Original subtitles

[Wind whistling, insects chirping]

[Music sting]

[Bird cawing]

[Wood scraping]

[Harmonica playing]

-If you climb up over that ridge,

which is part of the Appalachian Trail,

and you hike directly west,

you can be at the Golden Gate Bridge

in about 119 days and gaze at the beautiful vista

of the Pacific Ocean.

[Harmonica plays]

Or you can hike up over that ridge

and get an Uber to Newark Airport

and be there this afternoon.

[Harmonica plays]

Or you can hike up over that ridge,

and there's a dive bar

where they don't believe in California.

They're not sure it exists.

That's the great thing about America.

[Harmonica playing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Hey, everybody, have you heard the news? ♪

♪ Joe Bob is back in town ♪

♪ He's over at the drive-in, hanging around ♪

♪ Watching crazy movies, so come on down ♪

♪ To Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Blood, beasties, boobies, and more ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's a spooky good time with monsters and ghosts ♪

♪ Crazy, kooky fun with the world's greatest host ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be legendary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be very scary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

♪♪

[Static crackling]

♪♪

-You know, one thing you notice when you get stranded

in the "Evil Dead" spam cabin for six months --

I don't mean to complain, but how long do we have to do this?

One thing you notice is that these small towns

that you think are in the middle of the lost prairie

are actually becoming more and more like big cities,

while big cities are becoming more and more like small towns.

It actually started a long time before the country went nutzoid.

I'm Joe Bob Briggs, by the way, and I'm especially proud

of our lineup tonight on "The Last Drive-In."

Our first movie is a criminally underrated sequel to a classic,

and our second movie is a criminally underrated

Australian flick.

This is Criminally Underrated Night,

and it will be especially spicy because Darcy

violently disagrees with me about one of the films,

right, Darcy?

-Violently?

-Darcy the Mail Girl, ladies and gentlemen,

here to field the mail.

Neither masked killers nor online bullies can stay Darcy

from her appointed rounds as she processes your e-mails,

your tweets, your Instas,

your messages on -- what's that new one?

-New what?

-There's a social media platform for horror only.

-Oh, Slasher.

-Yeah, we accept messages from Slasher now.

Plus, we have a very special guest,

a man whose middle name is "Iconic,"

Mr. Jeffrey "Iconic" Combs,

star of "Bride of Re-Animator"

as well as several other H.P. Lovecraft adaptations.

But the point I was making is,

you can cut through the woods here,

and there's a trail that goes down to that town --

what is the name of the town? Hardwick.

And you know we're actually in Appalachia here?

This is part of the Appalachian Valley,

the Appalachian Trail.

You can hike through the woods here about a half hour,

and you're on the Appalachian Trail.

I did it yesterday.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,190 miles long,

and I hiked it. [Laughter]

Well, I hiked exactly 0.219 miles.

So I clocked it on my Fitbit so I could tell people

that I hiked exactly 10% of the trail.

Well, that's actually -- 0.219, if it's 2,190 miles --

that's actually 1% of the tr--

no, that's actually 1/10 of...

1/100 of 1%.

I don't think it was 1/1000 of 1%, was it?

But it may be.

Anyway, it was an awesome outdoor experience.

Anyway, most folks don't think of New Jersey as being

part of the Great Appalachian Valley,

but these are my people.

And, by the way, yes, I know

you're not supposed to say "Appalachia."

It's "Appalatcha,"

and they would kill me in East Tennessee,

but we're in New Jersey, so I don't wanna have to

explain for the people who only know about hillbillies from NPR.

Anyway, there are some New Jersey hillbillies

right here over the ridge, and, um...

What was my point? Oh, yeah!

My point is if you go into Hardwick,

people probably won't talk to you.

And this does not surprise me.

I once lived out in Muleshoe, Texas,

which is in the Panhandle,

and just about everybody spoke to everybody else on the street

allthe time.

But not anymore.

If you go back there today,

people might wave from their pickup cab,

but they're mostly isolated inside their cars all day.

They drive around, by themselves, in a motor vehicle,

doing stuff they don't discuss with anybody else.

If they talk, it's on the phone.

But this is not what the Chamber of Commerce

is telling you.

They all have those "Friendliest Place on the Planet" signs

at the city limits, you know, where, you know --

you know where people do talk on the street?

North Beach San Francisco.

Downtown Chicago.

Greenwich Village.

Those are all places where the neighborhoods

got smaller and smaller,

the buildings are all old and under historic protection,

the sidewalks are wide, and people walk around.

Therefore, they have to talk. They don't have any choice.

All those places are known for having great talkers,

famous talkers, whereas I go into Hardwick or Muleshoe,

and I'm afraid to say anything

to one of those tight-lipped, stern-faced,

stay-in-his-car-all-day salesman types.

Another thing is traffic.

Small towns were always famous

for having polite drivers, right?

Actually, the most polite driving I witness

anywhere in the country is on the Long Island Expressway,

'cause when that thing is bumper-to-bumper,

the people in the right-hand lane

alwayslet one car on from the merge lane.

So you go one car, one car, one car, one car,

and it moves smoothly 'cause they just kinda

weave together the cars on the road

and the cars on the entrance ramp.

But if you go to, say, Birmingham, Alabama,

and you try to make a clean merge onto the interstate,

watch out for some guy bearing down on you at 50

who will not move or slow down or change lanes.

Of course, that's his right.

You are, after all, the person merging.

You just don't expect people to insist on this right.

I got impatient with a slow driver in Little Rock one time.

I passed him on the right shoulder,

and I thought he was gonna kill me.

He chased me for miles.

You know, they talk about freeway shootings in L.A.

They haven't seen the look on a driver's face

who thinks he's been wronged in Savannah, Georgia.

But, finally, there's the old

"small towns are a great place to raise kids" argument.

Small towns are terribleplaces to raise kids.

The kids are so bored, they turn to drugs and booze

as soon as they hit junior high.

What kinda places do kids love?

Places with subways and street life

and Major League baseball stadiums

and ballet class

and weird people selling hot dogs on the corner.

Where do you go in a small town?

The mall! And it's three counties over.

The place that looks like every other place in the country.

This is what cities were always accused of --

being full of boring buildings that looked all the same.

I don't know where this "cities are bad for children" thing

started, but it's a big fat lie.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Go ahead and shoot me.

And speaking of unnatural mutations,

"Bride of Re-Animator" is finally here.

The first one was one of our most popular flicks ever

on the original "Last Drive-In" marathon in 2018,

and this is the sequel that continues the story

of Herbert West's experiments

where he injects green serum into dead bodies

and watches 'em start twitchin' and frothin' at the mouth

and eventually eatin' one another.

The original "Re-Animator" came out in 1985

and was the first movie ever made

where a principal actor loses his head

halfway through the movie,

but finishesthe movie.

And now they've gone one better.

That same actor, David Gale, is backin this movie,

or at least part of him is back.

His head gets fourth billing in the sequel.

What a talent, you know?

This time Dr. West and his wimpy colleague, Daniel Cain,

have been down in Peru,

looking for body parts in a civil war,

when he discovers a magic iguana,

and he starts screaming, "Reptiles are the key!

We will create new life!"

If you mix iguana juice with the green serum,

you can not only pump life into dead people,

you can pump life into body parts

without even using a brain, so Dr. West starts doing things

like grafting four fingers to an eyeball

and then making it run around like a fleshy spider,

turning doorknobs and flirting with other species.

Fortunately for his future experiments,

Dr. Daniel Cain hasn't gotten over his dead girlfriend,

Barbara Crampton, and Barbara is too busy with her soap career

to help him out by taking a supporting role in the sequel.

But fortunately, Dr. West saved her heart,

and so if they can just collect enough body parts

and enough serum,

yep, it's the old "Frankenhooker" theme again.

But this time the head of West's arch-enemy, Dr. Hill,

is busy over in the pathology lab

trying to talk one of his colleagues

into sewing bat wings to his ears

so he can have a more ambulatory life as a flying head.

In other words, they did it again.

It's got everything the original had.

I don't care what you purists say.

Best movie of 1991,

and that was a pretty great year.

So let's look at those drive-in totals.

We have...

Drive-In Academy Award nominations

for Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West

for wielding the green needle, mixing the serum,

and saying, "Pure potentiality,

the primordial ooze from which life originates,"

and "How dare you judge my work?"

and "He's a wife-beater, Dan! Use the gun!"

and "I created what no man's mind nor woman's womb

could ever hope to achieve."

Then, um, David Gale, the Vincent Price of the '90s,

as the head of Dr. Carl Hill, for saying,

"He took my body, but he cannot take my mind."

Bruce Abbott as Dr. Daniel Cain, for saying,

"She's gonna be uncontrollably spastic."

Fabiana Udenio as the love interest,

for screaming, "You're a freak!"

at the only person in the movie who is nota freak.

Kathleen Kinmont in the title role

as a re-animated, do-it-yourself corpse

with the feet of a ballet dancer,

the legs of a hooker, the body of a virgin,

the arms of a waitress, the left hand of a lawyer,

the right hand of a murderess -- which is better nail polish --

and the heart of Dan's dead girlfriend,

which she rips out and gives to him.

And, of course, Brian Yuzna, who directed this movie

with good taste and restraint.

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

And, Darcy, after this, I'm going for

an early morning run on the Appalachian Trail.

You wanna go with me?

-How early?

-Like, right after the show I'm gonna go.

-You can't go run on the Appalachian Trail

in the dark.

-What if we put miner's hats on like in "My Bloody Valentine"?

-Do you have a miner's hat?

-We have any miner's hats? Yuki?

-Yes!

-Okay. See? Well?

-Okay.

-You're saying yes? -I'm saying yes.

-You think that would be fun?

-I think that would be fun.

-I don't know what to say when you agree with me.

Y-You've, like, totally silenced me.

-Ooh. That's a good thing. [Laughter]

-Actually kind of annoying.

-[Laughs]

♪♪

[Static crackling]

♪♪

♪♪

-West!

You bastard.

Youdid this to me.

But you'll not escape me.

Not this time!

[Laughs]

♪♪

[Shouting, gunfire in distance]

[Helicopter approaching]

[Patients groaning]

[Bombs exploding]

[Patients whimpering]

-Take this. -Uh, it'll burst an artery.

