) have volunteered to be peace corp. doctors in South America where they discover their serum can create life not just reanimate it. Ten months after the Massacre at the University, West and Cain return with a nosy detective (Jones) with a grudge begins to investigate the duo. Of course the whacked out West has been experimenting with dead body parts from the cemetery which is right next to the former morgue that West and Cain are using as a lab. Eventually West sets out to create life in the basement while constructing the "Bride". Crossing a line that every doctor shouldn't, Cain agrees to help West because he plans to use the heart of his dead girlfriend from the first film. In the meantime, Dr, Hill (David Gale) has been reanimated by a doctor (Mel Stewart) who has sewn on bat wings to his severed head. Still obsessed with revenge on West, Hill's head plans some surprises for West and Cain. This crazy follow up to the surprise 1985 Gore hit is executed by the first films producer Brain Yuzna who also co-wrote. Trying to hit on all the same points the original had, Yuzna delivers the expected excessive gore, mixed with plenty of black humor and one-liners. Some of the humor this time is pushed a little too far out ahead and at times this feels like a dark comedy. The returning Combs and Abbott are solid as West and Cain and it is nice to see the further exploits of these two characters. Fans of the first film will probably enjoy this, but sadly this sequel is missing the tension of the first film and it really doesn't have anything new to offer that hasn't already been done in the original. Where this film amuses and entertains, the original also shocked and scared you at the same time. The slick production and crazy finale with West's body experiments getting loose make this a watchable sequel.

Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and Dean Cain (Bruce Abbott) are up to their old tricks again--reanimating dead corpses and causing tons of gory fun to ensure. And the evil, dead Dr. Hill (the late David Gale) is back again too...

Strange sequel--for starters West and Hill were dead at the end of the first movie. In the special DVD edition of this they show there WAS footage shot to explain how they were back--for some reason it never made it into the movie leaving some gaping plot holes.

In terms of gore this equals the first one (despite the R rating) with some truly extreme sequences--especially the ending which is drenched in blood. It also has the pitch black humor of the first...some of it very funny. But this time around there's just not enough of a plot to fill 90 minutes. Poor Combs says essentially the same speech about reanimation five times! And there are just a lot of scenes not necessary to tell the story so the movie moves in fits and stops.

Still, it is a lot of fun (if you have a very strong stomach) and Combs is having a whale of a time in his role. Gale is very underused--but then he was written in at the last minute.

So this is a definite must-see for horror fans--just don't expect anything as good as the original.

Best line: "My God! They're using tools!"

It's very hard to make a sequel to an absolute masterpiece that can live up to the original. Let us not forget how bad the Exorcist II and the Howling II were. Like the previous titles mentioned, Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is a true classic in the field of horror, so I was very careful with my expectations towards this film. Yet, several elements showed that it could be a very good film. Jeffrey Combs returned as his memorable Dr. West character and also Dan Cain and Carl Hill are present again. ( well, at least his head is... ) Brian Yuzna took the seat of the director. Good sign, I thought. He knows what he does when it comes to horror. And this film proved itself to be good. It can never reach the level of the original but the complete cast and crew seems to realize that. They just tried to make a sequel worth watching and in that viewing... they succeeded.

TINY SPOILERS FROM HERE ... Dr. West is even more fantastic ( and that means more crazy :-] ) to achieve his discovery of re-animating dead bodies. He keeps convincing Dr. Dan Cain to assist him by claiming he can bring back Megan to live ( Dr. Cains love interest from the first film ) West found Megan's hart in the hospital and they shall create a new woman with it. Great !!! Also, the head of the infamous Dr. Carl Hill gets re-animated and he's only after one thing. Nail Dr. West and avenge his dissection ! By this he gets assisted by another doctor. Thing are even getting more difficult for Dr. West when a fanatic detective follows him around... The bride of Re-Animator (a clean tribute to Frankenstein) is 90 minutes of pure fun. Horrorfans won't be disappointed at all. It's a logical sequel to the original, but also a film that could stand to itself. As far as sequels go, this is a good effort. Now, after 13 years a second sequel is about to come. Beyond Re-Animator ( also directed by Yuzna and starring Combs ) is claimed to be a worthy addition to the series as well. I haven't seen it yet but I sure will when I get the chance.