RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
40th Anniversary 4K Ultra HD
Label: Ignite Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 86 Minutes 3 Seconds (Theatrical), 104 Minutes 55 Seconds (Integral Version)
Audio: English PCM 1.0 Mono, DTS-HD MA Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles (Theatrical), English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles (Integral Version)
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1) (Theatrical), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) (Integral Version)
Director: Stuart Gordon
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Very few movies have scarred and formed my cinematic-mind the way Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985) did with it's dark alchemy of horror, black humor and weird perversions, which my parents rented for me on VHS when I was far too young to be seeing it! The movie opens with a terrific pre-credit sequence by which we are introduced to the character of Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs, From Beyond) a bespectacled medical student at the Zurich University Institute of Medicine in Switzerland, where he's been studying with his mentor, Dr. Hans Gruber (Al Berry, Halloween III), whom died suddenly from reasons unknown. We are thrown directly into the fray as West injects Gruber's corpse with a strange, glowing-green liquid, which has miraculous properties that re-animate the dead man, but not without some truly grotesque consequences. The university staff and security break into the lab after hearing an awful commotion inside, witnessing the grotesque resurrection in shock and horror. It's great stuff and it's only a small taste of what's to come, there's plenty more exquisite 80's gore and madcap horror on tap!
Somehow West is not prosecuted for crimes against natural law following the events in Zurich and ends up in back in the U.S. in New England at Miskatonic University, where he studies under Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale, Rituals). The student-professor relationship is strained to say the least, made worse when West accuses Hill of poaching Dr. Gruber's theories of brain death very directly in front of the class. Shortly after West is introduced to promising medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott, Bad Dreams) and the two become housemates, even though Cain's girlfriend, the daughter of the school's Dean, Megan (Barbara Crampton, From Beyond), is creeped out by the deeply weird West. She just might be onto something, too, for it's not long before before Dan awakens to the unearthly shrieking of his cat - following the sounds of the tormented cat-shrieking to West's basement laboratory, where he finds the dismembered feline newly resurrected and ravenous. In this scene Combs sells the rather corny stuffed feline prop as a menacing clawed demon-cat, it's great schlocky stuff, and a testament to Combs heightened acting style in this flick. While Dan's unnerved by the ghastly affair West wins him over with the miraculous glowing-green re-agent fluid, as it has already been established that Dan's has a deep-seated need to save lives, and he joins in on West's mad quest for life after death, leading to more death and tragedy.
Jeffrey Combs' turn as the mad-scientist is a performance for the ages, he's playing it for the cheap seat in the back, it;s very heightened, but it's perfect for this flick. His is nemesis Dr. Hill is just as fantastic, he's camping it up like a hammer mad-scientist on steroids, too. Hill manages to turn the school's Dean Halsey (Robert Sampson, Robot Jox), against West and Cain, using an under explained form of mind-control he displays from time to time, he loathes West and is a total perv for Dan's girl Megan. In the aftermath West and Cain are barred from the med-school, but that doesn't stop them from breaking into the morgue and administering re-agent on cadavers which not so unexpectedly goes horribly wrong, resulting in the death of the Dean. West doesn't skip a beat and takes advantage of the freshest corpse in the room, injecting the Dean with the re-agent who becomes a brainless zombie, he ends up committed to the psychiatric ward under the watch of Dr. Hil.l who connects the bizarre incident to West's research into brain-death. When confronted by Hill in his laboratory West responds by decapitating the professor with a shovel, still incapable of curbing his macabre curiosity he uses his re-agent to resuscitate his disembodied head, causing even more problems.
Turns out that Hill can telepathically control his headless body which knocks the distracted West unconscious, stealing the re-agent and then kidnapping Megan to perform a bizarre act of disembodied cunnilingus - one of cinema's most-tastelessly glorious moments in my opinion, its a real howler. We get loads of gore effects, a gorgeous face-peel, a brain exposed after having the skull removed, oodles of intestines, a decapitated head and a dismembered cat that gets it's brains smashed against the wall - those seeking the grotesque shall not be disappointed by Re-Animator - it holds up quite nicely, and has a pitch black streak of red humor that I adore.
This film is a true masterwork of horror cinema loaded with macabre atmosphere, blood-soaked gore and delicious black humor - it really stands the test of time, and if you are not familiar with the works of the sadly gone-too-soon Stuart Gordon do yourself a favor and remedy that right quick, the man is a twisted genius of horror cinema, and is still somewhat under appreciated in my estimation.
Audio/Video: The theatrical cut of Re-Animator arrives on 4K UHD from Ignite Films in 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1) with Dolby Vision HD10, sourced from a new 4K scan and restoration, approved by producer Brian Yuzna. It looks terrific, offering a more stable and refined image, better resolved grain structures than the previous 2017 Arrow release, which had a green-lean to the color-timing that is not present here. Textures and finer details in close-ups are pleasing, throughout, and depth and clarity are noticeably superior with the 4K resolution. The Dolby Vision/HDR10 upgrade offers deeper, more nuanced black levels with superior shadow detail, and colors are freshened up with the WCG color-grade, skin tones looks both warmer on the living and the make-up effects of the dead and resurrected are more dialed-in, it's a significant upgrade, and the greenish hue that was pervasive in the Arrow release is not present here, offering crisper whites and truer looking colors throughout. Of course, the glowing green re-animation serum looks terrific, it's eerie iridescence has never looked better on home video, the same can be said for the red highlights of blood and gore. The accompanying Blu-ray offers the longer 108-min Integral Cut of the film in 1080p HD widescreen, framed in 1.78:1, which does not appear to be be sourced from the same 4K new restoration as the Theatrical cut, and looks to my eyes to be the version on the previous Arrow Blu-ray.
