April 21, 2016

As is the case with any sequel, usually there are several ideas thrown on the table when it comes to developing a follow-up, especially one for a horror film that almost instantly became a cult classic! How does one even begin to come up with a way to continue the story of Herbert West, RE-ANIMATOR when it appears that he most definitely met his untimely demise at the conclusion of the first film?

On the new BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR 3 disc Blu-Ray set, out now from Arrow Video in the U.S., one of the many bonus features showcases a brand new interview with RE-ANIMATOR producer Brian Yuzna, who took over directing duties from Stuart Gordon on the sequel and he goes into detail on the many crazy ideas he and Gordon discussed regarding what would eventually become RE-ANIMATOR 2.

Firstly, he says, that BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR was always the title to the film, although initially is was intended to be another H.P. Lovecraft story. In particular, they had their sights on adapting “THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH” as DAGON. But if they were going to delve into a RE-ANIMATOR sequel, they quickly realized they had to bring back some key characters.

Going back to the drawing board, the duo concocted a plot that would follow Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott’s character from the first) working in secret as a superintendent of a building complex by day, and then we’d discover that he has hidden Meg Halsey’s reanimated corpse in the basement to work on by night!

At one point, a group of “men in black” show up, knowing full-well who Dan really is, kidnap him and bring him to the basement of the White House. That’s where he’s reunited with Herbert West, also recruited by the government to reanimate the president!

Back on March 30th of 1981, John Hinckley Jr made an assassination attempt on President Ronald Regan, a mere 69 days into his presidency. In real life, he survived, but in their initial plot for BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, what if Regan didn’t make it? And it turns out Herbert West was the one that brought him back to life to continue his presidency? This version of the sequel would’ve revealed the brain of President Kennedy, still ticking in the basement of the White House, along with the reanimated corpses of several celebrities.

None of this was ever scripted or outlined into a proper treatment, Yuzna confessed in the Blu-Ray’s interview featurette, it was merely only discussed out loud. But it’s interesting, because in 2007, the entire original RE-ANIMATOR gang attempted to resurrect the franchise, post-BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR, with the proposed HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR, which, similarly enough, featured a plot that found Herbert West being recruited to reanimate the recently deceased president, played by William H. Macy (!), who had just done EDMOND with Stuart Gordon. That sequel, sadly, also never happened. But back to BRIDE.

Wild Street Pictures had optioned two movies with Yuzna, SOCIETY and RE-ANIMATOR 2. Stuart Gordon, Dennis Paoli and Bill Norris started crafting a new story which reunited Herbert West and Dan Cain, both now working for a mortuary and discovering that in order to progress their reanimation agent, they had to remove something from the spine of recently deceased people. So they drive around in a Hearse getting fresh bodies for their experiments!

Wild Street Pictures suddenly got the money for BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR but had a very short window to make the film in. Stuart was busy with other projects and didn’t feel he could commit to it without at least 6 months prep, and so Yuzna stepped up to helm the sequel, now with his friends Woody Keith and Rick Fry completely reworking the script from scratch yet again.

For this version, they literally threw every outrageous idea on the bulletin board. David Gale, who played Dr. Hill in the original, had gotten early word that they were planning to make a sequel and called up Yuzna asking, “Anything in it for me?” At first, the challenge was, how do we bring back Dr. Hill when he was only a head at the end of the last one? But lo and behold, one of their radical ideas involved attaching live bat wings to his head so it could fly around.

BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR may not have totally worked on every level due to the suddenly rushed schedule of the shoot, something that even Yuzna now admits may have compromised the final product. But in retrospect, there’s enough interesting stuff in there to make it a fun sequel. And it’s just insane to think Herbert West, Dan Cain and Dr. Hill’s head returned for another chapter in their ongoing saga. Interesting to learn now what could have been!