Re-Animator (Special Edition) [DVD]

Re-Animator (1985). I love this delightful, hilarious, gory movie with great intensity. I probably first saw it in 1986 after its release on video (thanks, Fangoria, for pointing me at it). The cast is, of course, aces, with Jeffrey Combs leading the way as the arrogant and brilliant Herbert West. Bruce Abbott is somewhat underappreciated, I think, as the well-meaning and steadily falling apart Dan Cain. Abbott is essential for making us believe any of this, and his failures and sadness are all the more affecting because he just wants to help people--and winds up getting them killed. Barbara Crampton is great, even if her character is severely underdeveloped. I wonder if, going forward, Stuart Gordon made sure to give her meatier roles to perform, as a result of short-shrifting her here. David Gale also delights as the sublimely evil and gross Dr. Hill. The sparring between him and West is priceless. So, let's talk about the headless cunnilingus scene. Stuart Gordon has always challenged me with his concoction of perversity and gooey violence, and Re-Animator is no different. As I get older, I sort of wish I had a TeeVee edit of this scene because, real or make believe, Barbara Crampton is still completely naked and bound to a stainless steel table while a prosthetic head inter-cut with Gale's is positioned between her legs. Yuck. I know this is the point, but I wonder if it could have been achieved without being so gonzo. I suspect it was Gordon's intent to sew discomfort, hence why I wrestle with it, but it makes me more anxious for Barbara, as opposed to her character Meg. Anyway, just some thoughts. Crampton has spoken a lot about this moment, and while she jokingly refers to this in the commentary as "Oh great, here comes my mother's favorite scene", if she's okay, I'm okay.The Arrow Blu is absolutely gorgeous, crisp and clear, and loaded with almost Hammer-esque texture. The extras are all sublime. I've owned many versions of this film over the years (from a TeeVee recorded Betamax tape to this one with everything in between) and this one is the best I've seen.

The best edition. Included:-New transfer / restoration of the Unrated version, with all the gore intact. The best transfer out there, this is the one you want.-Restoration of the Integral version of the film. This is a weird cut. Basically, when censors edited down the "unrated" cut of the film to make an "r-rated" version, they put back in some cut scenes and alternate takes. The Integral version hybridizes these two, including all the gore alongside the extra scenes. Extends the runtime from 86min to 105min, so you actually get more movie, although this has never been the director's "approved" cut.-Lovely audio all around. The audio was restored as well, and the excellent soundtrack has never sounded better.-Ridiculously great packaging! The outer box is a gorgeous digipack. Looks great on any shelf. Inside are great extras. You get a Criterion-style booklet where a writer describes the making-of, and some lobby cards which are so beautiful I might frame them.-Tons of features. Commentaries, interviews, making-of specials... it's all here. More than anyone needs. Love it.Great transfer, great packaging, great movie. Get it.

Arrow video put out a fantastic release for the 4k remaster of the unrated edition of reanimator. For those bummed out about missing the 2 disc edition, don't fret too much about it. The integral edition exclusive to that set just splices the R version of the film with some longer scenes with the unrated edition's included gore, making a sort of Frankenstein cut. Honestly, the added scenes don't add anything to the movie and honestly kind of ruin the pacing and detract from the story and characters. This is why the unrated cut is also the director's intended version.

Sometimes patience pays off. Been waiting on the price to drop on this Blu-ray. When it finally did, I pulled trh trigger.Great picture quality and a good amount of special features make this movie a must own for any horror fan.

OMG this movie. What a wired, strange Lovecraftian tale they've concocted here. If you like your 80's horror movies with a tinge of tongue in cheek comedy with ample amounts of gore then I've got s movie for you

The film quality is insane on my 4K TV. The extras are great! And I’m really impressed with the new artwork for the release. If you’re a fan of this film, this is the best version you’ll find. Seek this one out, it’s worth it!