-If we don't remove this now, he's going to go into

cardiac arrest, I assure you.

Now just be ready to clamp.

-If it doesn't hold -- -We have no choice, Dan!

-[Groans]

-Now! -[Screams]

-Jesus Christ!

It didn't hold!

[Bombs exploding in distance]

-But his central nervous system is still intact.

He might still prove to be useful.

More useful than he'd be otherwise.

-[Sighs]

[Explosions and gunfire]

♪♪

♪♪

[Patients moaning]

♪♪

-We have to retreat! The front lines have weakened.

-[Groaning]

[Explosion]

[Men shouting]

[Gunshot]

-Goddamn it, Herbert! What are you doing?

-You know very well what I'm doing, Dan.

-Don't you ever stop?

-We may never again have access to this volume

of fresh subjects.

Fascinating. There's somebody here.

[Explosions]

[Iguana hisses]

What do you want? Get away from those!

-What are you doing back here?

-Leave. -Put that thing away!

-This is too dangerous for all of us.

-Where are you going? We've got lots of work to do here.

-Come on! Jesus Christ!

-She's right! -She's wrong.

-No! These people -- -Listen, we are close, Dan.

Reticular consciousness is not just in the brain.

We know that, yes? We've gone beyond that.

Look at this.

-[Hissing]

-These reptiles are the key, Dan.

Yes.

You just still don't understand, do you?

This is no longer about just re-animating the dead.

We will create new life.

[Explosion]

-Hang on!

[Men shouting in Spanish]

-Francesca?

Get out of here!

-Come on! Let's go!

[Explosion]

-Let's go. -My notes.

-Leave them! -Wait!

-Forget it! -We'll need this back home.

-Come on!

[Explosion]

♪♪

-Dan?

♪♪

-[Grunting]

-[Groans]

[Men speaking Spanish]

[Gunfire]

♪♪

-Aah!

♪♪

-Dan?

Well, you're going to be all right.

We've got to get out. Come on.

Come on. Let's go home.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Siren wailing]

[Heart rate monitor beeping]

[Door opens, closes]

-Morning, Gloria.

How's the star patient?

-Hello, Doctor.

-You look great.

I see you even put on some makeup.

-Don't tease me.

It's just that...

my head is about the only part of me that's not sick.

-Excuse me.

-This is Dr. West.

He'll be coordinating with pathology

about your biopsy.

-You're right. That part of you is quite well.

-I'm scared.

-Don't worry. The surgery is routine.

I'll be taking real good care of you.

Come on.

[Pen clicking]

She's not an experiment.

-She's terminal. -She's a patient!

-She could be of use to us, Dan.

-Not us! You. I'm a doctor.

-Well, bea scientist!

-[Humming]

[Telephone ringing in background]

Yes?

-Lieutenant Leslie Chapham, Arkham Police Department.

-Leslie? -Lieutenant.

-Well, how may I help you, Lieutenant?

-I understand that you're in charge of the remains

from the night of the massacre?

-Yes, but it's my understanding that the case is closed.

-Not to me.

It showed up in a carnival sideshow

just outside of Arkham.

-Dr. Hill?

-Remarkably well preserved, considering the massacre

was eight months ago.

-All the specimens from that night

exhibit the same qualities.

Yes, as you see,

the skull is fractured right there.

-Didn't you know it was missing?

-You know, I could fix that.

-Where do you keep the rest of the remains?

-The specimens from that night

have shown almost no signs of deterioration.

This not only holds true for the gross anatomy,

but the individual cells in each specimen

display a lack of decay.

-Are you saying that they're not quite dead?

-What's dead is dead, Lieutenant.

I should know. It's my field.

♪♪

-What's this?

-That's something, uh, Dr. Hill was working on.

I haven't been able to identify it.

Yet.

I was planning on doing that first thing in the morning,

as a matter of fact.

-Is, um... this all of it?

-Except for fragments and debris.

-What happened to that?

-Why, we burned them, of course.

♪♪

Suicide.

Would-be ballet dancer didn't have the stuff,

cut off her feet and bled to death.

[Laughter]

-Where are her feet?

-Her feet?

Why, uh...they're missing.

-A lot of stuff's been missing from around here lately, Holmes.

-[Clears throat]

-Body parts?

-Really, Lieutenant?

Who would want to steal body parts?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Yes!

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

♪♪

♪♪

How did you get back here?

[Laughs]

Well...

Well, well.

What do you think of the location of the will

in the brain now, Dr. Hill?

I'm sorry, what was that?

Actually, you've been quite useful to me.

You helped me prove that consciousness resides in

every part of the body.

You had such pretensions of grandeur,

you pompous plagiarist.

But look at you now.

You're nothing but a dead head.

A no-body.

[Chuckles]

-[Faint gasping]

-[Chuckles]

♪♪

♪♪

-Did that police officer find you?

-Police?

-Yes, he came by while you were in surgery.

-[Coughing]

[Sighs]

-You're gonna be all right...

Gloria.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Herbert?

[Sighs]

Herbert?

[Bubbling]

-Dan! -Oh!

-[Laughs]

Look at this!

We practically share a wall

with the Avril's crypt in the cemetery.

-Ew!

-Yes, that's a 150 years of decay.

Oh, well.

Dust to dust.

[Groans]

-What happened to our cadaver?

-I was finished with it.

Would you help me with this, please?

Security.

-From what?

Herbert, I've got something to tell you.

-Really?

I have something to show you.

[Iguana hisses]

Shh.

Look at that, Dan.

And no tissue damage.

It simulates a heart attack.

And it leaves virtually no trace.

-That's real useful if you want to murder someone.

-It is very useful...

...in obtaining...

...the freshest animal specimens.

Right here.

The amniotic fluid of the Cuzco iguana.

Did you know that this reptile has not changed

significantly in over -- -100 million years.

Herbert, I know this is important.

-Now we extract the amniotic fluid

from the sac.

With that, we add the muscle proteins

of myosin, actin, and...

-Tropomyosin.

-Good.

And then...

[Bubbling]

...our re-agent.

Pure potentiality.

The primordial ooze from which life originates.

[Chuckles]

Dr. Hill...

Dr. Hill gave me this idea.

[Laughing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Laughs]

-I'm moving out.

-What?

-I'm moving out.

-Dan...

you can't turn back now.

This...

This is the key to creating life!

Parts! Re-animated parts!

-I'm trying to save whole people, not parts.

-Exactly, and what are people, Dan,

over and above a collection of living parts?

We can create...

new life.

♪♪

♪♪

[Laughs]

-This morbid doodling with human body parts!

Is this what it's all about?

Is this what all our great work has led to?

-Exactly what are you insinuating?

-This is your madness! -Oh, really?!

-It had nothing to do with me.

-Oh, I see. -I'm out!

-I didn't see you rejecting my work

when Meg was lying there dead!

Where were your great ideals then?

-Don't you...

♪♪

-Daniel?

What was it about Meg that you loved?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Meg's heart.

♪♪

♪♪

Help me to continue the work.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

We can create a new life...

...starting...

with Meg's heart.

[Heart beating]

-Yes.

-Now, Dan...

you're going to have to help.

At the hospital.

-What about the police?

-No, the police will never come here.

[Doorbell buzzes]

♪♪

♪♪

[Static crackling]

-How cool is the four-fingered eyeball spider creature?

Obviously, Dr. Herbert West has become an addict.

He's constantly searching for body parts,

being distracted by body parts,

thinking about parts of bodies that aren't even dead yet.

Notice how he lovesthe fact that Kathleen Kinmont says,

"My head is the only part of me that's not sick,"

and immediately examines her brain.

[Laughs] And he spends his spare time

re-animating any kind of dead tissue he can find

and combining it with other dead tissue to create living toys.

He's playing God, and he gets upset when his old friend Dan

doesn't play along with him.

In the first movie, Bruce Abbott, as Dan Cain,

was the main character, the protagonist.

He was driving the action.

Not so in the sequel.

Now Dr. West is firmly in control,

and Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West

is motivating everything by his relentless pursuit

of new forms of life.

But why am I talking about Herbert West?

[ Static crackling]

Yuki, got it set up?

Just get it pointed toward L.A.

[Beeping]

We have theHerbert West here with us tonight --

Jeffrey Combs!

Welcome, Jeffrey!

-Joe Bob.

Sounds like the work continues here.

-Jeffrey, I haven't seen you

since we did a convention together in Arkansas,

and you introduced me to all your relatives from the Ozarks.

Do you remember that?

I don't think anyone in our audience would expect you

to have hillbilly roots.

-Hold on one second.

[Laughter]

Just hold on one damn second here.

-Oh, no. [Laughs]

-[Southern accent] So...what were you saying?

[Laughter]

What exactly were you, uh, implying by

the heritage that I possess?

-[Laughs] Well, a whole bunch of your relatives

came to that show,

and they did talk sort of like you're talking now.

-Just like 'at, and I can go to a damn graveyard

where there's a bunch of tombstones with "Combs" on it.

And I don't give a shit what anybody thinks about that.

-[Laughs]

-I just wanted to make you feel a little bit at home.

-I do feel better.

-Not -- Not -- Not Texas, not Arkans--

Texarkana-ish.

-Yeah, Texarkana!

-Yeah. -[Chuckles]

Home of "The Legend of Boggy Creek."

-[Normal voice] You -- You are right.

Both my parents -- my mom and my dad --

were both from the Ozarks and came out to California

after post-World War II, thank God,

raise a family, and so I was born and raised in California

with definite Ozark overtones.

-Okay, Jeffrey, agree or disagree on this?

-Ah!

-"Bride of Re-Animator" is a bro movie,

it's a buddy movie.

All the women are secondary.

It's a battle between the relentless scientist

and the touchy-feely man of medicine,

who happen to be roommates and lab partners.

-Fairly accurate.

We continue to be roommates.

You know, amazing that after

everything that I put Dan through in the first movie,

here he is, uh, kind of going along for the ride

for -- for a second lap.

-Why areyou and Dan Cain living together?

-Because the -- the work requires all of our focus.

