Jeffrey Combs dominated the role of mad scientist throughout the 1980s, whether he was building an oxygen-fueled, rocket-propelled motorcycle in Cyclone, constructing a mind-altering device, or developing a formula to resurrect the dead. He continued pushing the boundaries of physics, nature, and reality in his first 1990s film, which shocked audiences exactly 35 years ago.
Initially, Combs couldn’t participate in Bride of Re-Animator, the sequel to Re-Animator’s notoriously gory horror-comedy interpretation of Lovecraft. However, when production on another Stuart Gordon splatter film, The Pit and the Pendulum, encountered delays, the actor got the opportunity to return to his most iconic role.
At the end of Re-Animator, Herbert West appeared to meet his end at the hands of living intestines, but the sequel retcons this, beginning eight months later with the unhinged doctor and his assistant Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) hiding out in a Peruvian field hospital during a war. Their mission isn’t to save injured troops, though. Rather, they’re utilizing the dead to refine their glowing green reagent that restores life.
An enemy attack drives them back to Massachusetts, yet West persists in playing God in the cellar of their joint residence, collecting body parts from the adjacent graveyard and the local hospital morgue where they previously caused chaos. In the morgue, he discovers the heart of Cain’s deceased fiancée Megan, confirming that her brief undead state in the first film ended badly. Having learned that separate body parts can be revived to form a completely new Frankenstein-like creature, he recognizes he now possesses the perfect centerpiece.
West always prioritized experimentation over morality. Yet by taking advantage of his partner’s sorrow and promising to resurrect his beloved, Bride of Re-Animator highlights just how far he’ll sink. Combs is equally compelling as a calculating manipulator as he is a wild-eyed lunatic; his charming “good-looking nerd” look paired with unflinching intensity reveals why he’s so persuasive.
Naturally, director Bryan Yuzna – fresh off another queasy body horror film, Society – still provides Combs ample opportunity to go berserk. West increases his death toll by killing (and subsequently reviving) a nosy police officer named Chapham (Claude Earl Jones) to hide his activities, decapitates a patient almost immediately after she expires, and, in a scene that will disturb animal enthusiasts, fuses a resurrected dog with the human arm used to bludgeon it to death.
He’s also far more ambitious for power. “They’re all equal now, nothing but discarded leftovers of a meaningless existence,” is just one of his grandiose proclamations after displaying his abomination. “I created what no man’s mind nor woman’s womb could ever hope to achieve,” is another. Ignore the fact that the Bride (Kathleen Kinmont) appears only fleetingly after more than an hour, despite the film’s title. The real monster is West’s ego.
Yet Combs skillfully steers clear of cartoonish evil, lending the character complexity and even a hint of pity. His brilliant mind clearly conceals poor social skills: “Your welcome does not extend to this part of the house,” he clumsily informs Cain’s Italian journalist girlfriend, Francesca (Fabiana Udeni), when she first descends into the basement of terror. As in the original, his absence of romance, coupled with his utter contempt for Cain’s relationship, suggests underlying sexual frustration.
Unsurprisingly, all his dismembering and sewing turns out to be pointless. Heartbroken that Cain favors the whole Francesca over her quickly constructed body, the Bride wails about the meaninglessness of her existence before physically tearing out her transplanted heart. It’s a devastating reaction that, like many monster stories, evokes pity for the creature and disdain for its maker.
West isn’t the only one meddling with nature, though. After discovering both the miraculous serum and the severed head of Re-Animator’s primary antagonist, Dr. Hill (David Gale), pathologist Dr. Graves (Mel Stewart) is hypnotized into conducting his own experiments, most significantly grafting bat wings onto the head. This leads to a chaotic finale where Hill infiltrates the laboratory, commands all zombies to join him, and forces our human protagonists into a collapsing tomb. While Cain and Francesca escape, West and the entire undead horde appear to be crushed to death.
As you might expect, he survives to appear in the 2003 sequel Beyond Re-Animator, where, even while incarcerated for his homicidal undead creations, he continues refining his distinctive revival method. By then, Combs had portrayed other unhinged intellectuals in films like The Guyver and The Attic Expeditions. However, Bride of Re-Animator is where his mad scientist brilliance truly flourished.