Re-Animator - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Re-Animator



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
As a horror fanatic to the extreme, I was over the world when I saw the press release from newcomer distributor Ignite Films (I had never seen them at all before, and after looking into them it appears they’re going after the boutique classics market similar to Twilight Times, Scream Factory and Arrow) a month or so ago. The Re-Animator is a bona fide 1980s horror comedy classic, starring the venerable Jeffrey Combs (known for his work in the horror industry, as well as playing no less than 10 different characters within the Star Trek TV universe). From looking at them, it appears that Ignite is releasing this newly minted 4K release in 3 different formats with 3 different price points. The first being this “standard” 2 disc release, a “Deluxe” edition complete with art cards, a book, and a hefty case, and the “Ultimate Edition”. Which takes everything from the Deluxe edition and adds in a figurine as well.

Not going to lie here, but The Re-Animator is one of those '80s guilty pleasures that I can’t get enough of. Taken from an iconic H.P. Lovecraft story (which ironically, Lovecraft himself hated), the film loosely translates the Lovecraftian tale into something that can only be described as “Troma meets H.P. Lovecraft” with sardonic humor, nudity for very little reason, and a significant amount of over the top body horror to boot. It has everything and anything that a horror fan could ever want.

Our short, but effective, tale begins with the maniacal Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) murdering his German doctor mentor with an overdose of his new re-animation serum that he’s been working on. After that, he’s forced to come back to America, where he comes in as a third-year grad student working under Dr. Carl Hill. Taking a room with fellow doctoral student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), he soon gets to work on perfecting his serum as much as possible. After roping in Dr. Cain after a “mishap” with their cat, the two embark on a crazed experiment to animate a human corpse. Problems arise when Dr. Hill finds out what they’re doing and decides to take over the experiment, forcing Herbert to “take care of” the annoying Dr. Hill, with some unexpected results.

I don’t care what anyone says, but Re-Animator is one of the best 80s horror comedies of its time. The film may not have lit the box offices on fire back in the 80s (being an unrated indie horror film does that to you), but it has garnered an immense cult status behind it over the last 40 years. While not a Troma-produced film, it takes their over-the-top prosthetic body horror/gore and infuses it with that tongue-in-cheek humor that Troma is known for. So while it’s not a true Troma film, it somehow gets lumped into that same category. That being said, what really elevates the film is Jeffrey Combs' intensity and hammy “megalomaniac” presentation of Dr. Herbert West. While the film is definitely played with a bit of winking and nodding at the audience, Combs plays the part completely deadpan, hamming it up to level 11 and never once questioning his seriousness in the effort. Not to mention, the special effects for the film were top notch in the day, and definitely highlight the benefits of physical effects vs. the CGI-laden messes we get today.

Outside of the film itself, the care and effort that went into this release are stupendous. I remember being a kid in the 90s and this film being nigh impossible to get. Most stores wouldn’t carry it, and those that did would only have a limited amount. Even renting this at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video was hard to do, as they only had 1-2 copies, and it was almost always rented out. I had to be introduced to it at a friend's house after he had copied the VHS and had it in his “private collection” away from parental eyes. And to this day, I’ve had a love affair with the film (some of the sequels are pretty dang good as well). Ignite has been given a new 4K remaster for the film, as well as second Blu-ray disc that includes the legendary “Integral” cut of the film, as well as all of the extras that were made for the Arrow Blu-ray release several years ago (I’m actually thinking the Integral cut is the same master as the Arrow release, as they look REALLY similar), and a bunch of brand new extras for this release as well.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Re-Animator notoriously comes with 3 separate cuts of the film due to the theatrical cut being an unrated gore fest. Back in the day to get a home video release on VHS they had to trim the film down a bit to make it an R-rating, but at the same time the studio decided to add in deleted scenes and other explanatory scenes to flesh out the production (something director Stuart Gordon was never privy to). Years later, they made what was known as the “Integral cut”, which restored the gore and nastiness of the unrated cut, but infused the deleted scenes that were in the R-rated cut from the home video release. Ignite gives us two of these cuts here, with the 4K UHD disc sporting the new 4K restoration and the Blu-ray using what APPEARS to be the Arrow-created master of the Integral cut (nobody wants the R-rated cut at all)