Are you suggesting some sort of a --

a homoerotic kind of fascination here

that, like, kind of doesn't exist?

-I wasn't gonna be direct about it,

but it's kind of in the subtext that you have

more than brotherly feelings.

-No, here's what I'd say.

Herbert is, like, all about the work.

It's nothing else but the work.

And whatever speeds that up is what he's gonna go for.

You know, there's a scene where Dan is, uh,

kind of having his way with the Italian reporter,

and I kind of voyeur on that.

But it's not really -- it's because I don't understand

that kind of intimacy or --

and what a waste of time.

There's a lot of work to be done here.

-So it's jealousy, but it's jealousy because

it's taking away from the work.

-I didn't say it's jealous.

I think it's -- I think it's kind of a curiosity.

That kind of intimacy doesn't make sense to me.

-Do you go into a zone when you do Herbert West?

-Kind of, yeah.

You know, I think Herbert sort of personifies

everybody's wish to never, uh, compromise.

We all have to put our tail between our legs

every once in a while and go, "Oh, gee, honey,

I'm sorry. I was wrong, and I apologize."

Or, or, "Okay, okay, your way. Whatever you say, dude."

Uh, "Yes, boss."

And Herbert is none of that.

-So what gets you to that place?

-Uh, the fantasy that that's actually something

[laughs] that any of us could -- could actually achieve.

It -- it, um...

It is a certain kind of a tenacity.

-Well, I think we can safely say

that you have ruined Herbert West

for all other actors for the next few decades.

You know how they say Robert Preston

ruined "The Music Man"

and Yul Brynner ruined "The King and I"

and Raymond Burr ruined "Perry Mason"?

You know, they really mean that

they nailed the role so perfectly

that anybody who comes along afterwards

has to twist themselves into a pretzel

in order to avoid copying them.

So, same with Herbert West.

-I appreciate that. That means I did my job.

But at the same time, I think there's a new

"Perry Mason" show on right now, some iteration.

-Right, but it took several decades to get there.

[As William Shatner] -You know, William...Shatner...

no one could do...Kirk...but...

[Normal voice] ...we see that, actually,

someone else can do Kirk.

Maybe not to that degree, um...

-But a long time later.

-And a long time later.

So, okay, I'll take it. I'll take it.

[Laughter]

-Well, you deserve it, so thanks for being with us.

I love this movie. I think it's underrated.

And we have many things to talk about.

-On to reel two, I guess.

-[Laughs] All right. Back to the movie.

"The police will never come here."

Buzzzzz.

[Laughter]

Roll it!

Ah.

You know the iguana part is actually from

the original Herbert West stories

written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1922?

Everybody always says they were written

for "Weird Tales" magazine.

They were actually written for a little pocket magazine

called "Home Brew."

And Lovecraft didn't even much care for those stories.

Um, anyway, the iguana does look prehistoric.

I know people keep those things as pets,

and I know that he's a distant relative of yours, Ernie,

so I'm sorry that you have to hear this.

But there's nothing creepier

than going to some resort in the Caribbean,

like the Virgin Islands or the Caymans or whatever,

and the iguanas know where the tourists are

'cause the tourists are always dropping food on the ground.

And so you turn around on your chaise lounge,

and 30 fuckin' iguanas are staring at you

like you're today's lunch!

And they have those dead eyes,

and that big pouch under their jaw

is heaving in and out like a water balloon,

and you get this chill, like,

"I've gotta either run into the ocean,

even if it's full of water snakes,

or get a machine gun and destroy this iguana army."

I mean, they look like they could eat babies.

So I do not care about the fake iguana dissection scene,

[laughs] you know?

Especially because it didlook like a fake iguana.

You know, people that walk around with iguanas

on their shoulders, which is something like

youwould do, Austin -- you know, those people with

giant boa constrictors, you know, and the tell you,

"Go ahead and put it on your neck.

He's friendly."

You know, he's prehistoric.

He can sit on a rock for, like, 12 days.

He does nothing but eat and kill.

There's a reason they sell crocodile paperweights

but no iguana paperweights in the airport shops.

People who have actually encountered an iguana

don't wanna be reminded of it back home!

I'm not kidding.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static crackling]

-Daniel Cain? -Yes.

Police?

Come on in.

Is there a problem?

-Who are you?

-Dr. West.

Lieutenant Chapham.

-Police.

-What do you want?

-It's...

quite an old place you got here.

-It used to be a mortuary.

After the cemetery filled up, it was the caretaker's house.

Nobody's been here for 20 years.

-Odd place to live.

-Has its advantages.

-Hmm.

Pretty morbid stuff.

-I don't consider science morbid.

-It was pretty morbid the night Dr. Carl Hill died.

And Dean, um...

Dean...

-Halsey. -Dean Halsey. Yeah.

And, uh, Megan Halsey.

You mind if I sit down?

Dr. West, what kind of problems did you have

with Dr. Carl Hill?

-Dr. Hill and I had professional differences.

It was nothing personal. I have been all through this.

It's in the police records,

which I am certain you have access to.

-I understand that you have some

radical ideas about...

the reanimation of dead tissue?

-When I was in medical school, I might have had time

to discuss the theory.

I don't anymore.

-I suppose those poor souls out at the Sefton Ward...

are theory.

-I don't know what you're talking about.

♪♪

-And I suppose you don't know anything about

the missing body parts at the hospital?

-Missing body parts?

-No.

-I can find my own way out.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Squeaking]

♪♪

[Screeching]

♪♪

♪♪

[Screeches]

-Aah!

[Wings flapping]

♪♪

-[Screeching]

-[Screams]

Get off! Get off!

Get off me!

[Bat screeching]

Aah! Get off!

[Bat screeching]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Ernest?

Dr. Graves wants to see you right away.

-Pathology? -Right away.

-What about the...?

-I'll take care of it.

-Cool.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Grunts]

More.

-Dr. Hill...

is that you?

-More!

♪♪

Dr. Graves.

-You...you see?

-I recognize you.

-You do?

-That seminar in Zurich...

-Yes.

-Your theory of reconciling creationism...

with the origin of disease...

-Yes.

-Totally idiotic!

-Oh.

♪♪

♪♪

It's you. Come in.

No, no. No lights.

Come over here.

[Chuckles]

Dr. Hill, speak to me.

Speak to me, Dr. Hill!

Speak!

-This is some kind of joke, right, man?

-No, it is not a joke! He can talk.

He heard my lecture in Zurich.

-The head? He heard your lecture?

-He can talk, for God's sake!

Listen.

Talk, damn it! Talk!

Talk! -The head...

-Don't you ever do that again, you mental midget!

-Oh, my God. My God, I'm losing my mind.

-I have some unfinished business.

And you will assist me.

-Not out the front door?

-Just a doctor taking a patient out for a little air.

♪♪

[Dog barks]

-Man! -Oh, my God!

-Herbert!

♪♪

[Indistinct muttering]

[Dog whimpers]

Hey, pooch.

-Yes! You said "Hi" to him!

-Francesca!

Uh...

-Hi, Doctor. -Hi.

-Don't let the little head rule the big head, Dan.

-So, um, what are you doing in Arkham?

-Oh, I'm doing some interviews in Boston this week.

-Dr. Cain, 5436. Dr. Cain, 5436.

-Oh, God. I've got to go.

-I know. -Listen...

What about dinner tonight?

-Only if you let me cook.

Real Italian style.

-Okay. Only if you let me help.

Real American style.

-It's a deal. -See you tonight.

-Yeah.

Hope you like garlic!

♪♪

Well, Angel? What do you think?

What do you think?

-Hey, pooch. Where did you come from?

-[Chuckles] From Peru. -[Laughs]

Is that where you met Dr. Cain?

-Why do you want to know, Mr...?

-[Chuckles] Oh, uh...

Lee Chapham.

Arkham Police.

Lieutenant.

I'd like to talk to you about him.

[Elevator dings]

Did you ever hear of the "Miskatonic Massacre"?

-No, I haven't.

-It happened here at the hospital.

Eight months ago, the department got a call about

a homicide at the Miskatonic University hospital.

The whole place was in a panic.

It was down in the morgue.

There was blood all over the walls.

You ever been around dead bodies?

[Thud] -[Gasps]

-Then you know that stench of decaying flesh.

Out of the darkness,

we were attacked by a naked maniac.

He jumped right on my partner and bit his arm.

Nothing could make him come loose.

Tore the muscle right off the bone

before we pumped enough lead in him to make him stop.

The dean of the medical school was down there.

In pieces.

Also a prominent physician, Dr. Carl Hill.

We found only his head.

The rest of his body was just part of the muck.

Funny thing, though...

His head, when I found it, was still...

...twitching. -Twitching?

-The doctors had a lot of highfalutin explanations.

Post-mortem involuntary spasm.

I don't know.

But I've seen my share of the dead.

And I never saw twitching like that before.

They blamed it all on these ones in here.

The funny thing is, there's a death certificate

at the hospital for each one of these.

-A death certificate?

-I mean to say these three didn't get

to the morgue on their own two feet.

-[Groaning]

-The hospital made a mistake?

-[Groaning]

[Door slams]

-The hospital might have made a mistake

about those two.

-[Groaning]

Not...

But not this one.

I know about this one.

She was my wife.

-I'm sorry.

[Screams]

-Elizabeth, stop!

-Get off me! Get off me!

[Screaming]

♪♪

-Are you okay?

-Yes, I'm all right. Yeah, thanks.

That's enough.

-She's never done anything like that before.

-Just...

What does all this have to do with Daniel?

-Dr. Cain and Dr. West were the only

normal survivors of that night.

Daniel's girlfriend was Meg Halsey,

the dean's daughter.

And Daniel was found with her dead body in his arms.

Her dead body.

Twitching.

Like that blasted head.

[Static crackling]

-You know, I really like this script,

but one of the oddest sequences is the one we just watched.

Why would the police lieutenant give Francesca a tour

of the mental asylum where the surviving reanimated zombies

are being kept, including his wife?

By the way, the skinny bearded zombie -- that's Johnny Legend,

the rockabilly singer, wrestling manager.

We know him as the curator for Rhino Home Video

who did the "Sleazemania"

and the "Teenage Theater" series.

