Zombies in film: Beyond Re-Animator

"They Thought Prison Would Be The Death Of Him. But For Dr. West, Death Is Only The Beginning."


Film: Beyond Re-Animator
Directed by Brian Yuzna
Written by H.P. Lovecraft and Migel Tejada-Flores
Produced by Castelao Producciones, Fantastic Factory and Filmax

Story: Herbert West is back! This time one of his experiments kills a young woman, only to get at the milk she was drinking? And he gets sent to jail for an undetermined period of time. But the young girls brother grows up to be the worst actor of all time, er... to be a doctor himself! Who volunteers to work at the jail where West is so he and West can continue his research. Of course while West is making some real progress, including a way to bring the "soul" back as well as life itself, all hell is bound to get loose as events unfold until West finally confronts a couple of dismembered zombie inmates and the warden with a rat's soul to finally exscape with no remorse for those who'se life's he ruined and continue his experiments else where.

Zombies: I'm not even sure these creatures can be called zombies. They are re-animated and therefore undead but not much else about them makes for zombies. They seem to just become crazed versions of themselves. As with the first movie there are many types of re-animated corpses in the film. One drug addict seems to avoid becoming a crazed killer by taking the serum while alive, he simply meets a grisly... end? Although this movie clearly states there is no  true end when the re-animator serum is involved. The final type of zombie are those re-animated and then given back a soul. Which seems to just warp their personality, begging the question what if the person was given back their own soul?

Survival Lessons:

• Wear clothes that don't easily rip. You shouldn't have to be told twice ladies!
• Don't let a zombie do special favors for you.
• Don't take a re-animation agent while you are currently animated (alive.)
• Make sure your girlfriend isn't just trying to learn about your partner's experiments.
• Don't try to find out about your boyfriend's partner's strange experiments.
• Lesson from series: Doctors are evil or badass, or sometimes both.

Warnings: The R rated version is rated that for good reason. Children skip this next line. Just to give an example of some of the R rate material in this movie, a re-animated "thing" off a man fights a zombie rat. While hilarious, it is definately not for the youngins.

In the end if this film had stayed more consistant with how each "type" of zombie acted it would have been far more then just a fluff piece. As the case is there are too many inconsistantcies to make the film truely worth watching for the ideas it tries to get across and the questions it asks. Like what would happen if a zombie was given back a soul? The soul of an animal? The soul of another person? The soul of the person that zombie used to be? Very interesting questions but ones to which the answers must be found elsewhere.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.

Zombies in film: Re-animator

"Death is just the beginning..."

Film: Re-animator
Directed by Stuart Gordon

Written by H.P. Lovecraft and Dennis Paoli
Produced by Empire Pictures and Re-animator Productions

Story: A collage student, Herbert West, tries to defeat death with a serum he creates to reanimate the brain. He moves to a new town where his experiments quickly gain him the trust of a fellow student and their search for a suitable test subject leads on a winding trail of death and chaos as events get more and more complicated until finally Herbert and his roommate and the dean's daughter must face off with a headless mastermind zombie in a morgue where all of the bodies have been infected.  

Zombies: The zombies in this film evolve through out the film. That is to say the science used to create them evolves. The first zombie simply has his eyes explode. After that zombies simply show enhanced strength and toughness. Although they can be killed by extreme means, surgical drills through the chest, etc. The zombie mastermind is a scientist who's head was cut off but he was instantly given the serum which revived him and he still retained control over his body. He then combined the zombie serum with his technique of destroying the part of a person's brain where the willpower is, and then he could create the final version of zombies in the film. The mindless killing machines who obeyed his orders, and also felt pain whenever he did... Mastermind zombies can also explode their chests on command and their intestines can be used as lassos and drag people to their doom. Mentioned before is the zombie serum, a strange re-animator which causes any creature who hasn't had their brain destroyed to come back to life although if they are reanimated six minutes after death they will come back with only the most base instincts, the instinct to kill and feed.

Survival Lessons:

• Wear clothes that don't easily rip. Especially pants.
• Destroy the head, don't just cut it off.
• Head isn't always fun.
• Mocking zombies doesn't kill them.
• Don't leave your strange roommate alone with your dead cat.
• Pencils snap really easily and disrupt scientists.
• The personality dies roughly 6 minutes after the brain.

Warnings: The R rated version is rated that for good reason. Not all people look good naked. Just saying.

 

In the end this movie is very raunchy and as a film maker there are too many things wrong with it to even list. That aside, not a bad mood. Entertaining and definitely shows how anyone who keeps their wits about them has a good chance to survive. Also shows the dangers of playing with things best left in the hands of God.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.