Beyond Re-Animator

Beyond Re-Animator
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Brian Yuzna
Written by	Characters: H.P. Lovecraft Story: Miguel Tejada-Flores Screenplay: José Manuel Gómez
Produced by	Brian Yuzna Julio Fernández Carlos Fernández
Starring	Jeffrey Combs Tommy Dean Musset Jason Barry Bárbara Elorrieta Elsa Pataky Santiago Segura Simón Andreu
Cinematography	Andreu Rebés
Edited by	Bernat Vilaplana
Music by	Xavier Capellas
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films
Release dates	April 4, 2003
Running time	95 min.
Language	English
Budget	$3,000,000 (Estimated)

Beyond Re-Animator (2003) is a comedy / horror movie, directed by Brian Yuzna. It is the second sequel to Re-Animator. The film premiered on the Sci Fi Channel (though it was produced independently and acquired by the channel only as a distributor). This showing was cut to a TV-PG rating. The subsequently released DVD was rated R, but there is a slightly longer unrated cut available in some countries, including the Netherlands.

Plot

For the past 14 years, Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) has been serving his prison sentence for the Miskatonic massacre. 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. When a young doctor (Jason Barry) comes to work at the prison, West uses him to attain the supplies and tools needed to bring his experiments to the next level.

Dr. West has discovered "NPE" (Nano-Plasm 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 life-like 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.

The warden of the prison uncovers West's experiments, and is killed and re-animated not unlike Dr. Carl Hill in the first Re-Animator. However, West uses the NPE from a prisoner's pet rat, causing some unexpected side effects in the warden's behavior. It manifests itself as the prison descends into utter chaos as a riot breaks out, vials of the reagent circulating through the population. Soon, it is unclear on who is dead, who is alive, and who has been exposed to the agent.

In the end, West succeeds in escaping prison, reagent and NPE in hand, and leaves behind the madness he helped to create.

External links

• Beyond Re-Animator at IMDb
• Official site at Scifi.com
• Beyond Re-Animator Review at b-movies.gr