Re-Animator Blu-ray offers solid video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Herbert West is obsessed with the idea of bringing the dead back to life. Experimenting with a glowing green fluid, he successfully reanimates dead tissue. Unfortunately, the dead are uncontrollable and difficult to subdue.
If Re-Animator were just an exceptionally gory film (which it is), it wouldn't have nearly the
reputation it does. Director Stuart Gordon's debut feature shattered all conventions when it came
to showing disgusting imagery, but there's been plenty more splatter where that came from, and
very little has had Re-Animator's staying power. What accounts for this low-budget classic's
longevity?
Start with the source material. The H.P. Lovecraft stories on which the film is based may not
have been the author's proudest moment (according to Gordon, Lovecraft wrote them for money
and was ashamed of them), but they were well-crafted and provided a firm narrative backbone
for the film, even as Gordon and two co-writers made substantial changes. Anyone can spew
buckets of entrails and stage blood on screen, but audiences won't be scared unless it's part of a
well-told story.
And even though Gordon had never directed a film before, he'd been telling stories for years as
the director of the Organic Theater Company in his native Chicago, a background that would
serve him well. Among other things, it led him to cast actors with stage experience like Jeffrey
Combs and David Gale, whose theatrically exaggerated performance style perfectly suited Re-Animator's over-the-top material. (Smart
directors of horror, sci-fi and fantasy cinema often
recruit stage-trained actors who know how to play "big"; it's why Peter Jackson cast so many in
The Lord of the Rings.) As a good theater director, Gordon insisted on rehearsing his cast for
several weeks before production began, an almost unheard-of luxury in modern filmmaking. By
the time the company arrived on their dilapidated set, everyone knew what story they were
telling. They were ready to make the gore count for something. As Gordon says in his
commentary, actors are "the best special effect there is".
Finally, there's the film's comedy, which was put there deliberately. Composer Richard Band
was so taken with the film's comic elements that he deliberately parodied Bernard Hermann's
famous theme from Psycho, on the theory that no one could possibly miss the joke. (Naturally,
some people did.) As actress Barbara Crampton says in the accompanying documentary, parts of
Re-Animator are gross (stomach-churningly so), but parts are very funny. What Crampton doesn't say,
though I suspect she'd agree, is that they're often the same parts.
As star Jeffrey Combs says in the documentary Re-Animator Resurrectus, the film packs a lot of
story into its 86-minute running time. The (you'll forgive the term) animating force of the
narrative is a bright green potion invented by a modern day Dr. Frankenstein named Herbert
West (Combs) that miraculously re-animates dead tissue. West wants to conquer death, but as is
always the case with mad scientists, things never go according to plan.
After a brief prologue set in Switzerland, where West's mentor, Dr. Gruber (Al Berry),
perishes spectacularly, the action shifts to Miskatonic Medical School in Arkham, Massachusetts,
where the rest of the film plays out. Re-Animator can best be described as an overlapping series
of dramatic triangles, in each of which something's got to give.
The most obvious and ordinary triangle is that involving promising med student Dan Cain
(Bruce Abbott) and Megan Halsey (Crampton), daughter of Miskatonic's dean (Robert
Sampson). With Cain, Megan is a mature and sexual woman, but with her puritanical father, who
is a widower, she still plays the dutiful daughter who cooks and keeps his house. In front of the
Dean, Megan and Cain comport themselves like teenagers. Not until Cain graduates to become a
full-fledged doctor can they openly declare themselves an adult couple.
A second and more sordid triangle lurks beneath the surface, such that Megan and Cain are
barely aware of it. Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale, in a bad wig necessitated by the makeup effects, but
perfectly symbolizing his false exterior) is the dean's close friend, Cain's professor of
neuroanatomy and one of Miskatonic's most effective grant generators. He's also obsessed with
Megan to the point of being a stalker, and he's not above insinuating to his friend Dean Halsey
that the young med student in his class isn't good enough for the dean's daughter.
The arrival of mad Herbert West as a transfer student creates additional triangulations, as West
sublets a room from Cain and resumes his experiments in the basement, starting with Cain's cat.
When Cain discovers West's work, he's repulsed but also fascinated, because he's an idealist
who can't bear losing a patient and can't resist West's siren song of eternal life through re-animation. Megan senses that she's losing her lover to
West, and an epic battle for Cain's soul
arcs through the rest of the film, remaining unresolved until the very last shot. By then, the
experiments have moved to the med school's morgue, and a lot more than a cat has been re-animated.