He's one of us.

He runs the DVD label Legendhouse.

Why he wanted to be a raving, rabid, froth-mouth zombie

in this movie, I'm not sure.

Ah, and the other actor I wanted to mention,

'cause I love his performance as Dr. Graves,

is Mel Stewart, great comic actor, character actor,

goes back to the days of live television in New York City.

He was on old series like "Car 54, Where Are You?"

and many people know him as Henry Jefferson,

the brother of George Jefferson, on "All in the Family."

He was in the great blaxploitation film "Hammer"

with Fred Williamson.

But remember "Dead Heat" from last season?

He was Captain Mayberry, the guy who reads the riot act

to Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo.

But to cement how cool Mel Stewart was,

he was a sax player.

He played with both John Coltrane

and Charlie Parker.

Always have to give shout-outs to sax players.

Sax players rule.

This was near the end of Mel's career.

He only made one more feature after this.

He had a small role in "Made in America,"

a big-budget flop comedy with Whoopi Goldberg

and Ted Danson, and I think Will Smith was in it.

All right, I probably don't have to point this out,

but this movie has a special effect in it every five seconds.

And that's because it was directed by Brian Yuzna,

who had made "Society" the year before --

one of our most controversial movies on "The Last Drive-In" --

and, if you'll recall,

all the weird bodies in "Society" were made by

the great Japanese effects artist Screaming Mad George.

And Screaming Mad George also worked on this movie,

but so did every other special effects house in L.A.

There were four different companies doing effects

on this film, 'cause Brian Yuzna loves gore effects.

But Brian Yuzna had come to Hollywood as a producer,

and his first movie in Hollywood was the original "Re-Animator."

So he owned the sequel rights,

and he expected Stuart Gordon to come back and direct the sequel

from a script that Gordon was developing

with the writer of the first movie.

But then Yuzna raised the $2.5 million for this movie

from Japan, but with one stipulation --

he had to be finished in this tax year.

This would have been the tax year 1989.

So he told Stuart Gordon, who was in Chicago,

"Come on out to L.A. and do this movie,"

and Stuart Gordon said, "No, I can't do that.

The script is still six months away from being finished."

And so Yuzna says, "Look, this is the reality --

you have to make the movie when the money is here."

And he was right about that.

And so he got the two guys who wrote "Society"

to do a really fast script.

And they didn't use anything that Gordon had been developing.

They just went back -- where do you go --

where do you go back to

when you're doing a re-animation story?

You go back to "Frankenstein," of course.

So it's kind of a combination of

Mary Shelley's original "Frankenstein" novel,

plus some ideas they stole

from Universal's 1935 "Bride of Frankenstein."

Like, one of the ideas is taken

from an early "Bride of Frankenstein" script,

and that's the idea that,

when you create the life of a male,

you start with the brain,

but when you create the life of a female,

you start with the heart.

Hence the scene where Herbert West

convinces Daniel Cain to work with him,

because the woman he loves, Meg -- it's her heart.

Herbert even places the heart

in the center of the operating table

on a clean white sheet, to indicate that everything they do

is going to be building out from Meg's heart.

But, again, let's ask Jeffrey.

Jeffrey, you have some amazing lines in this movie.

Do you ever read the line, you know,

when Herbert West is at the height

of his poetic megalomania, you ever read that line and say,

"I-I don't think I can say that line"?

-No. What I kind of say to myself is,

"How do I say this line?

How do I make it live, just like one of these corpses?

How do I make this thing fly?"

-Well, you always nail those.

Well, if we were just reading it,

we'd think it was over the top.

-Commit -- that's what you do. You commit.

-All right, you grew up in Lompoc, California.

-Ah, let's correct that right now.

"Lom-poke."

-"Lom-poke," then.

-It's a -- it is a Chumash tribe name, "Lom-poke,"

and it means "where the waters meet,"

or "where the waters... overflow their banks,"

or whatever.

-Okay, so you grew up in Lompoc. -I did.

-A town I associate with the psych ward

of the California prison system

and the missile base where they test the nuclear rockets.

-That's right. I grew up with missiles

going off weekly.

I would sit in my elementary class

or junior high or high school,

and you hear this rumble -- brrrgggg! --

just, you know, everything was vibrating,

and the teacher would go, "Okay, fine,"

and everybody would run outside and get to watch

first stage, second stage, third stage.

"Okay, everybody back in." [Laughter]

It's also known as the Valley of Flowers.

A lot of flowers, a lot of flower seeds came from Lompoc.

I don't know if that's still the case.

So flower fields and, like, nuclear annihilation any moment.

[Laughter]

-And then you went to

the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts

in Santa Maria, which I gather it's one of those

total-immersion acting schools,

like Neighborhood Playhouse in New York,

where they make you dance and do voice exercises

and stage combat and all the full range of stuff you need

for the classical stage, right?

-Listen, it was an amazing place.

It was at a community college, two-year college.

However, the guy who ran the drama department

was a visionary.

And he created a theater department.

There -- he got the -- the city to

put up money to build a -- a mini version of the Guthrie.

And he put on summer theater,

six shows rotating -- musicals, classics, new play.

It was such a, um, forge for so many actors.

So many actors went through there,

and, uh, it's why I'm here today, really,

because I was just -- just surrounded by

just excellence.

-Did they teach you all the old-school stuff,

like how to fence?

-Uh, to a degree, but that kind of came later,

'cause after I -- it was just a lot of on-stage time,

just a lot of, a lot of productions.

Shakespeare, musicals, uh, Strindberg, Molière.

It was just a cavalcade of all kinds of styles.

And then I went to a --

I knew I needed to kind of balance that out

with, like, actual training, like Julliard or something.

So I got accepted into -- University of Washington

has an actor training program, so I moved up to Seattle.

-Oh, yeah, highly respected program up there.

And then you did regional theater for four years.

-Well, right out of college, I got to go to

the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.

Uh, I worked at South Coast Rep,

Arizona Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum,

California Shakespearean Festival

that doesn't exist anymore.

I was just kind of a a bit of a nomad, you know?

-Yeah? -Until an agent saw me.

-I think all the great actors do theater first.

I was talking to Lance Henriksen about this,

and he said he did 100 plays before he ever did a movie.

-I'm not surprised.

-In fact, did you do any famous Shakespearean parts?

-Uh, I played Puck.

-Were you ever Laertes? [Laughs]

-Uh, I was never Laertes. I was never Hamlet.

Uh, I, uh... which plays did I do?

I did "Twelfth Night,"

"Midsummer Night's Dream" three times,

small role in "Hamlet," uh...

Henry V, Julius Caesar.

-And then, of all things, you become famous for "Re-Animator."

Were you surprised?

-I was.

Uh, I'd done a little bit of movies --

a day here, a day there, two weeks there,

but nothing that really gave me any kind of a scope

about horror movies, really,

or even how to judge any movie while I was shooting it,

whether or not it was gonna be something elevated

or it was just gonna be forgotten.

So, um, so "Re-Animator" was just...

a lot of happy accidents in "Re-Animator,"

I mean, across the board, of just music, editing,

casting, directing...

-Well, it's on my all-time

"top 10 horror movies in history" list.

-Thank you. I just thought it would be

like, "Oh, there'll be another one, and the next one will be

kind of like that."

And then you realize how incredibly magical it was.

-And since then you've done all kinds of roles,

on two different "Star Trek" series.

You've done "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,"

"House on Haunted Hill."

You were a Bigfoot hunter in "Abominable."

-With Lance Henriksen. -Right.

Also "Masters of Horror" as Edgar Allan Poe.

You were in the Peter Jackson movie "The Frighteners."

You played Montgomery Clift in "Norma Jean and Marilyn."

Um, you channeled your Ozarks relatives in "Love and a .45."

-Shot in Austin, Texas, there, Joe Bob.

-[Laughs]

Ah, you have a rich and varied career.

-Yeah. -All right, back to the movie.

They have Meg's heart now.

So let's get to work on it.

Roll it!

-[Laughs] -Ah!

Remember when we had Kane Hodder on,

and we talked about how he grew up on the Kwajalein Atoll,

which is a tiny island in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific?

So that's the island that they use for target practice

when they launch the missiles from Lompoc.

So the future Herbert West is living where the missiles are,

and they're being launched to where the future Jason is,

and they're almost exactly the same age,

and so there's this weird Herbert West-Jason connection

and this weird Jeffrey Combs- Kane Hodder connection

and this weird combustible nuclear Cold War horror nexus.

Or it could just be meaningless factoids that I'm mumbling about

instead of going straight to the movie.

So, probably the latter.

♪♪

[Static crackling]

[Insects chirping]

[Bubbling sounds]

-Be careful not to use too much of that.

We don't want premature reanimation.

-Thank you. I've never done this before.

-Yes.

Good.

[Gurgling sounds]

The circulation is going to work.

-Goddamn it, Herbert!

What are we doing here anyway?

Why don't we just publish our findings?

We could get grant money.

-Because they would never understand our methods.

Besides that, they would steal the work.

-It's never gonna work.

She's gonna be uncontrollably spastic.

Unless we re-animate all the limbs at the same time,

they'll separate.

-That's why we inject directly into the heart.

The circulatory system should distribute the re-agent

to all the various limbs and effect

re-animation concurrently.

-We've never done that before.

-I know that.

-No, I don't want to gamble with Meg's heart.

[Doorbell buzzes]

[Door closes]

Oh, God.

-Ciao, dottore. Come va? -Francesca.

Uh, sorry about the place.

I didn't have any time to...

-Did I come too early?

-No! No, no, no, uh...

God, you look great.

-Open this up, will you? It's a Chianti, 1987.

Uh...so, where is the kitchen?

-Uh, it's right over here.

Did you have any trouble finding it?

-Oh, no. The cemetery made it real easy.

♪♪

♪♪

This is my special sauce.

Here.

What do you think? You like it?

-Mm, I love it.

So do I.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Oh! Oh! Aah!

♪♪

[Gags]

[Groans]

[Panting]

Come on.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-You're so beautiful.

Your skin's so soft.

So warm.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-What are you doing here?

♪♪

What do you want?

-The body you took from the crematorium.

-Get out of here. Right now.

