''Beyond Re-Animator'' is a 2003

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

directed by

Brian Yuzna Brian Yuzna is an American producer, director, and writer. He is best known for his work in the science fiction and horror film genres. Yuzna began his career as a producer for several films by director Stuart Gordon, such as '' Re-Animator'' ...

and starring

Jeffrey Combs Jeffrey Alan Combs (born September 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for starring in horror films, such as '' Re-Animator'', and appearances playing a number of characters in the ''Star Trek'' and the DC animated universe television fr ...

, Jason Barry, Elsa Pataky, Simón Andreu and

Santiago Segura Santiago Segura Silva (born 17 July 1965) is a Spanish filmmaker and actor. He also worked to a lesser extent as a television presenter, voice actor and comic book writer, as well as being a collector of original comic books. At 12, he began ...

. It is the third and final installment in the ''Re-Animator'' film series. An international co-production of Spain and the United States, ''Beyond Re-Animator'' premiered on the

Sci-Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. L ...

, though it was produced independently and acquired by the channel only as a distributor; this showing was cut to a TV-PG rating. The film received a limited theatrical run in the U.S. and was assigned an R rating, and a slightly longer unrated cut was released on home media in some countries.

Plot

For the past 13 years,

Dr. Herbert West Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, w ...

has been serving a prison sentence due to a murder at the hands of one of his zombies. With what scant supplies he has on hand in the prison medical center, Dr. West has been capable of performing only extremely basic experiments on rats. However, his lack of supplies does not prevent him from uncovering a key element in his re-animation process. Dr. West has discovered "NPE" (Nano-Plasmic Energy), an energy that can be extracted from the brain of a living organism through an electrocution-like process, to be stored in a capsule resembling a small light bulb. The capsule can then be connected to a corpse and used in conjunction with West's previously developed reagent to restore the former dead to a lifelike state. The NPE prevents the degeneration seen in previous instances, where the reanimated are nothing more than mindless zombies. Used together with the re-agent, reanimated corpses regain their skills, memories, and motor functions and nearly fully resemble normal humans. When a young doctor named Howard Phillips comes to work at the prison, West is assigned to assist the new doctor. Due to Phillips' interest in Dr. West's research, West is able to attain the supplies and tools needed to bring his experiments to the next level. It is revealed that Phillips is the younger brother of the teenage girl who was killed by West's zombie (he is shown watching West being taken away by the cops) and came to the prison for the explicit purpose of working with him. Despite his interest, Phillips still maintains an ethical reluctance to allow West's research to full completion. In the meantime, journalist Laura Olney, covering a story for her newspaper at the prison, meets and begins an affair with Dr. Phillips, and they fall in love. This new romance only temporarily postpones West's experiment, however. After the warden of the prison, also infatuated with Laura, attempts to seduce Laura himself, she resists and he angrily kills her. Crushed by Laura's death, Dr. Phillips succumbs to Dr. West's wishes and his experiments are allowed to literally take on new life. West & Phillips revive Laura with the NPE, although it is quickly seen that the dangerous side effects of West's past work are still present with the NPE. Eventually, the warden of the prison uncovers West's experiments and moves to put an end to them, but he is killed by West, and subsequently re-animated. West uses the NPE from a prisoner's pet rat, causing some unexpected side effects in the warden's behavior. It quickly manifests itself as the prison descends into utter chaos as a riot breaks out, with vials of the reagent circulating through the population. Soon, it is unclear who is dead, who is alive, and who has been exposed to the agent. When the chaos finally settles from the bloody prison riot, West escapes captivity before the guards appear by stealing Phillips' I.D. when he comes across Phillips weeping over Laura's decapitated body. As police and authorities take control of the prison, Phillips is dragged away as he and Laura's head start laughing. Herbert West is shown putting on his glasses outside the prison and disappears into the night to continue his research.

Cast

* Jason Barry as Dr. Howard Phillips * Elsa Pataky as Laura Olney * Simón Andreu as Warden Brando *

as "Speedball" * Lolo Herrero as Sergeant Moncho *

Enrique Arce Enrique Javier Arce Temple (born October 8, 1972) is a Spanish television and film actor. Biography Arce was born in Valencia, Spain on 8 October 1972. He originally went to university to study law, but during his fourth year, he decided to mo ...

as Cabrera *

Bárbara Elorrieta Bárbara Elorrieta ( Madrid, 5 May 1985) is a Spanish actress and TV producer. Both her grandfather José María Elorrieta and father Javier Elorrieta are film directors. Filmography * 2006 Rojo intenso * 2004 Rottweiler * 2003 Teresa Teresa ...

as Emily Phillips * Raquel Gribler as Nurse Vanessa * Daniel Ortiz as Winni * Joaquín Ortega as Officer Falcon

Reception

On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 11 critics, with an average rating of 5.30/10 Allmovie gave the film a mixed review, calling it "almost a remake of the original". Jonathan Holland of '' Variety'' writes that the film is "sometimes shocking but rarely scary" and "calculated to appeal only to hardcore gore hounds." In a mixed review, Patrick Naugle of

DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose revi ...

called it "somewhat of a letdown" but "worth at least one viewing". Writing for

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music ...

, Brad Miska rates the film 2.5/5 stars and called it "a fun movie, but nothing special". In their book ''Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft'', Andrew Migliore and John Strysik write: "If your idea of Lovecraftian fun is Combs' acidic one-liners, and digitally enhanced gore effects that weren't available for the other two films, then by all means have a look. But if you're comparing this film to the still classic ''

Re-Animator ''Re-Animator'' (also known as ''H. P. Lovecraft's Re-Animator'') is a 1985 American comedy horror film loosely based on the 1922 H. P. Lovecraft serial novelette "Herbert West–Reanimator". Directed by Stuart Gordon and produced by Brian Yuz ...

'', well... This third try is only a shadow of the gonzo wit of the original and not nearly as entertaining." ''Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For'' author Arnold T. Blumberg wrote that "''Beyond Re-Animator'' is better than its immediate predecessor" and that "Combs slips back into the white shirt and black tie, wielding the hypo of green goo like he never put it down, but his performance is nicely tempered by the passage of time, giving us a West that lacks some of his youthful confidence but none of his single-minded desire to pursue 'The Work.'" Bruce G. Hallenbeck, in his book ''Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914-2008'', again described Brian Yuzna's direction as "competent but uninspired", but said the film's biggest problem is that most of the cast are Spanish actors whose voices were obviously dubbed over to conceal their accents, resulting in a lack of both tension and comedy. He commented that Jeffrey Combs is still outstanding in the role of Herbert West, but his performance is muted due to a complete lack of strong co-stars to play off of.

Home media

In 2011 Arrow Video released a Special Edition DVD of the film, with the following special features: * Audio commentary with director Brian Yuzna * 'All in the Head' Brian Yuzna on the Re-Animator Chronicles (50 mins) * Original trailer * Reversible cover sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Tom Hodge 'The Dude Designs' * Double-sided fold-out poster featuring new artwork * Collector's booklet featuring 'World of Lovecraft' and an interview with star Jeffrey Combs by author and critic Calum Waddell, as well as an extract from H. P. Lovecraft's original story ‘Herbert West – Reanimator’

References

External links