Arrow has done a fantastic job with this transfer. Great grain and excellent 5.1 remastered audio. Also a terrifically fun film

Such a fun movie. I wish a collector's trilogy was available

Excellent release of an excellent film.While Re-Animator is not a good example of Lovecraftian horror, it's still a suprisingly well done adaptation.The film's funny and gory and Jeffrey Combs is perfect in his leading role as Herbert West (even though his name is last on the credits and Dean Cain is supposed to be the hero of the story).Quality of the release itself is excellent with good amount of extras and the cover is reversible so you can display the great original artwork if you want.It has two cuts of the film, the unrated and the integral cut which is the unrated cut with about 15min of added/extended scenes from the TV cut. Unfortunately the integral cut doesn't have any subtitles which is why I'm not giving this release full 5 stars. The audio quality is excellent though so the subtitles might not be necessary and the integral cut is the worse version of the two, so you propably don't need to see it more than once (if even that).

Based loosely on the 1922 H. P. Lovecraft novella “Herbert West–Reanimator”, this classic mid-80s horror is both old-fashioned and new. It takes a work of period literature – about a grave-robbing doctor restarting dead human beings as if they were machines – and transplants it to a modern-day mad scientist workshop, effectively reinvigorating the zombie genre.With its unnatural lighting, crooked angles and melodramatic outbursts, Re-Animator has the style of cautionary 50s sci-fi. Except much, much gorier.Jeffrey Combs plays West, whom we meet grappling with one Dr Hans Gruber (that’s right). It turns out that West wasn’t killing Gruber; he was bringing him back to life with the help of a special serum. West flees to New England, where he moves in with Dan (Bruce Abbott), a trainee surgeon, and his girlfriend Megan (scream queen Barbara Crampton). West soon gets to work resurrecting dead animals, but his sights are set on human reanimation. Appealing to his curiosity and his ego – and despite the warnings of Megan – West convinces Dan to assist him, gaining access to the morgue. Meanwhile, the scheming Dr Hill (David Gale) seeks to steal the serum and create a zombie army of his own.The movie is based mostly in a single set, the morgue, meaning most of the sub-$1m budget goes on spectacularly gruesome special makeup effects. This release is the “Unrated” version, meaning all the beheadings and disembowellings are here in all their 4K glory. It’s safe to say Re-Animator features some of the most impressive and memorable gore effects of the decade. Tony Doublin’s design for the headless Dr Hill is masterful. The scenes where Hill’s disembodied head is psychically controlling his stumbling body are eye-poppingly gross and funny.The script is sharp, the plotting is tight, and the characters are well-rounded. Sure, the goodies aren’t nearly as fun as the plotting puppeteers. But then, this isn’t the kind of movie where you’re expecting to feel fuzzy and consoled come the final freeze-frame.More satirical than David Cronenberg’s The Fly but straighter than Frank Henenlotter’s Frankenhooker, Re-Animator successfully finds the sweet spot between comedy and horror. This is thanks in large part to the universally good performances, chief of which is the possessed Combs, whose deranged scientist is hilarious and unique.There’s talent on the other side of the camera, too. Richard Band’s wonderful music is pure Psycho-era Bernard Herrman. And the producer is Brian Yuzna, whose directorial debut would be the fantastically grotesque Society, and who would direct the Re-Animator sequel in 1990.Bold characterisation, barking performances, timeless practical effects, efficient plotting and jet-black humour – not to mention considerable after-the-event reassessment – leaves Re-Animator a shoe-in for cult status. It even dares to ask big questions: What is medical science for? Should we seek to cheat death entirely? And then it drowns such lofty concerns in a bucket of offal.

Jeffrey Combs at his very best as a Horror and Sci-Fi icon... This is a great 'B' horror from 1985, so over 30 years old yes! This is why it kind of sucked in DVD. It looked like they had transferred from VHS to DVD straight up. In fact my VHS was better quality. So when this special 2 disc edition was released I wasted no time. The sound and picture quality on our 49' LED TV is amazing, this edition is re-masterd in 4k it is stunning. It also has a second disc and two different cuts of the movie. A must have for fans of this movie and indeed horror.

