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Bride of Re-Animator is Violently Underrated

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The amount of times I’ve seen 1985’s Re-Animator is insurmountable. It’s a staple in any conversation of greatest horror movies, whether or not we’re speaking Lovecraftian films or just flat-out greatest horror movies. The general consensus is that the film is amazing, and I can attest to that. But what about the sequel?

In all of my years of watching, reading, or finding any other possible way to consume horror, I’ve not heard much about Yuzna’s sequel to the film. Bride of Re-Animator, released four years later in 1989, has passed by generally undetected for a very, very long time. Despite this, Bride is actually an astounding display of gore and terror. It has its own unique set of quirks, and the tone is substantially different from the original. While they’re both different, they work very well as companion pieces to one another.

Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Abbott return to their respective roles as Herbert West and Dan Cain. West is up to his old tricks once again and plans to reanimate the perfect woman. Using the heart of a dead lover of Cain’s, the results are, as one may imagine, disastrous. All the while, the two scientists are being pursued by both the head of Dr. Hill and a detective hot on their trail. To make matters even more complicated, the irresistible Dan Cain has gotten involved with another woman who is oblivious to the insidious experiments being performed in the basement of West and Cain’s house. What could possibly go wrong?

Image courtesy of Home Cinema Choice

The effects are top-notch, as one would expect in a sequel to such a phenomenal film, and there are more than a few scenes which are cringeworthy – but I mean this in the best of ways. The sequences which involve the titular bride, in particular, are stomach-churning. Her body, a mutilated amalgam of discarded human body parts, is a much more gory version of the unforgettable Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The film almost serves as an updated version of the 1935 film. It once again reiterates the point that maybe man was not meant to play God after all.

Bride of Re-Animator finds its true strength towards the end of the film when the re-animated shit begins to hit the proverbial fan. All of West’s experiments are unleashed at once after being discarded as rejects. They are monstrous, disfigured, confused, and angry. In a fearful display, the end result is what one may imagine the darkest depths of Hell to look like. Oh, and there’s also this little guy:

Image courtesy of DVD Exotica

I can offer quite a few reasons as to why I believe the sequel seems to be so under appreciated. One is that the first was so quirky and original that anything less than astounding would be sure to be buried underneath the weight of its predecessor. A genuine horror comedy, Re-Animator was darkly silly while reaching levels of blood and surreal gore rarely seen in cinema before. Bride of Re-Animator lacked a strong humorous component. While it still was very much a goofy movie, it was much more subdued. From start to finish, it plays as a much more tongue-in-cheek affair than the first film.

Jeffrey Combs seems much more sinister in this film. Beyond curiosity, West no longer seems to have the slightest regard for the life he is reanimating. The lives he ruins in the process appear to be nothing more than collateral damage. This is illustrated perfectly in the beginning of the film when Cain and West are seen volunteering in a foreign civil war as doctors. Except, instead of tending to the wounded soldiers, West uses the bodies as raw material for his experiments. It’s a bizarre introduction with not much explanation and serves only to help create a bizarre tone for things to come.

Though I am quick to praise the film, I would be lying if I said that Bride of Re-Animator was as groundbreaking or simply entertaining as its predecessor. It’s a great film – especially the dark descent into madness at the end – but much like The Exorcist, nothing that follows could ever compare*. It’s an uphill battle that can never be won. Still, it’s one that’s worth mentioning, and a double-feature of the two films would make for a very fun and extremely gory night in.

*no, I’m not talking about The Exorcist 2, ya dummy. That movie sucks. The Exorcist 3, though? Now we’re talking.

Image courtesy of Nerdist

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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