-What's down here?

-That's none of your business.

You are making a big mistake.

-Do you believe that dead is dead, Dr. West?

-I don't know what you're talking about.

-I am talking about my wife!

[Clattering]

-No! You can't go in there.

-Move. -No.

-Move!

[Lock clicks]

♪♪

[Door closes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

You...

butcher!

-How dare you judge my work?

-Work?

Was my wife your "work"?

-Don't lay your guilt on me, Lieutenant!

-What? -Your wife died of

multiple contusions to the head.

From a blunt instrument. -No.

-Multiple blows to the head! -She fell!

-Ha! She fell, did she?

-That was not my fault!

Aah!

[Muffled groaning]

[Heartbeat slows to a stop]

[Static crackling]

-I love the part where Dan is upstairs having sex --

well, he was having sex with --

she's considered one of the mostbeautiful women

in the world at the time -- supermodel, Miss Teen Italy.

She was Miranda in a famous production of "The Tempest"

at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

That's Fabiana Udenio, who would later become famous

as Alotta Fagina in "Austin Powers."

-[As Austin Powers] Yeah, baby!

[Laughter]

-And Herbert West is really bothered by it.

He knows they're up there.

He's messing around with body parts, and...

Jeffrey, Herbert West is just

notinterested in women at all, is he?

-[Normal voice] Well, listen, I'm downstairs

messing around with body parts,

and, um, Dan's upstairs messing around with, uh,

body parts.

Yeah, you know, I probably, um...

I sort of, kind of -- I-I like that little scene

because Herbert just doesn't get it.

He just can't get it.

Uh, what are they -- first of all,

he should be down here.

This is, again, he's not learning the lesson.

Uh, I gotta go get him.

And when I do go up and get him, it's --

things are going on I just can't even relate to.

-[Chuckles] Well, we just watched a very funny scene

where you're attacked by a leg.

You had a lot of scenes where --

and we don't usually think about this

when we're watching the movie --

but you were just working with appliances and props.

-I should get stunt pay,

because I'm making that leg kick me

and reacting to it.

It was kind of puppet work, sort of,

'cause there's no other way that it can be done.

So I have to control it, so, yeah.

-Okay, here's my question about Herbert West.

He is the ultimate man of reason.

He hates superstition.

He hates sentimentality.

He's all about experimentation, results,

the triumph of the human mind.

He's Ayn Rand in "Atlas Shrugged."

Is there a point at which devotion to pure reason

becomes insanity?

-Probably. Probably.

I mean, he doesn't really fit into society

in any neat way, at all.

And yet, you say all this,

but everybody just loves what Herbert's doing.

Let's try to figure that one out.

-Did you model your Herbert West on anyone?

-Uh...

Only in the spirit of all of those mad scientists

movies that we all grew up with, you know,

and the stories.

You know, uh, Lovecraft --

"Re-Animator" was not one of his favorite stories.

-I've heard that. -It was a serialized thing

that he got paid a little bit of money for,

but he dismissed it.

But he was in the spirit of "Frankenstein."

It's basically what he was doing.

I'm sure the publisher came to him and said,

"Do something Frankensteinien."

Is that a word? [Laughter]

-Well, West seems to enjoy barking at stupid people.

-He has no patience for it.

-I love the scene where you talk to the head of Dr. Hill,

and you gloatabout him being a "dead head"

and a "no-body."

[Laughs] Again, a scene where I assume

you had to do that alone.

-I'm trying to remember.

I think maybe David Gale, with head attached,

was probably off -- off-camera

that I could kind of look at and emote to, yeah.

Oh, either that or piece of tape.

I really don't re-- I don't remember.

It's either one or the other, usually.

-It seems that you and Bruce Abbott

had a really close rapport.

-We still do.

Herbert and Dan are inextricably linked,

and so's Bruce and I.

I just, uh, talked with him a couple of days ago.

He's a, to this day, a very good friend of mine.

-Well, the reason I say that is that the two of you

did a commentary track for this movie,

and you seem to be actually watching the movie together,

unlike almost every other commentary track ever made.

-Bruce and I have a --

we feed off each other.

We prefer to do it that way... -Right.

-...as opposed to just in solitary --

"And then I picked up the thing, and then I..."

You know, this way, we've got someone to play with,

and so I'm sure we requested that we watch it together.

-Well, all the effects guys on the movie

complained about it being a 24/7 job.

Uh, what about the actors?

-Well, to a degree, yes.

It's always hurry up and then wait.

Uh, when there's that many special effects,

you are waiting around for those guys

to kind of get it to the point where they feel good about

what's gonna be shot,

and multiple takes, and there's always glitches.

And so, you know, we're in the dressing room going,

"When -- when do we say our lines, please?"

-[Chuckles] All right.

Well, you've just killed the veteran character actor

Claude Earl Jones.

-He deserved it.

[Laughter]

-Uh, in real life, a drama teacher

at Ganesha High School in Pomona

and known among horror fans as a carny

in Dave Friedman's "She Freak."

But, of course, no one stays dead in a "Re-Animator" movie.

-Everything is an experiment.

-So, roll it! [Chuckles]

Oh, man. Ayn Rand.

Does everybody read "Atlas Shrugged"?

Do people still read that?

You know, people used to base their lives around that novel.

"Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."

Who was the famous economist?

Uh, Alan Greenspan, the guy who ran the Fed for years --

he said "Atlas Shrugged" was his bible.

But, I mean, if somebody told me that they made a life decision

based on that book, I would have to say, "That is a dealbreaker.

You may need medical help,"

because just on the basis of the sentence structure

and prose alone.

I mean, it's infuriatingly repetitive, dense.

The book is, like, 3,000 pages long,

and the book just punishes you.

I think Alan Greenspan must have been a masochist.

Anyway, most people go through this period where they go,

"You know, I think I'll read me some Ayn Rand.

Everybody talks about her."

And then for a few months, they go,

"Hey, you know, this part makes sense.

Yeah, that makes sense," you know,

because when you're reading a novel,

you instinctively identify with all the main characters.

And then at some point,

these alarm bells go off in your brain,

and you go "I'm becoming a Nazi!"

And then a year later they go, "Wow, that really sucked.

What did I do?

You know, plus, she was crazy."

You know, "What do you mean, my Ayn Rand period?

I don't have an Ayn Rand period. You must be mistaken.

What are you talking about?"

[Laughs] But -- But Herbert West -- there he is!

Ayn Rand would wanna marry Herbert West,

or at least have sex with him

inside a wind turbine or something.

♪♪

[Static crackling]

♪♪

-What happened?

-He attacked me.

No, Dan! Dan!

I can't help it if his heart gave out!

-God, Herbert, he's a cop!

You...

What are we gonna do with him?

-Well...

we could get him back out on the street.

Walking.

♪♪

You don't want to gamble with Meg's heart.

This is our opportunity for a test.

Do you want to waste it?

♪♪

How much do you think he weighs? 230, 240?

-[Scoffs]

So little tissue damage.

Oh, Dan?

Just in case.

♪♪

♪♪

-Daniel?

♪♪

-It's working. -[Mumbles]

[Heartbeat intensifies]

[Muttering]

Get away from me with that cloth!

-No! Dan!

-[Grunts] -Aaah!

He's a wife-beater, Dan! Use the gun!

♪♪

-[Grunts]

♪♪

[Grunting]

[Screams]

♪♪

[Screaming]

[Skin sizzling]

[Heartbeat continues]

[Grunting]

[Glass clattering]

♪♪

♪♪

-Dan?

-Herbert!

-[Gasps, groans]

[Whimpers]

♪♪

♪♪

-Lieutenant Chapham!

What are you doing here?

-[Snarling]

-Herbert!

-[Groans]

-[Barks]

-[Grunts]

-[Barking]

-Aah!

[Grunting]

-No! Stop!

No!

-Get away from me! Get out!

Get away!

♪♪

♪♪

-[Grunting]

♪♪

-[Grunts]

♪♪

[Groans]

♪♪

-[Sobs]

-What happened?

-[Sobs]

♪♪

-Is he gone?

-What is going on here?!

What did you do to him to make him that way?

-She's hysterical.

-What did you do to him?! Why?!

-[Screams]

[Groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

[Owl hooting]

♪♪

[Dog barking]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Metal clatters]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-What are you doing down here?

Your welcome does not extend to this part of the house.

-Angel?

Sweetie...

-[Growls]

-[Screams]

-[Snarls, barks]

-[Screams]

Get out of my way!

-You should never have brought her here.

-Get that thing out of here!

-[Growling] -Francesca, wait!

Let me explain. -Is this what you did to Meg?

You're a freak!

God, I hate you!

-Mm. You're better off without her.

♪♪

♪♪

Dan, now listen to me.

All we need is just one last piece.

Dan?

-Gloria?

Hi.

[Monitor beeping]

How you feeling today?

You see...

it helps me to think of you as Meg.

Meg who lived.

♪♪

[Monitor flat lines]

♪♪

Nurse!

Paddles!

I didn't even notice. God, what's wrong with me?

-Let me through!

-Give me that!

Clear!

[Electricity pops]

Push the lidocaine!

Clear!

[Electricity pops]

-Forget it, Dan. Let's go in.

♪♪

[Saw whirring]

-She's never gonna survive this.

-She's already dead, Dan.

No, you're off midline.

Oh, damn it!

♪♪

I'm getting nothing here.

-I'm sorry.

-Come on!

[Suction sound]

Anything?

-Still flat.

I'm calling it.

-Noooooo!

Not again.

♪♪

♪♪

-Go home.

Go...home.

♪♪

♪♪

Yes.

Come to room 613, right away.

♪♪

♪♪

[Static crackling]

-Dan Cain sees every woman as the love of his life.

Herbert West sees every woman as a potential cadaver

to be harvested.

That's Kathleen Kinmont as the dead Gloria who flatlined

while Dan was professing his love

just before Herbert West jumped on top of her

and made an incision down the whole front of her body

before they brought out... the bonesaw.

Was that a bonesaw situation, Jeffrey?

-It's what was there, you know?

What are you gonna do?

You can't wait around.

You gotta get in there. [Laughter]

-Jeffrey, over the years,

have you become a student of Lovecraft yourself?