The Theatrical Version gets three audio options, we get English PCM 1.0 Mono, and both DTS-HD MA Stereo and 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. All three tracks are clean and well-balanced, dialogue sounds terrific and Charles Band's tasty Psycho-copping score thrills, the uncompressed tracks each have their strengths, though i will say I prefer both the mono and stereo tracks, over the surround track, with the stereo track offering the most direct and robust experience for me, but it's great to have options. The sole audio option on the Integral Cut is DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles.
This release is stuffed with both newly produced 40th Anniversary and legacy bonus features, the new extras appear on the 4K disc, these include new interviews with producer Brian Yuzna, actors Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, Editor Lee Percy, Stuart Gordons wife/actress Carolyn Purdy, the cast of the Re-Animator Musical, a talking-head appreciation of the film featuring contemporary directors, and a 1977 documentary about Stuart Gordon's The Organic Theater Company of Chicago, plus a restoration featurette. Also on the 4K disc are three archival audio commentaries, plus we get the Isolated Music Track highlight Richard Band's score with uncompressed audio.
The Blu-ray disc contains the wealth of archival extras, these include interviews with producer Brian Yuzna and director Stuart Gordon, actress Barbara Crampton, screenwriter Dennis Paoloi, composer Richard Band, Fangoria Editor Tony Timpone, plus the feature-length doc Re-Animator: Resurrectus, the 54-min A Guide to Lovecraft Cinema: Chris Lackey, host of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, provides a comprehensive look at the many cinematic incarnations of Lovecraft's work, and the 98-min Doug Bradley's Spinechillers: Herbert West, Re-Animator actor Jeffrey Combs reads H.P. Lovecraft's original classic story. We also get the 12-min interview with musical lyricist Mark Nutter on adapting the cult classic for musical theater, plus 23-min
of Extended Scenes, a 3-min Deleted Scene, plus the
Trailer, TV Spots and Still Gallery.
The set of extras is impressive, however, this does not carry over every extras from the multitude of releases the film has had in various territories, just off the top of my head I know we do not get the 17-min 1995 Q/A with Barbara Crampton that was an easter egg on the Arrow release, but no complaints from me, these hours of extras were a joy to watch and re-visit.
The 2-disc standard release version arrives in a dual-hubbed black keepcase with single-sided sleeve of artwork.
Special Features:
Disc 1: Theatrical Cut + New 40th Anniversary Extras (4K Ultra HD)
- Audio commentary with director Stuart Gordon and actors Graham Skipper and Jesse Merlin of Re-Animator: The Musical
- Audio commentary with Stuart Gordon
- Audio commentary with producer Brian Yuzna, actors Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott, and Robert Sampson
- NEW! Re-Animator at 40: A Conversation with Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and Brian Yuzna (44:32)
- NEW! Piece By Piece: Cutting Re-Animator – A New Interview with Editor Lee Percy (14:57)
- NEW! The Horror of It All: The Legacy and Impact of Re-Animator(18:19)
- NEW! I Give Life: A Look Back at Re-Animator: The Musical (27:36)
- NEW! Suzie Sorority and the Good College Boy: An Interview with Carolyn Purdy-Gordon (14:07)
- NEW! Re-Animating a Horror Classic: The 4K Restoration of Re-Animator (2:22)
- NEW! The Organic Theater Company of Chicago: A 1977 documentary featuring Stuart Gordon (27:50)
- NEW! 40th Anniversary 4K UHD Trailer (0:57)
- Isolated Score (86:25, DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround)
Disc 2: Integral Version + Archival Extras (Blu-ray)
- Integral Version (105 mins)
- Re-Animator: Resurrectus - Feature-length documentary on the making of the film featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew (68:36)
- A Conversation with Director Stuart Gordon and Producer Brian Yuzna (48:47)
- Interview with Dennis Paoloi (10:41)
- Interview with Richard Band (14:43)
- Interview with Fangoria Editor Tony Timpone (4:34)
- Music Discussion with Composer Richard Band (16:31)
- The Catastrophe of Success: Stuart Gordon and The Organic Theater - Director Stuart Gordon discusses his early theater roots and his continued commitment to the stage (13:08)
- Theater of Blood - Re-Animator: The Musical lyricist Mark Nutter on adapting the cult classic for musical theater (12:04)
- Extended Scenes (23:05)
- Deleted Scene (2:40)
- Trailer (1:57)
- TV Spots (2:36)
- Still Gallery
- Barbara Crampton In Conversation: The Re-Animator star sits down with journalist Alan Jones for this career-spanning 2015 interview (36:05)
- A Guide to Lovecraft Cinema: Chris Lackey, host of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, provides a comprehensive look at the many cinematic incarnations of Lovecraft's work. (54:02)
- Doug Bradley's Spinechillers: Herbert West, Re-Animator actor Jeffrey Combs reads H.P. Lovecraft's original classic story (98:32)
Buy it!
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