As Gordon likes to point out, Re-Animator successfully switches villains in midstream. Initially
it's West with his crazed effort to bring back the dead. But when Dr. Hill steals West's work, he
becomes a much more dangerous monster. You could say that Dr. Hill loses his head over the
prospect of taking credit for a discovery that could win him the Nobel Prize. (Then again, as
West taunts him: "Get a job in a sideshow!")
As cheesy as some of the practical make-up effects may seem, they are actually more effective
than a CGI equivalent. There's substance to a live person covered in latex, gel and stage blood
that a digital creation just can't match. You can feel it in the reactions of the other actors on the
set. The infamous scene in which Megan is strapped to a table, stripped naked and sexually
assaulted by a re-animated body part simply wouldn't be the same if Barbara Crampton had been
shot against a blue screen and the attacker added after the fact.
The source material for Image Entertainment's 1080p, VC-1-encoded Blu-ray is in remarkably
good condition, considering the age and low budget of the production. Except for occasional,
minor speckling and a few random print blotches, the material is clean. (I know this sentiment
isn't universally shared, but I actually enjoy the occasional print flaw; it's how I've seen film for
most of my life.) The overall image is soft, which has led some internet posters to claim that the
Blu-ray is a DVD "upconvert". It isn't, and any claim to the contrary bespeaks an over-reliance
on screenshots. There's too much detail in faces, hair, clothing, sets and make-up for the Blu-ray
to be an upconvert from a 480p image, and it's the kind of detail that isn't necessarily obvious
from a still frame. (People too often forget that Blu-ray is a lossy video format and "persistence
of vision" plays its part in video compression.) This isn't to say that a new scan at some future
date might not reveal additional layers from the negative of Re-Animator, because the technology
for translating film to the digital realm is constantly improving. But the current Blu-ray is no
slouch and offers a worthy presentation of this tricky material.
Black levels are generally excellent, which is essential for the many scenes that use darkness
strategically. Colors, notably blood red and the peculiar green of Herbert West's re-animating
"agent", are vibrant and well-saturated; this quality is also noticeable in the famous title sequence
designed by Robert Dawson (Ed Wood, Point Break, The Fifth Element and many others). The
film's grain structure appears natural and unfiltered, and there is no evidence of artificial
sharpening. To accommodate the film and extensive extras, Image uncharacteristically stretched
for a BD-50.
I do not have the Elite "Millennium Edition" for direct comparison, but I have looked at a few of
the screen captures that show cropping on the Blu-ray as compared to that edition. The Elite
DVD has black borders on all four sides, a practice that was sometimes adopted by DVD
producers when CRT sets with major overscan were still the prevailing display device. Now that
overscan is much less of an issue, I suspect that Blu-ray producers are more comfortable filling
the disc's entire frame. In any case, the compositions on the Re-Animator Blu-ray did not look
cramped or compromised.
The film's original mono track was remixed at some point for 5.1 and is presented here as DTS-HD MA 5.1. There's nothing particularly surround-worthy
about the mix, but the format does
give Richard Band's lively score room to breathe, and it sounds great. Dialogue is so clear that
you can immediately detect almost every bit of looping, which only adds to the film's low-budget character.
Some of the extras for Re-Animator, notably the commentaries and the deleted/extended scenes,
date back to the laserdisc released by Elite Entertainment in the mid-1990s. These were included
by Elite on a DVD of Re-Animator released in 1999 and a two-disc "Millennium Edition"
released in 2004. The Millennium Edition also included extensive interviews and an isolated
music track, among other new extras.
In 2007, Anchor Bay acquired the rights and released a two-disc special edition that preserved
most of the extras previously prepared by Elite, plus an all new documentary. (I don't have the
Anchor Bay set, but as far as I can tell, it did not include the isolated music track.)
The Blu-ray from Image preserves most of the extras found on the Anchor Bay edition.. Omitted
are: various still galleries (Production; Behind-the-Scenes; Fun on the Set; Posters and
Advertising) and DVD-ROM features, including the screenplay and the text of H.P. Lovecraft's
"Herbert West: Reanimator" series.
Commentary with Director Stuart Gordon: Gordon recorded this commentary in the
mid-1990s, while he was prepping his film Space Truckers, and much of the content
would be recycled in other forms in extras prepared for later editions of Re-Animator.
