Re-Animator: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition 4K UHD Blu-ray

As we’ve done a couple of reviews of this film already, I’ll link over to those takes momentarily, but for my part, I love Re-Animator. It's a visually impressive piece of horror filmmaking filled with creepy atmosphere, gnarly shocking gore, and a wildly wicked sense of humor. Like any number of Lovecraft adaptations, it’s not exactly a strict-to-text interpretation. Instead, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna took the bare essentials of the story and spun it out into their own wild rampaging re-animated corpse of horror. 

Young up-and-coming medical student Dean Cain (Bruce Abbott, not Superman) can’t let his patients die - even when his instructors continue to inform him he can’t save everyone. But life is pretty good as he’s in a serious relationship with the Dean’s daughter Megan (Barbara Crampton).  Enter his new roommate Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), the former protege of the esteemed Dr. Hans Gruber (apparently no relation to the Die Hard terrorist). Through his research, West has discovered the key to re-animating the dead and now he means to perfect it. But the unscrupulous Dr. Hill (David Gale) has other plans and things are about to get pretty damn bloody.

Now, I’m old enough to remember when this film was difficult to find on video. I was lucky enough to have a local mom-and-pop video store that had a copy available, but it wasn’t a tape one anyone could just rent. They had it in a “restricted” selection of the most violent and gory flicks and had to be 18 to check it out. Whether or not you actually were 18 depended upon the counter jockey working that day. If you got the right sympathetic son-of-a-bitch who enjoyed corrupting the youth of tomorrow, they’d let you take that tape out no questions asked. That’s how I first got to enjoy Re-Animator alongside a couple of friends by sneaking it into our pile of “safe” movies. So for about 30 years, I’ve been a loving fan of the film. 

This is one of the films of blind rental shop discoveries where my love for it doesn’t strictly hinge on nostalgia. While I loved the memorable adrenaline rush of sneaking a film like this past my parents and watching it with friends in the dead of night, I think it’s also a damn good movie. Gordon and Yuzna were responsible for some gnarly fun exploits in their heyday. While I have a lot of love and enjoyed flicks like From Beyond, Bride of Re-Animator, it's Re-Animator that stands tall as their mounting achievement. I also marvel at the fact they cooked up the screenplay for one of my favorite kid’s films, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! 

The franchise legacy of this film might have slipped a tad with two less-than-stellar sequels (I do quite like Bride of Re-Animator, but it’s just not as good as the first), but this film’s monstrous reputation for gore and humor lives on. And while I love it to death, I’m still very careful about whom I introduce it to. Even the most steeled fans of shocker cinema might find some of the content a bit too over-the-top or scandalous (if you've seen the flick, you know the scene), so I still make sure people know what they’re in for. 

Then there’s the question of which version to watch, the original Unrated Cut or the longer Integral Cut. I personally don’t much care for the Integral Cut. I know a lot of folks do, but I think it goes too far out of its way to explain what doesn’t need explaining and fill gaps that aren’t really there. Gordon and Yuzna weren’t fond of it and as Yuzna approved this 4K restoration, it hasn’t been upgraded to 4K, the transfer of the Integral Cut is identical to the Arrow disc from several years ago. I see the longer version as a curiosity and little else. The original Unrated Cut is a tighter, cleaner edit with stronger story momentum and direction. So for my two cents on that matter, I always tell people to start with the original version and if you’re curious give the longer cut a try. 

For more Re-Animator Reviews:

Mr. Duarte's 2010 Re-Animator Blu-ray Review
Mr. Lee's 2017 Re-Animator Blu-ray Review

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Re-Animator is refreshed and revitalized for home video with a brand new three-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray release from Ignite Films. For this review, we’re looking at the 3-disc deluxe edition box set. The Unrated Cut arrives on a BD100 disc for the 4K and a BD50 1080p Blu-ray, with the longer Integral Cut on its own BD50 1080p Blu-ray disc. The discs are housed in a folding digipak with individual trays so there’s no stacking. For swag items, there are five high-gloss sturdy stock art cards with stills from the film. The big attraction of this set is the 145-page hardcover book Forty Years of Re-Animator containing production information, interviews and essays, and loads of stills and behind-the-scenes photos. Each disc loads to a standard main menu with basic navigation options. 

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally here for Re-Animator in 4K UltraHD with Dolby Vision HDR (and HDR10) and the results are magnificent. Right from the start, film grain density, image stability, and clarity are immediate notable improvements. I won’t take much away from Arrow Video’s 2017 Blu-ray, it was a fine effort for the time, but there was quite a bit of image wobble, grain could look quite chunky in spots, and there was quite a bit of speckling and scratches in the image. Some very slight speckling and vertical lines remain, but they're nowhere near as obvious or distracting as they once were. 

