FANTASTIC FEST 2025 REVIEW! Brian Yuzna’s 1990 camp horror classic, Bride of Re-Animator, is being released in a remastered 4K edition, and it is a bloody feast for the eyes. The remaster of the first film, Re-Animator, was released in 4K in 2024. The films are both loosely based on a Lovecraft short story called Herbert West–Reanimator, in which he revisits the Frankenstein myth, but instead of electricity, West uses a reagent serum he’s concocted to enervate dead tissue. This story is the first to mention Lovecraft’s fictional Miskatonic University. It is also one of the first characterizations of zombies as scientifically reanimated corpses. The undead retain varying degrees of humanity, but some are garden-variety mindless zombies.
In the films, Dr. Herbert West is played by the unstoppable Jeffrey Combs. West is joined by a reluctant pretty-boy Doctor Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). They are challenged by antagonist Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale), who, despite being dead, finds himself (or at least his head) re-animated by curiosity, but is reckless. Dr. Graves (Mel Stewart). Graves can’t resist tinkering with the glowing green reagent recovered in the aftermath of the disaster caused by West and Cain in the first film. Hill is (sort of) alive and pissed-off. He demands that Graves help him exact revenge on West.
“…instead of electricity Dr. Herbert West uses a serum to enervate dead tissue…”
The creepy duo, in the meantime, are busily assembling the next body to bring back. Dr. Cain is also looking after a dying patient named Gloria (Kathleen Kinmont). Cain has sympathy for her, while West is eyeing her fresh flesh for his project. They have pilfered parts from the Miskatonic hospital morgue, including the heart of Cain’s love, Meg (Barbara Crampton). Dan has other fish to fry; however, when the beautiful Francesca Danelli (Fabiana Udenio) comes to see him. This man has too many women after him among both the living and the dead.
The plot of Bride of Re-Animator goes further sideways and down from here. It becomes a zombie soap opera. The story doesn’t matter, because we are here for the mad Dr. West and the practical effects gore. Combs and Abbott deliver the goods in spades. Combs made his bones playing this character, where he set the standard for campy, obsessed nut-case. There’s a much-quoted moment as everything is coming apart around him, and the building is literally caving in when West shouts out, “Make a note of it, Dan! Tissue rejection!” Combs will live in B-movie Valhalla eternally for that line. That said, however, the authenticity of the film comes from the fact that, despite it being pure camp, all of the cast play it completely straight, never winking at the audience, but fully invested in their ridiculous characters. They commit, and that makes it even funnier.
The 4K remaster of Bride of Re-Animator is a beautiful thing to behold. If there’s a better use for digital tools and A.I., I can’t imagine what it is. Watching a restored film on a theater screen is pure joy. We get to see what the director and cinematographer intended without the distractions of flaws inherent in the original film, or deterioration effects of time, or loss due to the digital transformation process.
Bride of Re-Animator Blu-Ray 4K DVD media will be stocked in early 2026. There are also limited special event screenings, if you are lucky enough to find one.
"…a beautiful thing to behold."
