Fans of Stuart Gordon’s 1985 Re-Animator will probably dig this campy gorefest sequel directed by the original’s producer, Brian Yuzna.
Jeffrey Combs returns in top form as H.P. Lovecraft’s dotty scientist Herbert West, this time [in a story by Yuzna, Woody Keith and Rick Fry] intent on joining the trendy club of would-be Dr Frankensteins creating a female monster (a la Frankenhooker, Steel & Lace, Eve of Destruction).
Reluctantly assisting Combs again is fellow doctor Bruce Abbott, whose beautiful new Italian girlfriend Fabiana Udenio can’t shake his grieving attachment to his true love Megan, who was killed in the first film. When Combs tells him that he’s going to build his femme creation around Megan’s preserved heart, Abbott joins the grisly experiment.
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The over-the-top acting that Gordon encouraged in Re-Animator is continued here with Combs particularly adept at the darkly comic throwaway line. Overabundance of gore (an even more explicit unrated version will be made available in vidstores) will turn off mainstream viewers, however. Tall actress Kathleen Kinmont is a good choice for the monster, with her stitched together, see-through torso.