Details pop cleaner and clearer than before and for all of the gnarly gore effects and makeup work (and other um…bits) that’s a big pickup! The details are sharper and clearer but they don’t betray the illusion or the impressive nature of the makeup work. The image has also been slightly reframed to 1.85:1 versus Arrow’s 1.78:1. Some moments look a tad shifted more towards the center this time, but not to a drastic degree. 

The Dolby Vision HDR grade is excellent as well. The blacks and shadows are appropriately grim and moody but offer a much stronger sense of depth to the image. Colors have dialed back the more blue-toned timing of the Arrow release so skin tones for our characters that are actually alive look genuinely healthy now. Key primaries look excellent with whites delivering a nice bold crisp and clean appearance. This carries over to the also very impressive 1080p disc transfer. I will definitely give the 4K disc the edge, it’s standing as the best option is obvious, but if you’re still rocking 1080p and that’s good enough for you, you’re getting a great transfer too.

On the audio front, we have three listening options: LPCM Mono, DTS-HD MA 2.0, and DTS-HD MA 5.1. Listening to these against the Arrow disc options, they’re pretty well part and parcel. The 5.1 tracks sound essentially the same to my ears. It’s an okay track, but since it only sporadically drifts into the surround channels, I favor the 2.0 and Mono options. And then if I’m going to listen to either of those, I like the LPCM mono track the best. I like that the mono track sounds tighter and more imposing while giving a bit more heft and weight to Richard Band’s amazing (if controversial) score. It also sounds as though the LPCM mono mix is a bit stronger this time around as well. Ultimately, all listening options do their jobs well enough, you'll still get to enjoy the film, I just feel the Mono and Stereo tracks are the stronger of the three. 

LPCM Mono - 4.5/5
DTS-HD MA 2.0 - 4/5
DTS-HD MA 5.1 - 3.5/5

What we have here is a true motherload of extras. We get the trove of materials dating back to the early days of home video releases complete with numerous brand-new 40th Anniversary celebratory materials. Included in this list as an “extra” is the longer “Integral Cut” - which gain I don’t think is that great as a standalone viewing experience. It’s more of a curiosity. Ultimately there’s a lot to get through so I hope you really love Re-Animator because you’ve got about a dozen hours of extra content to dig through!

Unrated Cut 4K UHD/Blu-ray Discs:

• Audio Commentary featuring Stuart Gordon
• Audio Commentary featuring Brian Yuzna, Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott, and Robert Sampson
• Audio Commentary featuring Stuart Gordon, Jesse Merlin, and Graham Skipper
• Isolated Score
• NEW Re-Animator at 40: A Conversation with Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and Brian Yuzna (HD 44:32)
• NEW Piece By Piece: CUtting Re-Animator - Interview with Lee Percy (HD 14:57)
• NEW The Horror of it All: The Legacy and Impact of Re-Animator (HD 18:19)
• NEW Suzie Sorority and The Good College Boy: An Interview with Carolyn Purdy-Gordon (HD 14:07)
• NEW I Give Life: A Look Back at Re-Animator: The Musical (HD 27:36)
• NEW Re-Animating a Horror Classic: The 4K Restoration of Re-Animator (HD 2:22)
• NEW The Organic Theater Company of Chicago: A 1977 Documentary Featuring Stuart Gordon (HD 27:57)
• NEW 40th Anniversary 4K UHD Trailer (HD 00:57)

Integral Cut Blu-ray Disc:

• Integral Cut (HD 1:44:55)
• Re-Animator: Resurrectus (SD 1:08:39)
• A Conversation with Director Stuart Gordon and Producer Brian Yuzna (SD 48:47)
• Interview with Dennis Paoloi (SD 10:41)
• Interview with Richard Band (SD 14:43)
• Interview with Fangoria Editor Tony Timpone (SD 4:34)
• Music Discussion with Composer Richard Band (SD 16:31)
• The Catastrophe of Success: Stuart Gordon and the Organic Theater (HD 13:08)
• Theater of Blood (HD 12:04)
• Barbara Crampton in Conversation (HD 36:12)
• A Guide to Lovecraftian Cinema (HD 54:12)
• Doug Bradley’s Spinechillers 1-6 (HD 1:38:32 Total)
• Extended Scenes (HD 23:05)
• Deleted Scene (HD 2:40)
• Theatrical Trailer 
• TV Spots
• Still Gallery
• Book

In 40 years, Re-Animator has surpassed the point of being an underground horror cult classic into simply becoming a genuine classic. The creepy story, shocking gore and violence, and the deadly hysterical sense of humor are part of why Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna’s film endures to this day THat's to say nothing of the great performances from our committed cast. And thanks to countless releases on home video the exploits of Herbert West have fostered generations of fans. Now Ignite Films, armed with a fresh restoration, aims to plunge their own syringe of glowing green goo with the first 4K UHD disc release. With an excellent 4K Dolby Vision transfer, three audio options, and hours upon hours of excellent new and archival extras, Ignite Films manages to deliver the definitive release of Re-Animator on physical Media. Highly Recommended - all you have to do is decide which edition to spring for!