Bride of Re-Animator | February 22, 1991
"Bride of Re-Animator" is a 1990 American comedy horror film produced and directed by Brian Yuzna, with a screenplay by Yuzna, Rick Fry, and Woody Keith. The film is a sequel to the 1985 film "Re-Animator" and the second installment in the "Re-Animator" film series. Like its predecessor, it is loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's serialized story "Herbert West–Re-Animator" (1921-1922). Unlike the previous film, this movie was released directly to video.
The plot of "Bride of Re-Animator" roughly follows the Lovecraft stories "V. The Horror from the Shadows" and "VI. The Tomb-Legion," focusing on Herbert West and Dr. Dan Cain's attempts to create a living woman from dead body parts. The film stars Bruce Abbott, Claude Earl Jones, Fabiana Udenio, David Gale, and Kathleen Kinmont, with Jeffrey Combs reprising his role as Herbert West. This film was followed by a sequel, "Beyond Re-Animator," released in 2003.
Eight months after the events of "Re-Animator," Herbert West and Dan Cain are working as doctors in the midst of the bloody Peruvian civil war. Amid the chaos of battle, they gain the freedom to experiment with West's reanimation serum due to the high number of casualties. After their medical tent is attacked by enemy forces, West and Cain return to Arkham, Massachusetts. There, they resume their previous jobs at the Miskatonic University Hospital, and West returns to his laboratory in Cain's basement to continue his research.
Using parts stolen from the hospital morgue and the nearby cemetery, West discovers that his serum can reanimate body parts themselves. He resolves to create a whole living person from various body parts. West finds the heart of Cain's fiancée, Megan Halsey, in the hospital morgue. With the promise of reanimating a new Megan using her heart, West persuades Cain to join him in his project. Additionally, the morgue contains the remaining evidence of the "Miskatonic University Massacre." Inside, pathologist Dr. Wilbur Graves discovers West's serum and the severed head of Dr. Carl Hill. Using the serum, he reanimates Hill's head.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Leslie Chatham, the only survivor of the Miskatonic University Massacre, begins investigating West and Cain. Chatham's wife's corpse was reanimated into a crazed zombie during the incident (implying that he caused her death in the film's later parts). Chatham suspects that West and Cain are responsible. When he visits their home to question them, he discovers West's laboratory filled with corpses and confronts the two. A fight ensues, and West kills Chatham using a cloth treated with a chemical that induces cardiac arrest (a product of West's research to obtain the freshest corpses). West reanimates the officer with the intent to cover up his crime. Chatham violently wanders away from the house to the adjacent cemetery.
Hill, who harbors a grudge against West, uses mental powers to force Chatham to sew bat wings onto his neck. He also extends mental control over all the zombie survivors of the Miskatonic University Massacre.
When one of Cain's patients, Gloria, dies, West collects her head, the final piece needed for his creation. With the body fully stitched and connected, West and Cain inject the reanimation serum into Megan's heart. While waiting for the serum to take effect, a package is delivered to their home. West retrieves it and opens it, only for Hill's winged head to fly out. At the same time, the zombies controlled by Hill invade the house. West retreats to the underground laboratory, where his creation, the Bride, awakens.
A fight breaks out between the Bride and Cain's current girlfriend, Italian reporter Francesca Danelli. Cain rejects the Bride's love and sides with Francesca. Heartbroken, the Bride tears Megan's heart from her chest and falls apart. West diagnoses this as an organ rejection response.
Hill and his zombies force West, Cain, and Francesca to retreat through the laboratory walls into the basement of the adjacent cemetery. Inside, West's previous test subjects rise and approach him, but they only stop when Herbert commands them. The unstable basement begins to collapse, trapping Hill, West, and the zombies. Cain and Francesca crawl up to the cemetery surface to escape the debris. Hill is trapped in the rubble, and the heart of Megan in the Bride's hand stops beating.
