2/5 Frankenstein-well sort of!
  by Master of Reality (San Antonio)
Ok, of all the Re-Animator movies, this one is by far the worst, it has its moments and even some laughs, but all the movie is, is a rip-off of The bride of Frankenstein. The old story of man loses girl friend, but mad scientist keeps dead girl's heart and builds a body around the frozen heart, with of course the help of the girl's boyfriend. I don't think his was what H.P. Lovecraft had in mind when he wrote the story about the Re-Animator and I think he turned over in his grave when this movie was released. Even Jeffery Combs could not save this one, it is too predictable and lame. The original Re-Animator and Beyond the Re-Animator are pretty good and worth owning, this was was the flat tire of the bunch. Back to the Drawing board Doc!

4/5 get the Pioneer release of this movie!
  by bOoKwOrM (usa)
Even though the Pioneer DVD is long out of print and might be more expensive than the readily available Artisan release, you should make the effort to track the out of print disc anyway!
Why bother?
Well, the Pioneer release includes the R-rated and Unrated versions of the film, a commentary with Brian Yuzna,Jeffrey Combs, and a bunch of others involved in the making of Bride of Reanimator. Also, there are things like conceptual drawings, behind the scenes footage, outtakes,etc.
The Pioneer 'Special Edition' truly deserves that label.



3/5 not like the original
  by Anthony Perez (usa)
I bought this movie because i love the first reanimator.i saw this wasnt directed by stuart gordan but i was gonna watch it anyway.its a good movie but the story lags a few times.the gore and stuff are good though but this dvd version is the absolute bare bones,although i hear there a special edition you can buy used on amazon.i recomend this movie to fans of reanimator because it expands on the story on the first and you can see what happens to the characters after the end of the first film.its not a bad movie just not a classic like the original.

5/5 Love That Lovecraft
  by Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. (Tampa, Florida)
Howard P. Lovecraft was a writer of horror fiction that not everyone has a taste for. Those who do enjoy his stories, though, admit that some of his better stories have been made into mediocre films (such as The Dunwich Horror). However, the reverrse is also true, and his short story, "Herbert West -- The Reanimator!", was one such. The story is relatively dull, but the film it eventually spawned is gory, but a lot of fun, with Jeffrey Combs making a perfect Herbert West. The film led to a sequel, which is "Bride."

The sequel carries on the saga of Herbert West, who has developed a serum that can reanimate corpses and their parts. The unfortunate death of a young woman doesn't deter Herbert West -- he decudes to rebuild her from various body parts that he sticks together and uses his reanimation serum on. This is, of course, complicated by the return of a nemesis from the previous film, an academic who wants to plagiarize West's work and present it as his own (notwithstanding that his reanimated head has been decapitated).

The film is characterized as a horror film, but it's as much comedic as gory. Not for every taste, but a lot of fun. For best appreciation, its predecessor should be viewed first.

5/5 Every bit as good as the original!
  by M. Ryan Fairbanks (Cleveland, Ohio)
Where to even begin with this one...Basically take everything that you loved about the original Reanimator, that is Herbert West, the gore, and the experimentations on corpses, and multiply it by a hundred! Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Abbott reprise their roles as Dr. Herbert West and Dr. Dan Cain respectively in this sequel that manages to be even more over the top than it's predacessor, Bride of Reanimator. The main focus of this one, as established in the opening scene, is that the duo has moved past reanimating dead subjects and are now interested in creating new life altogether.

Since creating new life has become as possibility for Herbert, he decides to put together a woman with the deceased Meg's heart, which Dan promptly agrees to with Meg having been his girlfriend when she was alive. The film seems to be divided up amongst three sub plots: The first involving Herbert harvesting lady parts from the hospital for their reanimated woman. The second involves Dr. Hill's decapitated head returning to life and plotting his revenge on Herbert, and the third involves a persistent detective that is dead set on busting Herbert for the stolen body parts as well as the whole "Miskatonic Massacre" (the events of the previous film). At the climax, these sub plots finally come together in an absurdly gory and campy conclusion that I'd be best off not even trying to describe here, (It incorporates a severed head with bat wings to give you an idea).

Bride of Reanimator features loads of of gore effects including everything from good old fashioned makeup, to stop motion effects, and even a bit of CGI (Which isn't too bad for 1989 either!). Combs and Abbott give performances just as memorable if not more so than the first one here, although the entire cast is phenomenal for the type of movie we're dealing with here. The dark comedy is much more apparent this time around giving the film a lighter and more comical mood than the original despite the fact that it's much gorier. Once again all the elements of Reanimator are here and better than ever, even that nifty theme song is reprised sans the cheesy 80' drums, which makes it even better in my opinion. Overall if you're a fan of gore and campy horror, Bride of Reanimator is essential viewing, I couldn't recommend it more.