Still, certain items can only be found here. Nowhere else, for example, does Gordon talk
at such length about the degree to which his directorial style was influenced by Roman
Polanski. This commentary also contains the definitive word on his preference for the 86-minute unrated cut versus the longer R-rated cut, which was
prepared without his or
producer Brian Yuzna's involvement. According to Gordon, it was necessary to have the
R rating withdrawn so that the unrated cut could be screened publicly.
Commentary with Producer Brian Yuzna and Actors Bruce Abbott, Jeffrey Combs,
Barbara Crampton and Robert Sampson: There's sometimes a Mystery Science
Theater 3000 quality to this group reunion, even as they indulge in nostalgia over an
experience that proved professionally significant for all of them. Still, this is a track worth
hearing more for entertainment than for information, although a few rare items get
dropped, e.g. Sampson recalling his "movement" rehearsals with every actor who had to
play a reanimated corpse.
Documentary: Re-Animator Resurrectus (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:08:37): Anchor
Bay's major contribution to the Re-Animator canon of extras was this excellent
documentary showcasing the work of the technical crew, notably cinematographer Mac
Ahlberg (of whose Swedish accent almost everyone seems to have mastered an
impression) and most of the make-up and effects team. The extensive interviews with
actors Sampson, Crampton, Abbott and Combs are also wonderful.
Interview with Director Stuart Gordon and Producer Brian Yuzna (SD; 1.33;
48:47): The director and producer interview each other in a wide-ranging conversation
that covers the entire history of Re-Animator from inception to release. Both men
remember numerous details, and both are interesting speakers. There's more information
packed into this 49-minute chat than can be found on most commentary tracks.
Interview with Writer Dennis Paoli (SD; 1.33; 10:39): One of Gordon's co-writers
describes the collaborative writing process and the writers' approach to translating
Lovecraft's stories to film.
Interview with Composer Richard Band (SD; 1.33; 14:41): Band describes developing
the score in consultation with Gordon and Yuzna and recording it in Rome. He also
addresses the Bernard Hermann "ripping off" controversy and explains why there's no
acknowledgment of Hermann's contribution in the film's credits.
Music Discussion with Composer Richard Band (SD; 1.33; 16:27): Band explains his
musical strategies for key sequences, including the dramatic closing. Each sequence
follows Band's presentation, with a music-only track and no dialogue or effects.
Interview with Fangoria Magazines Editor Tony Timpone (SD; 1.33; 4:33): Timpone
recalls his reaction to an early screening and the contest sponsored by Fangoria for which
the main prize was the prop head of Dr. Hill.
Deleted and Extended Scenes (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 26:06): The only true "deleted"
scene is the dream sequence that, as one of the writers notes, didn't play enough like a
dream to be effective. Many of the remaining sixteen scenes are alternate takes, a number
of which were used to create the longer cut that was made without the involvement of
either Gordon or Yuzna, then submitted to the MPAA for an R rating. (Yuzna
subsequently asked to have the rating withdrawn.) A major element is the further
exploration of Dr. Hill's powers of mind control, which, in the existing cut, do not
become manifest until after he has been dosed with Herbert West's reanimating agent.
Theatrical Trailer (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:56): "Herbert West brought a lot of people
back to life. And not one of them showed any appreciation."
TV Spots (SD; 1.33; 2:29): There are five spots, and they all have that tongue-in-cheeck
William Castle-style warning quality that effectively dares the viewer to see the film.
"Way beyond the possibility of any rating!"
Producer Brian Yuzna likes to tell the story of attending his first screening of Re-Animator at the
Paramount (as it was then known) in Los Angeles, where audience members were standing and
yelling at the screen, and some of them leftand then came back. Over a quarter century later,
Re-Animator still has a powerful impact, especially on first-time viewers, because Gordon and
his collaborators had the courage of their convictions to pursue the story's dark themes to
rigorously logical (if twisted) resolutions. Nothing was sugarcoated, and certainly nothing was
held back.
It's understandable that some fans are waiting for a later release. Independent horror
films are prime candidates for multiple editions, because the fanbase is loyal. A U.K. release of
Re-Animator is reportedly being prepared, and this Image disc certainly won't be the last version
in Region A. But it's available now, it's well done, and it's a good deal. Recommended.
This week sees the release for an enduring cult classic: Re-Animator. Based on a story from author H.P. Lovecraft, this horror film takes a graphically perverse look at medical student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and his attempts to bring the dead back to life. ...
Image Entertainment will release on Blu-ray Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), starring Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton. The Blu-ray will be available for purchase online and in shops across the United States on September 4th.