-In our first meeting, Stuart said,

"You know, this is based on Lovecraft."

And I went, "Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay."

But I didn't really know who Lovecraft was.

But that's not quite true.

Lovecraft was already being ripped off

here, there, and everywhere in literature

and in the movies.

So it only, um -- it only opened my eyes

to just how pervasive his methos had steeped into --

into our culture without me even being aware of it.

-Right. -So, um...

yeah, I've read quite a bit of Lovecraft since then,

usually because someone is interested in

turning something into -- into a movie...

-Right. -...which is kind of hard to do.

-Well, "Re-Animator" caused everybody to go back through

all the Lovecraft stories and see if there's anything else

they couldturn into a film.

-Right. He's difficult.

Lovecraft -- "Re-Animator" is one of the few sort of

plot-driven, character-based

pieces that Lovecraft wrote.

A lot of them were much more amorphous, atmospheric,

a general sense of dis-ease about some ethereal world

that's around us.

He spends a lot of time going, "I can't describe to you

how awful it was."

Oh, well, oh, okay, then.

-[Laughs] Well, I know you're a student

of Edgar Allan Poe, because you have a one-man show

called "Nevermore"

that you have performed in Los Angeles and New York,

and I'm dying to see it, but I've never been around

when you were doing it.

What is the status of that show?

-Um, I am still -- you know, I did it

just before the hammer came down on all of us

and we had to wear masks and keep our distance

and not go to theaters.

-Seems like it'd be perfect for off-Broadway, actually.

-Tried for a long time.

Uh, New York's a hard nut to crack.

-True. -You'd say to someone

that I do a one-man show about Poe,

and I see the eyes glaze over,

like, "Oh, that's gotta be a turgid evening of darkness."

[Laughter] But it's not.

Um, you know, Stuart Gordon directed it,

and we kind of put the package together as a group --

me, him, and Dennis Paoli.

But you can't get past people's preconceptions.

-I think -- did you see the show, Darcy?

-Yeah, a couple of times. -Really?

-Thanks for coming. -Aw, my pleasure.

-Ah, speaking of directors, though,

how'd you get along with Brian Yuzna?

'Cause Stuart Gordon did the first movie,

and he was a pure theater guy.

Brian Yuzna is basically a businessman

who learned to direct from Stuart Gordon.

That had to be different.

-Different. Every director is different.

Um, Brian was very good at technical,

at getting the coverage and making sure

that he had enough to, uh, put a scene together.

He was particularly, uh, focused on the different

visual effects and gags.

And I got along great with Brian.

It's just completely different.

Stuart had spent years in the theater

hanging around with actors, felt comfortable with actors,

knew their vocabulary and --

-So Stuart was focused on the actors,

and Yuzna is one of those directors

who kind of lets the actors do their own thing?

-The actors know what they're doing, yeah.

-There's been talk for about 30 years now

about doing a movie where the Men in Black

recruit Herbert West to set up a lab in the White House,

where you're keeping the president alive,

or re-animating him for the greater good or something.

Have you had actual conversations

about that project?

-Uh, that was -- that was a strongly held desire of --

and I thought it was a kernel of an idea,

a really good one, by Stuart.

It was called "House of Re-Animator."

And it sort of came up in the time of Bush

in the White House, and Stuart really wanted to

stick it to them. [Laughter]

And, um, I always sort of felt, "Well, but, uh...

that's kind of maybe

slicing off a big part of your audience if --

when was Herbert West in "Re-Animator"

ever political before?

So that rears its, uh, severed head every once in awhile.

[Laughter] -Ah.

These movies that depend heavily on special effects,

like "Bride of Re-Animator" -- they had four different

companies doing effects for this one.

Is that tedious or fun or challenging?

-Well, you know, whether it's tedious -- it is --

or it's challenging for the actors,

but at the same time, what do you get at the end of the day?

You get something that's really right there in front of you.

It's a practical effect.

You know, if you threw CGI at this stuff,

I really don't think it would hold up.

-Yeah? -You know, you've seen CGI

get better and better, and you go back and look at

a lot of movies and you go, "Ooh, ooh!

They thought that was such a cool toy,

and it has not held up very well."

-All right, well, the splatter continues big-time

as we get back to "Bride of Re-Animator."

And I do think it's time to build the bride.

One of your best speeches coming up, Jeffrey.

Roll the film.

[Chuckles]

All these special effects guys, they say,

"You know, we had no CGI."

They say that over and over and over again.

Do we really care whether they had CGI or not?

I mean, you know, "Today this would be done with CGI,

but we had no CGI."

Okay. Yeah.

Like, in 1978 we had no cellphones.

"Today this call would be made by cellphone."

You know, they're sort of implying

that practical effects are better than digital effects,

and the truth is, it depends on the effect!

You know, sometimes digital is better,

'cause if you didn't have digital,

you wouldn't have that image at all

because it's something impossible to film.

So one is not better than the other.

These are tools in a toolkit.

Why don't we just use allof them, you know?

♪♪

[Static crackling]

-[Wheezing, grunting]

[Wheezing continues]

[Gasping]

Damn you, West!

Wilbur! Get me out of here!

-No.

-West took my body,

but he cannot take my mind.

Take me to him!

-No.

Just don't talk.

Don't say anything.

-[Snarls]

-[Screams]

-Don't make me get someone else.

[Wheezes]

♪♪

-[Gasping]

♪♪

♪♪

-What do you think you're doing?

Stop!

Do as I say, you nincompoop!

[Groans]

-Come on, come on.

-[Groans]

-You're going away now.

[Muttering indistinctly]

-[Muffled grunting]

-Now, now...

-[Grunting]

Oof!

[Door opens]

-Yo, Dr. West.

-Let's get this.

No, no. You get the feet.

I'll get the head.

♪♪

-Hey, was she good-looking, Doc?

♪♪

♪♪

-You take this to the crematorium.

-Crematorium? You mean pathology.

-I mean the crematorium.

-Well, excuse me!

-Excuse me, have you seen Dr. Cain?

-He left. For the day, I think.

-Is there something wrong?

-He's very upset.

He lost a patient.

I've never known a doctor that cared so much.

-Yeah.

[Insects chirping]

-Now, Dan, I'm going to need your help with this.

Understand?

This is for you, too.

-Gloria! No...

-Dan, don't quit on me now, please.

It's going to take the two of us to fuse

the brain to the spinal cord.

-No! -Dan, look!

Look what we've done.

Meg's heart is going to beat again.

Others dare not dream what we are about to do.

Dan...

The feet of a young ballet dancer,

who ended her life when she lost her ambition.

These legs...

walked the streets.

You remember the hooker who was killed in ER

by her pimp last week?

Think of all the bodies these legs have wrapped around.

What was the value of her life?

To end up being picked apart by the likes of

Dr. Graves and his bumbling students?

And here, the womb of the virgin.

Struck down before tasting the pleasures of life.

Remember?

Her skin. So soft.

So warm.

But so cold in death.

The arms of a waitress.

The lawyer's hand.

Case dismissed.

And look at this delicate piece.

What do you think?

A sculptress?

A harpist?

Would you believe...

a murderess?

But they're all equal now.

Nothing but cast-off remnants of a meaningless existence.

Even her.

How beautiful is this face?

Oh, yes.

She...was special.

-Yes.

-Just...dead...

tissue.

But in our hands,

it's the clay of life.

Within this chest,

Meg's heart will beat again.

♪♪

♪♪

Good.

Let's get to work.

♪♪

♪♪

-Who's there?

♪♪

♪♪

[Door slams]

I didn't do anything.

-[Laughs]

-Oh, no.

-You disappoint me,

Dr. Graves.

[Laughs]

-Please.

-On the table!

[Laughs]

-No!

-Yes!

Scalpel.

-[Grunts]

♪♪

[Telephone rings]

♪♪

[ Line ringing]

-[Grunting]

-Left!

-[Grunting]

[ Ringing continues]

[Gasps]

Get off me! Let me go! Get off me!

-What's the matter? Don't you like me?

-No! Let me go!

No!

-Cain, West. They did this to me!

-Get the fuck off!

-And they'll pay!

[Pounding on door]

-Please, let me out!

Let me out, please!

Please let me out! Please!

[Alarm bell ringing]

-Oh, my God!

-Get security!

[Alarm bell ringing]

♪♪

[Thunder rumbles]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

-Well...

if it all had been as fresh as the head,

but...

I think we're ready, Dan.

-Good.

[Thunder crashes]

[Scratching]

Sounds like rats in the wall.

-Rats?

Yes.

That's what it is.

The little buggers better stay put or I'll...

[Thunder crashes]

We start with the heart.

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

[Electricity crackles]

And God created woman.

♪♪

-Let me.

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

[Glass shatters]

[Static crackling]

-Jeffrey!

I see you were homesick for the Ozarks again.

-[Southern accent] You got 'er.

-[Laughs]

The scene where you go through all the body parts,

describing each one and its origin and its purpose --

you're seducing Dan, aren't you?

You're turning him on, right?

-[Normal voice] That's all I've been doing this whole movie

is trying to get him to... join me in the work,

and I know that the heart is the --

is the lynch pin, and then everything else just, uh,

falls into place, 'cause you know what?

You know, Meg -- Meg is his universe,

and if she can come back, I got him.

-[Chuckles]

Well, all the best scenes are you and Bruce Abbott

kind of being an old married couple.

-The Bickersons. [Laughter]

-Renewing your vows, at this point.

-"Herbert, you can't." "Yes, I can."

"You can't." "Watch me."

So, yeah, it's -- it's music.

We have a lot of fun with it.

-And then from here on out, it's "Bride of Frankenstein."

It's the whole "Bride of Frankenstein" movie

in one sequence.

But the actual bride is beautiful,

and Kathleen Kinmont -- she does a wonderful job

wearing all that makeup and all those appliances

that took eight hours to put on every morning.

-Let me tell you, man, it is high opera,

what she does.

I think one of the most powerful pieces of film,

at least horror film, that I've ever seen,

is when she... rips her own heart out

and ha-- pushes it out and said, "Is thiswhat you want?"

Even she knows that it's not her that Dan wants.

It's this.

