Re-Animator (40th Anniversary) — Re-Animator (4K Ultra HD + Blu-Ray)
Re-Animator is director Stuart Gordon (From Beyond, Dagon and Castle Freak) and producer Brian Yuzna’s (Society, Bride of Reanimator and Beyond Reanimator) first foray into Lovecraft territory. This was closely followed by their adaptation of From Beyond, another Lovecraft tale that helped rocket the pair into the horror movie stratosphere.
Originally released in 1985, the same year that brought us George Romero’s zombie epic Day of the Dead, Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead and Lamberto Bava’s Demons to name just a few of the top-notch splatter movies that were on offer at the time. Reanimator did reasonably well in cinemas, however it truly exploded upon its VHS release, making it one of the most beloved cult classics of the era. A darkly amusing horror movie with comic book gore that has spawned three sequels and a host of copycats, and launched the careers of Yuzna, Gordon and its stars, Barbara Crampton (From Beyond, We Are Here and You’re Next) , Bruce Abbott (Bride of Reanimator, Bad Dreams and The Last Starfighter) and of course the legend that is Jeffrey Combs (The Frighteners, From Beyond and Castle Freak).
As most of you are probably aware, Re-Animator is the tale of Herbert West (Combs) a brilliant but insane medical student who has developed a reagent which can reanimate corpses. West’s only problem is that his reagent is seriously flawed and any person/creature he brings back to life ends up either dead or as a raging zombie. With the assistance of his classmate, Dan Cain (Abbott) the pair begin work on the formula, testing on human cadavers, when the Dean of the University, the father of Dan’s girlfiriend, Megan (Crampton) Dr Halsey (Robert Sampson), walks in on one of their experiments, he is murdered by the zombie they have reanimated. West brings Halsey back to life with his reagent, a scene witnessed by Halsey’s daughter, Megan. Halsey, is taken and locked up in an observational cell by his colleague Dr Carl Hill (David Gail) who wants the formula for himself and tries to steal it. West kills Hill in the process, removing his head before reanimating both the head and the body separately. Can Dan and Megan escape from this increasingly fraught situation with their lives intact, and who will win between the newly reanimated Dr Hill and Herbest West?
This new UHD 4K disc from Ignite Films and Eagle Rock Pictures features two versions of the movie, the original unrated cut (86 minutes) and the 105-minute Integral version. Each version of the film is on a separate disc with a wealth of bonus features including audio commentaries with Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, Brian Yuzna, Barabara Crampton, Bruce Abbott and Robert Sampsom and a host of other fascinating material. For the purpose of this review, I watched the longer integral version of the movie. The extra scenes are all plot points, and as such, the film makes more sense, but they do add a whopping 19 minutes to the run time.
Overall, this is a cracking release for one of my all-time favourite movies. The images are sharp, the colours are vivid, and whilst there remains some grain, it feels natural. Fans of the movie will want to pick this up as the definitive version of the film, and those who may have somehow missed this but love good, gory fun, need to pick up a copy. Whilst Re-Animator is very different from the story on which it is based, it’s still one of the finest Lovecraft adaptations to ever make it to the cinema. This one comes highly recommended!