When Herbert West, a medical student who was working in Switzerland with the late Dr. Gruber, starts at the Miskatonic Medical School in Massachusetts, he is quickly introduced to a promising young student called Dan Cain and the world renowned brain surgeon Dr. Hill. Upon meeting Dr. Hill, West makes it very clear that he feels Dr. Hill's work is useless and outdated. Soon after his introduction, Herbert moves into Dan's spare room where he discovers that Dan is seeing the school Dean's daughter Megan. Megan seems instantly creeped out by West and his strange behaviour, and for good reason as it isn't long before Dan gets dragged into West's bizarre experiments aimed at reanimating the dead. The two break into the school and begin their experiments which accidentally leads to the death of Megan's father, soon after Dr. Hill discovers exactly what they've been upto and tries to steal their work, leading to a gory, grotesque and often hilarious battle between West and Hill.Horror legend Jeffrey Combs is a joy to watch as Herbert West, he plays the role with such sinister relish that it's impossible not to like him. A lot of the films comedy comes from how straight Combs plays the role, and along with From Beyond, Castle Freak and The Frighteners, this is his best work. The other real standout performance comes from the late David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill, Herbert West's nemesis. He died aged just 54 and I haven't seen anything else he made apart from the sequel, a shame he appeared in so little as he's wonderful in Re-Animator. Barbara Crampton is very pretty and played her role as Megan well, she later teamed up again with Combs in Castle Freak. Bruce Abbot and Robert Sampson round off the main cast as Dan Cain and the Dean Alan Halsey, but Combs and Gale are what make this film so endlessly enjoyable. I love the direction from Stuart Gordon and i'm sure the actors loved it too, this was his first proper film and to this day it's his best. He quickly followed it up a few years later with the excellent From Beyond and Dolls, after the 80's his films have been a little bit more hit and miss, but Fortress, Castle Freak, Dagon and Stuck are all very watchable. Re-Animator virtually steals Bernard Herrmann's fantastic Psycho score, but it fits the film so well that I can't imagine the film without it. There's some nudity, and lots and lots of over the top gratuitous gore. The effects and gore are brilliant considering this 1985 classic was made for under $1,000,000, it's probably the bloodiest over the top film i've seen along with Evil Dead 2 and Braindead.This 2 disc special edition is packed with extras, especially when compared to the near barebones dvd I owned previously. On disc 1 there's what appears to be a cleaned up version of the film as it looks better than my old copy, there's a commentary from director Stuart Gordon and a second commentary from producer Brian Yuzna (later a director himself and director of the sequels), and actors Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton and Robert Sampson. Of course it would have been even better with David Gale. Disc 2 is just as good, a brilliant 70 minute making of, interviews with Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna, further interviews with writer Dennis Paoli, composer Richard Band and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone. A music discussion with Richard Band, deleted scenes, extended scenes, trailer, tv spots, production stills gallery, behind the scenes still gallery, fun on the set gallery, posters and advertising gallery, storyboard gallery, Stuart Gordon biography, the screenplay and finally Herbert West, Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft from which the film is based. It's a great dvd and what all special editions should be like, check out the Poltergeist "special edition" to see how little is on some. Considering how much is on the discs, it seems crazy that there's no subtitles which would obviously be a big problem for some.Re-Animator is a great film and now has a great special edition, one of the best horror comedies ever made and if you're not too squeamish and aren't bothered by the perverted, gratuitous tone, you should love it.

I found this german import blu ray by chance and being a massive fan of the re-animator movies I thought it was a no brainer. I went for this version as I knew that the American release was region a locked and I was gutted that I don't have a region free blu ray player, so I started to investigate and found this german region b import and I ordered it right away. First of all this german import has English language option and no forced subtitles and secondly, the picture is really impressive. Don't get me wrong it won't be mistaken for a demo worthy blu ray but, it is leaps and bounds ahead of any previous release. I found the picture to be strong and clarity and detail were very good the colours were excellent and it was like I was watching the movie for the very first time. The sound was good also. I am so glad that I ordered this movie and was so impressed with it that I have just ordered the re-animator and bride of re-animator german import blu ray steel book from amazon, as I found that this was the cheapest way to get bride of re-animator on blu ray as the single release of bride on blu ray was twice the price that this double feature steel book cost me. If you're a fan of re-animator then I urge you to give this blu ray a go.All in all an excellent blu ray release of a top notch horror film, all I need to get now is beyond re-animator on blu ray, so I hope there is a blu ray release soon.