-Yeah, it's amazing that she finds that place

after she's already exhausted.

You know, are you frequently recognized on the street,

by the way? -I would say this --

I am when I go to conventions, yes.

When -- out where I live in the outer 'burbs, no.

Not so much.

But the closer I get into sort of a city center,

yeah, "Hey, hey, wait a minute. Aren't you that guy?"

-Darcy, in our Twitter universe,

how many people say they have a crush on Jeffrey Combs?

-Oh, my God. So many. It's insane.

I didn't want to mention it 'cause he was here, but...

-What I would probably say is, maybe a crush on a younger --

-No, no, no, no, no. [Laughter]

We know what we like.

-Is it kind of like the same thing where people have crushes

on, like, you know, murderers in prison?

-Good question.

-I think they just think you're hot.

Deal with it. [Laughter]

-Maybe people like you because, um,

Herbert West is a kind of...

-Bad boy, yeah.

-Yeah, I think it starts there.

-I think it all goes, also, to that Herbert

takes nothing from anybody, and, uh, that's sort of attractive.

-I wanted to mention one other thing.

Your father-in-law is a chemistry professor,

and he actually came on the set and helped with the green serum.

-Yes, he did. He's retired now,

but he was a chemistry professor up at Hayward for many years.

And, um, he came on set just to visit,

and he said, "That is all wrong.

That's really all very wrong." And, uh...

-So he knew theformula?

-He didn't know the formula for re-animation,

but he knew how that sort of apparatus would, uh --

the sequence of what would go where and when and then what,

and so I went to Brian, and I said,

"Brian, we have an expert here."

And the prop guy went, "I -- hey."

So he went to work and made it look more, uh, believable

to any scientists or chemists that would watch the movie.

They'd go, "Oh, wait a minute.

Oh. Okay. This is legit."

-I had read somewhere that it was luminol

and methacellulose, I think?

-Luminol is, uh, a derivative of phosphorus and algae.

-Yeah. -In the ocean, whenever people

see things glowing, it's these things.

And so they're able to, uh,

separate these two chemicals together.

It's the same stuff that's in a glow stick for a kid

going on Halloween or something.

You break it -- notice you have to break those things,

and then all of a sudden it glows?

It's 'cause two chambers.

I'm sort of surprised that kids can run around with this stuff,

'cause they would say, "Don't get this on you.

Don't -- wash your hands if it does get on you.

It's -- It's bad."

-And the other interesting substance

used by the prop department was those gossamer sheets

that they -- that are used to cover the bride.

That's material normally used for burn victims,

but the camera just loves those things.

And there's a kind of beauty to the bride,

as we'll see in this final sequence --

the final sequence, when all the failed

Herbert West experiments come out of that crypt,

and all those were the work of Screaming Mad George.

And I heard a story -- maybe I heard this from you --

that Screaming Mad George was like a rock star on the set.

-I, uh -- that was my first sort of introduction to --

I just call him "Screaming."

So, uh, yeah, in Japan, he was, like, in a punk band.

And he was really genius.

He also did, um, "Beyond Re-Animator."

He also did some effects for that, as well.

-Right. -Uh...

Just insane, just insane.

-Well, one of the Screaming Mad George creatures

that I do want to mention -- he's seen very briefly

in the chaotic ending -- is played by Noble Craig.

Noble Craig had no legs, and he had only one arm.

He had stepped on a buried artillery shell

while serving in Vietnam.

But he had a long acting career

doing roles that required amputees.

He was in "Sssssss." S-s-s-s-s-s-s.

I never know how to say that title.

He was the vomit creature in "Poltergeist 2."

He was the sewer monster in "Big Trouble in Little China."

And he's one of the monsters in the final scene here.

Noble died in 2018,

and we failed to mention him in our annual "In Memoriam,"

so I'm noting his work now.

-He lived up to his name.

He was a sweet, gentle guy and very patient.

You have to be in sort of situation.

And, um, I enjoyed my time with him.

-Thank you, Jeffrey. It's been great.

Say hi to everybody in "Lom-poke."

-Yeah, you got it.

-And next time you go back to the Ozarks.

-Next time I go back to there, I'll, uh -- I'll --

[Southern accent] My grandma once made me

squirrel-brain gravy.

And if I ever have it again, I'll think about you, Joe Bob.

-[Laughs] You do that too well, Jeffrey.

Right now you're about to destroy several sets

in the final sequence of "Bride of Re-Animator."

So roll it!

Would you ever do Herbert West one more time?

-Well, yes, I would,

uh, depending upon the, uh...

the circumstances.

You know, uh, if it's something that was an idea

that thrilled me, I think that it's --

the story has not yet been finished.

-Really? -You know, I just

had a conversation with Bruce the other day,

and he said, "I don't know why I'm saying this, Jeff,"

but he said, "I have a feeling that we're not done."

And I said, "Well, wh-what? What do you mean?"

He said, "I don't know. I don't know.

Just putting that out there."

But, um, you know, Dan's still alive,

and Herbert got out of -- got out of prison.

-And I assume, Brian Yuzna would be the guy to make that happen?

-Brian has tried every which way,

upside down and backwards,

trying to, uh, make that happen.

It's not without trying.

-Well, somebody must have that White House script.

I mean, you could be re-animating politicians.

You know? Maybe you had to wait for this political epoch

to make that story.

No one would be offended. I don't --

I don't know anyone who's pro-politician right now,

so now's the time, Jeffrey!

You know, "Let 'em decay naturally.

Don't re-animate them!" [Laughter]

-But maybe Herbert is the hero.

Maybe he fixes everything.

-He's the hero we deserve.

You know, some of 'em have that re-animated look already.

-Some of them do. They don't look quite...

completely right.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static crackling]

[Thunder crashes]

-Time?

Time?

-15 seconds.

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

45 seconds.

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

3 minutes, 15 seconds.

-It's going to take time.

-[Sighs]

[Doorbell buzzes]

-Damn it!

Not now!

♪♪

-[Sighs]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

-[Growling, snarling]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Groans]

-Aah!

-[Laughing]

[Glass shatters]

[Wings flapping]

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

-[Screams]

♪♪

-Aaah!

-[Screams]

-[Screaming]

-[Grunting]

♪♪

-Aaah!

-[Coughing, panting]

-[Grunting]

-[Grunting]

-[Grunts]

-[Roaring]

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

-[Gasping]

-Breathe.

-[Wheezing]

-Breathe.

-[Gasping, wheezing]

-Yes.

[Thunder crashes]

Breathe, breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Stay with me.

Yes.

Yes.

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

You're alive.

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

-Alive.

[Gasps]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

-[Growling, roaring]

♪♪

[Growling]

♪♪

[Francesca screams]

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Grunts]

♪♪

-[Laughs]

-[Grunts]

[Thunder crashing]

♪♪

[Wings flapping]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thud, groaning]

-Herbert!

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Oh.

♪♪

I made you.

-Daniel!

-She's alive.

-They're coming!

-Now! [Laughs]

[Glass shatters]

-Dan! Get her out of here!

-Freeze!

Police! [Grunting]

-What?

♪♪

-Francesca, go!

♪♪

-[Groans]

♪♪

-[Screams]

-[Growling] -[Screams]

Dan, help me!

[Gunshot]

[Gunshots]

♪♪

-Aah!

-[Groans]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

-[Whimpering]

♪♪

-No! This!

♪♪

Get this!

♪♪

Yes.

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

-Who is she?

-It's Meg.

-Meg is dead.

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

-Dan!

[Pounding on door]

[Growling]

My God, they're using tools.

♪♪

♪♪

-[Grunts]

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

-What have you done in here?

-We created a life.

-You made her?

-Yes. Dead pieces of this!

With my hands, I created what no man's mind

or woman's womb could ever hope to achieve.

-This is blasphemy!

-Blasphemy?

Before what God?

A God repulsed by the miserable humanity

he created in his own image?

I will not be shackled by the failures of your God.

The only blasphemy is to wallow in insignificance.

I have taken refuse of your God's failures,

and I have triumphed!

[Thunder crashes]

There!

There is my creation!

[Thunder crashes]

-He made me.

♪♪

-Open up! Open!

♪♪

-Dan? We've got to fight them off.

Leave him alone!

Listen to me.

-[Screams]

♪♪

-[Grunts]

♪♪

-[Screams]

[Grunting]

♪♪

[Grunts]

♪♪

-[Screams]

♪♪

-Your girlfriend doesn't stand a chance.

-[Grunts]

-Our girl is superior.

-[Screams]

[Screaming, moaning]

-Help!

-Leave her alone, you monster!

-Aaah!

-Forget it, Dan. She's just an assembly of dead tissue.

♪♪

-You...

You made me.

-Imade you!

[Thunder crashes]

[Electricity crackles]

-Don't! Dan, wait!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Don't you want me?

♪♪

-I don't want your body.

[Thunder crashes]

[Electricity crackles]

-Then what do you want?!

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

[Bones cracking]

♪♪

[Heart beating]

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

Is this what you want?!

-You're not...

Meg.

Meg's dead.

-[Screams]

-No!

[Door splinters]

[Screams]

♪♪

-Out of the way!

-You're next, you little squirt!

-[Screams]

-[Laughs]

[Glass shattering]

[Screaming]

♪♪

-[Screams]

♪♪

-[Manic laughter]

[Screaming]

-Make a note of it, Dan!

-[Screaming]

-Tissue rejection!

-[Screaming]

♪♪

-My wife understands, really.

-[Grunting]

-Aah! Aah! Aah!

[Thunder crashes]

[Bones snapping]

♪♪

-Francesca!

♪♪

-[Laughter]

West!

You stupid biped!

[Laughs]

♪♪

-No.

Get back!

How dare you!

-[Groaning]

You're under arrest!

-[Laughing]

♪♪

-Get off! Get off of me!

♪♪

No! [Grunts]

-[Growling]

-Oh, my God, Dan.

-[Laughing]

-[Growling]

-[Screams]

-[Laughs]

-[Groans]

♪♪

-[Grunts]

♪♪

[Groans]

-[Grunting]

-Are we having fun yet?

[Laughs]

♪♪

-[Screams]

[Screaming]

-[Grunting]

-Get off of me, you rejects!

