Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

Country of Origin: USA / Spain
Year of Production: 2003
Running Times:
Format: colour     35mm
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Fantastic Factory (Filmax)
Executive Producers: Carlos Fernández, Julio Fernández
Producers: Julio Fernández, Brian Yuzna
Development Executives: Manuel Monzón Fueyo, Elena Serra
Production Manager: Teresa Gefaell

SCRIPT
Script: José Manuel Gómez, Miguel Tejada-Flores, Brian Yuzna
Story: Herbert West, Re-Animator by H.P. Lovecraft
Story Editor: Alberto Marini

DIRECTION
Director: Brian Yuzna
1st Assistant Director: Fernando Sánchez-Izquierdo

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Andreu Rebés

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Bernat Vilaplana

MUSIC
Music: Xavier Capellas
Re-Animator Theme: Richard Band

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Pepe Cáceres
Sound: Marc Orts, Oriol Tarrago

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up: Karol Tornaria

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: SMG Effects
Lab Supervisor: Michael McGee

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Llorenç Miquel
Storyboard Artist: D.H. Covey

LOCATIONS
Locations: Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain; Prisión Modelo, Valencia, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

CASTING
UK Casting: Louis Hammond

CAST
Jeffrey Combs (Herbert West)
Jason Barry (Howard Philips)
Elsa Pataky (Laura Olney)
Simón Andreu (Warden Brando)
Santiago Segura (Speed Ball)
Enrique Arce (Cabrera)
Raquel Gribler (Nurse Vanessa)
Nico Baixas (Moses Jones)
Lolo Herrero (Sergeant Moncho)
Bárbara Elorrieta (Emily)

PLOT SUMMARY

Herbert West has spent that the last thirteen years in prison for the deaths that occurred after his misguided experiments at Miskatonic University got out of hand. He's not been idle though and thinks he may have found the answer to why his subjects go mad once they're re-animated in the shape of 'nano-plasmic energy' which restores the newly revived to some sort of normality. The arrival of a new prison doctor, Howard Phillips, acts as a catalyst for West who soon finds himself waist deep in zombie rats, revived half corpses, deranged reagent junkies and a re-animated disembodied penis...

CAPSULE REVIEW

Beyond Re-Animator is a lot better than the the dreadful Bride of Re-Animator (1990). It's not great but it's a lot more fun than anyone had any right to expect it to be. It's more of a comedy even than the previous entries in the franchise and although not all of the comedy works, there are some very funny sight gags and Jeffrey Combs' deadpan delivery is often hilarious. That's not to say that it skimps on the horror and Beyond Re-Animator is every bit as gory as you might hope for - there's some computer generated effects here but in an era where evry genre film seems to be so heavily reliant on CGI, it's particularly refreshing to see some outrageously messy 80s style physical effects, courtesy of Screaming Mad George. Combs is the main attraction, delivering the dreadful dialogue like he believes every word of it and commendably taking the whole thing very seriously. The rest of the cast are never anything other than merely adequate, except the great Simón Andreu (La novia ensangrentada (1972), Flesh + Blood (1985), Die Another Day (2002)) as the quite mad prison warden, who steals every scene he's in, even from Combs.

Canada
Theatrical Distributor: Lions Gate Films Inc

2003
April
4: USA – shown at the Philadelphia International Film Festival
11: Netherlands – shown at the Festival van de Fantastische Film

August
23: UK - shown at the Frightfest, London

September
23: Canada, USA - video release

SEQUEL TO
Re-Animator (1985)
Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

SEE ALSO
The Asphyx (1973)
An Imperfect Solution: A Tale of the Re-Animator (2003)

WEB LINKS
Official site

MAGAZINES

Fangoria no.222 (May 2003) pp.24-28 (USA)
illustrated production notes

Screen International no.1377 (18 October 2002) p.22 (UK)
credits, production notes

human experiments, prisoners, prisons, re-animation, scientists, sequels, zombies