The new 4K restoration looks SPECTACULAR, especially considering the shape the original elements were in back in the day. I saw the Arrow release back in 2017, and while it was a solid release, it had some definite image wobble and grain was a tad chunky (the same master for that release seems to be what the Blu-ray of the Integral cut is, as they look near identical). This is just more stable, with a cleaner look that showcases the cleanup of the film elements themselves, and a nice grain structure. You can tell some of the grain has been cleaned up, but it looks very natural, with a nice saturation of blacks and shadow detail to boot. The Dolby Vision application is well done, adding some clarity to the shadowy scenes (such as West in his basement or the infamous final battle in the hospital morgue), and colors seem to “pop” a bit more. That being said, this is a heavily stylized film with lots of neon green potions, shadows to hide the prosthetics used for re-animated monsters, and a distinctly low budget that just couldn’t do any more. The blacks do crush a bit, but overall this is the absolute best I have EVER seen with the film, Arrow Blu-ray release included (which is more yellowed and brightened compared to this release to boot).







Audio:

On the audio side of the fence, we have several options to choose from as well. First up is the original LPCM Mono mix, a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo mix, and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix as well. These, once more, appear to be lifted directly from the Arrow release, so anyone who has seen that release will know what they sound like. Shifting between the tracks, I have to say that I like the 2.0 Stereo mix the best, as the Mono track sounds a bit thin, while the 5.1 track is just the 2.0 Stereo track with a few minor surround mixes, and feels a bit lower in dialog level unless you tweak it. All 3 sport great vocals, with a punchy score by Richard Band. Bass is nearly nonexistent, but then again, this was never designed to be a bass bomb. All in all, having all 3 options available is a great choice, and should give fans more than enough choices.







Extras:

• Re-Animator at 40: A Conversation with Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and Brian Yuzna
• Piece By Piece: Cutting Re-Animator – A New Interview with Editor Lee Percy
• The Horror of It All: The Legacy and Impact of Re-Animator
• I Give Her Life: A Look Back at Re-Animator: The Musical
• Re-Animating a Horror Classic: The 4K Restoration of Re-Animator
• The Organic Theater Company of Chicago: A 1977 documentary featuring Stuart Gordon
• New 40th anniversary 4K UHD trailer



Previous Bonus Features
• Integral Version (105 mins)
• Isolated Score
• Commentary with Stuart Gordon and actors Graham Skipper and Jesse Merlin of Re-Animator: The Musical
• Commentary with Stuart Gordon
• Commentary with producer Brian Yuzna, actors Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott, and Robert Sampson
• Re-Animator: Resurrectus - Feature-length documentary on the making of the film featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew
• Interviews with director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna, writer Dennis Paoli, composer Richard Band, and former Fangoria editor Tony Timpone
• Music discussion with composer Richard Band
• 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
• Theater of Blood - Re-Animator: The Musical lyricist Mark Nutter on adapting the cult classic for musical theater
• Extended scenes
• Deleted scene
• Trailer & TV Spots
• Still Gallery
•Barbara Crampton In Conversation: The Re-Animator star sits down with journalist Alan Jones for this career-spanning 2015 interview
• 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
• Doug Bradley's Spinechillers: Herbert West, Re-Animator actor Jeffrey Combs reads H.P. Lovecraft's original classic story

Final Score: ​

Re-Animator is still an amazing horror “shocksploitation” film, and one of my favorite guilty pleasures. But to this day, I still am a tad cautious on who I blind introduce this too as the over the top gore and, shall we say, scandalous nature of some of the bits (we all know that scene that we replayed as teens) can be jarring for those horror fans who didn’t grow up with Troma and other shocksploitation genre horror films. That being said, this is a fantastic release with an amazing new image that is only made sweeter by the absolute plethora of extras that have been thrown on board. According to my Google-fu, it appears that the release is only sold directly through Ignite’s website, where you get to choose which edition of the film (and which price point) you want. Highly recommended as a horror fan, and even more highly recommended for the 4K package itself.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Robert Sampson
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Written by: H.P. Lovecraft (Story), Dennis Paoli, William Norris
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: LPCM Mono, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, Music DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Ignite Films
Rated: NR
Runtime: 86 Minutes / 104 Minutes (Integral Cut)
Blu-ray Release Date: April 18th, 2025

Recommendation: Great Buy for Horror Fans

 

[Asere]

Love this film and Barbara Crampton. I was hoping you would say a must own lol.

 

[Michael Scott]

Love this film and Barbara Crampton. I was hoping you would say a must own lol.

oh yeah, if you're a fan of the movie this is a GREAT release