♪♪

[Loud thud]

[Hill laughing]

-It's over, West!

[Laughs]

♪♪

[Screams]

♪♪

[Insects chirping]

♪♪

-[Grunts]

[Thunder crashes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Gasps]

♪♪

-Aaaaah!

[Laughs]

[Heart beat slows]

♪♪

[Heartbeat stops]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

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[Static]

-"My god, they're using tools!"

Perhaps one of the classic lines in horror.

Herbert West, always the analytical scientist

even in the midst of a massacre.

Even better, as he's fighting off zombies and the world is

crumbling around him and the bride's head is falling off,

"Make a note of it, Dan!

Tissue rejection!"

[ Laughter ]

The reason I think they'd have a hard time

remaking "Re-Animator" -- although they do talk

about it -- is that Jeffrey Combs just owns it.

You couldn't find someone willing to do the role

who wouldn't either copy him or be vilified

for destroying the character.

The final sequence was supposed to be more elaborate

but they ran out of time.

Screaming Mad George had made a full menagerie

of creatures that were in that crypt,

and when the wall crumbles, all of Herbert West's

failed experiments, like the leg attached to the arm,

all come crawling out and devouring things.

You may have noticed that they knock over the whole vat

of green serum and it spills onto the floor

in a room full of body parts --

so you would expect that all the body parts would animate.

Brian Yuzna wanted to do exactly that,

but since they were only working with practical effects,

that would have taken an extra week of shooting.

Whereas, if they'd had CGI, we would have that scene today.

So just saying.

Robert Kurtzman of KNB Effects was the main artist

who worked on the bride, which was a combination

of Kathleen Kinmont's real body,

she had to be completely nude when she got into that

skin-tight suit because some of the body

on the outside is really her body,

and other parts are rubber,

and then there are 20 appliances on there.

But Kathleen Kinmont was an excellent bride,

especially during the breakdown scene.

I don't think she gets enough credit for that.

John Carl Buechler was the main artist

who worked on Dr. Hill's head and made it possible

for David Gale to fly around the set calling Herbert West

an ignorant bi-ped, and even though that particular effect

was roundly criticized, fans thought it was silly

and far-fetched, but I think it's brilliant.

People forget from the first movie,

Dr. Hill is a mesmerist, meaning he can do mind-control stuff

on the zombie police lieutenant and Dr. Graves.

They down-played the mesmerism in the first movie,

but it's there.

Oh, and just one more story.

They always have a day before they start shooting

when all the actors come in to be fitted

for their various wardrobes,

and so the day is spent trying on shirts and coats and hats

and being measured.

And so, on Wardrobe Day of "Bride of Re-Animator,"

David Gale shows up!

[ Laughter ]

And then he goes "Oh yeah, I guess I didn't need

to come down here, did I?"

I gotta hand it to him, though.

That's a fully realized performance

using only his head.

So, Darcy. Whoa, my God, Darcy.

[ Laughter ]

Or should I say Kathleen.

Oh, man.

You've outdone yourself this time.

[Laughs]

-Why, thank you, sir.

-Oh, man.

I know you're a fan of "Frankenhooker"

and these two movies are very similar in the idea

behind them and they came out the same year,

so I've got to ask you.

Which one is better?

-Team "Frankenhooker," man.

-"Frankenhooker?" -Yeah.

-You think "Frankenhooker" is better

than "Bride of Re-Animator?"

I disagree, but go ahead.

Tell -- Tell us your thoughts on "Bride of Re-Animator."

-I mean, it's a really great sequel.

It's got less wit but more gore than the original,

which is not necessarily a bad thing.

-Well, I know you love deformities in movies,

deformities of all types, and this movie

has deformities out the wahzoo.

-Yeah. As a gory B movie, it's really fun.

It has that old horror comic book feeling.

It's only when you compare it to the original "Re-Animator"

that it falls apart. [Laughter]

-I don't think it falls apart.

I don't it ever falls apart.

I think it stays --

-It's a joke about body parts.

-Oh, oh. I'm sorry. Okay.

-I tried [Giggles] -Alright. Well, anyway...

-"Re-Animator" is a once-in-a-lifetime

freaking masterpiece.

-That is true, and I want to thank

Jeffrey for being with us tonight.

He doesn't often do this kind of thing.

-Yeah, thank you.

-Did you notice that when they start re-animating

the bride, suddenly they have thunder and lightning?

You know, the only reason to do that, I would think,

is to remind us of the original "Frankenstein."

-Or, you know, "The Bride of Frankenstein."

-Or "The Bride of Frankenstein."

-People -- people talk online about whether

"Frankenhooker" ripped off "Bride of Re-Animator"

or "Bride of Re-Animator" ripped off "Frankenhooker,"

but they both ripped off the original novel

"Frankenstein" plus Elsa Lanchester's

bride of Frankenstein.

Some of Kathleen Kinmont's spastic movements

are very similar.

Yeah, exactly.

They're very similar to Elsa, don't you think?

-Yeah. She Completely nailed it. -Okay.

Well, she's Meg, she's Gloria, she's a ballet dancer,

these are the body parts of Kathleen Kinmont.

She's a hooker, she's a killer,

she's a lawyer, she's a waitress,

she's the ultimate Herbert West failed experiment,

but it's so poignant.

That's why I think it's too bad they couldn't do

the deformed creature army at the end

because they had to leave all that

Screaming Mad George stuff in storage.

Because all those creatures in the crypt

are suffering like her.

It could have been a gargantuan expression of suffering,

and ripping her heart out of her chest though,

that probably is enough, you know?

'Cause I call that one of the great moments in horror.

-It's definitely iconic.

-What do you think of Bruce Abbott?

I know you love Jeffrey Combs, but Bruce Abbott

is in both of these movies.

-He's fine, too.

[Laughter]

-They tried to make Bruce hotter in this movie.

He had -- they did the Barry Gibb haircut.

-Well, he definitely got the do down.

-Okay, well, alright.

Well, we can't talk about

"Bride of Re-Animator" all night.

What do you got for me?

-Is this what you want, Job Bob?

-Oh, just like the movie.

I thought you were Kathleen Kinmont for minute.

-It is from River D. of Virginia,

and I kind of -- you'll see it.

I had to copy the letter because

he had drawn on the outside. I didn't want to get...

-You didn't want to get blood on his letter.

-Yes.

-River D. sounds like a rap name.

Oh, no, wait a minute.

I see why you're not giving out his last name.

-Yeah. -This is cute.

I remember this letter.

So, on the outside of the envelope it says,

"A note from River's Mom:

He only sees snippets of your show.

Your show is like his forbidden fruit,"

and then a happy face and a heart.

And then -- and then, um...

Also, apparently, River's did a drawing here.

"Bahaha Ernie," and he has a picture of Ernie.

-Oh, it's Banana Ernie.

-Huh? -Banana Ernie.

-Oh, Banana Ernie. -You see? There's the banana.

-I thought it was Ernie laughing.

Oh, okay. Banana Ernie. -It's alright.

-Okay, so it's a banana version of Ernie.

Alright, we do have some young kids

that watch the show, and I do hope all the parents

are as vigilant as this mom is

and says he's only -- he's only allowed to watch snippets.

Okay.

"Dear Joe Bob.

My name is River, and I'm a huge fan.

I'm a 8 year-old.

I loved 'Wolfcop.'"

I don't know why.

[Laughter]

-He speaks for all of us.

-"You're address is New York City?

Aren't you from Texas?

I hear you like Cracker Barrel." -[Chuckles]

"I've never been to one because they just serve regular

supper and we eat at home every night.

So next time you're in Virginia, you should come eat

dinner at my house for free!

Of course Darcy can come, too.

We have veggie tray.

[Laughter]

Love, River."

-Ah, it's cutest letter ever.

-Especially because he knows that you need a veggie tray.

He's really paying attention. -He's so thoughtful.

-Alright. Thank you, River. Yeah, I'm from Texas.

I'm temporarily in New York for business,

but the show is normally in Texas.

Right now we're in New Jersey.

Long story on that, but what I'm gonna suggest

is that the next time I'm in Virginia

we should go to Cracker Barrel together with your mom

so you can see what that's all about.

But only if your mom approves, but thanks for the letter.

I'll be sending you one back.

Very refreshing to get these.

-Yeah, that was really sweet.

-It's a lot better than "Joe Bob, you ignorant doofus.

Don't you know that 'Halloween III' is genius?"

-But it is genius.

-Alright, don't start on "Halloween III."

-[Gasps] Job Bob.

[Laughter]

You're tearing me apart.

-You can only do so much with the heart.

Okay, well, we have another movie coming up,

a lost Australian classic, but in the meantime,

I'm Joe Bob Briggs reminding you that you cannot

unsay a cruel word

and the drive-in will never die.

Did I tell you the one about the Empire State Building?

[Chuckles] -Let's find out.

-Two men are drinking in a bar at the top

of the Empire State Building.

One man turns to the other man and says,

"You know, last week I discovered that if you jump

from the top of this building, by the time you fall

to the 10th floor, the winds around the building

are so intense that they carry you around the building

and back into the window."

The bartender just kind of shakes his head,

and second man says "What, are you a nut?

No way that could happen."

First guy says, "No, it's true, lemme prove it."

So he gets up from the bar, he jumps over the railing

and starts plummeting toward the street.

When he passes the 10th floor, the high winds

whip him around the building and back

into the 10th-floor window.

He takes the elevator back up to the bar.

Second man says, "You know, I saw that happen,

but it must have been a one-time fluke."

First guy says "I'll prove it again!"

Jumps off the railing, hurtles toward the street.

The 10th-floor wind gently carries him around the building

and into the window.

He goes back up and tells the other guy,

"Go ahead, try it yourself."

Second guy goes, "Okay, what the hell."

He jumps over the railing, plunges downward,

past the 40th floor, the 30th floor, the 20th floor,

past the 11th floor, 10th floor, ninth, eighth,

and on down -- hits the sidewalk with a splat.

Bartender turns to the first guy, says,

"You know, Superman, you're a real jerk when you're drunk."

[Laughter]

-Okay, good one.

[Laughter]

[Static]