Horror, Rated R
Director: Brian Yuzna
Writer: José Manuel Gómez
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Jason Barry

H.P. Lovecraft’s demented Dr. Herbert West makes a third house call for Beyond Re-Animator, a sequel that’s right on par with Bride of Re-Animator, resulting in a garish, gory and good-humored (though definitely not good-natured) good time.

Jeffrey Combs returns to his most famous role as West, now imprisoned in the Arkham State Penitentiary after one of his living dead experiments escapes from Miskatonic Asylum and kills a young woman. Several years later, that girl’s little brother – who witnessed her gruesome demise – is the prison’s new doctor, and he’s brought West a present: a syringe full of that familiar glowing
green goo.

The doc (likeable but goofy Jason Barry) wants to use the serum to find ways to help people; West, however, just seems interested in continuing his freak-a-thon, though he has developed a method for restoring life, thanks to some secret research with rodents. At first, they inject a prisoner here, a
smokin’-hot Spanish reporter there, but the second half of the film is an all-out prison riot, Re-Animator-style, with electrocutions, hangings, exploding stomachs, nipple-biting and a wrestling half-torso!

As a fan of the original Re-Animator and its Bride, I will admit I harbored strong reservations about Beyond, although I had wanted a third film for years. Basically, the fact that it was shot in Spain, set in a prison, scripted by a first-timer and had no principals return except Combs combined to portend an idea whose time had long passed. After all, Bride is now 13 years old! Plus, director Brian Yuzna’s efforts of late – Faust: Love of the Damned, anyone? I thought not – didn’t bode well, either. But to my relief, Beyond is a solid third chapter in a B-movie franchise of Grand Guignol that has a lot of life left in it – reanimated or otherwise.

The disc boasts a bilingual making-of documentary, as well as Yuzna’s commentary and the obligatory trailers (for this, Faust and Cabin Fever). And if you thought the Re-Animator trilogy was lacking a techno-dance theme all along, you’ll thrill to the unintentionally hilarious Dr. Re-Animator music video for “Move Your Dead Bones” (sample lyric: “Reanimate your feet!”). And don’t you dare switch it off before the closing credits, lest you want to miss the fight between the rat and the penis.

Rod Lott writes about pop culture, annoying celebrities and life’s other absurdities every day at Hitch Daily and he also publishes the long-running Hitch:The Journal of Pop Culture Absurdity which is actually made out of paper.