For those who do not know Re-Animator is an adaptation of a short story
from H.P. Lovecraft entitled "Herbert West Re-Animator", of course they
had to add to the story to make it a feature film. The film follows
medical student Dan Cain who rents out a room to a new student Herbert
West who just got to the school after his abrupt departure from
Switzerland after his professor Dr. Gruber dies. After an incident with
Dan's cat dying Herbert brings him into his twisted world of death,
life, and the re-animation of corpses.
Review: Now finally and after so much anticipation the world of horror finally has Re-Animator on "gorious" blu-ray! This release in my opinion does do the film justice and seems to of been possibly mastered from the same print used for the 2007 Anchor Bay DVD release. The picture is quite sharp and has a very good level of detail. From time to time there is a little bit of specks and dirt which really doesn't affect the viewing process. Really this is probably the closest you are going to get to the theatrical experience of this film in your home. Also you get all the special features from that previous DVD release as well as the feature length documentary "Re-Animator Resurrectus" which has interviews with the cast and crew of the film. To me that is the definitive documentary on the Re-Animator.
I own all the other releases of this film that has been released on DVD in the United States as well as a Betamax copy as well. Let's just say I love this film and I am not messing around when I said it's the best home video release of Re-Animator. Everything from the cast to the amazing gore effects helped to make Re-Animator one of the coolest and best horror films of all time in my opinion. The cast consists of the legendary Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, the tragically gone too soon David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill, underrated actor Bruce Abbott as Dan Cain, the talented Barbara Crampton as Megan Halsey (who will be in the upcoming The Lords of Salem film!). How can you go wrong with a great cast like that!
The humor in this film works quite well with the already twisted chaos going on, the humor like expected in more like dark humor that anything else. For some the scene they will bring up most as their favorite is when Carl Hill's decapitated head goes to give "head" to Barbara, as much as that scene is great my favorite scene is still the ending when all chaos breaks loose and the intestines of one of the corpses comes out and tries to take Herbert West into it's body. In the end the whole film is awesome to me and I think it will last for quite sometime and hold it's own.
Overall this was a fantastic release of this cult classic and on top of it being such a great release it's not overpriced like some companies would of done! If you are a already a fan of this film and wonder if it's worth the upgrade, well it is! For those wanting to see the film for the first time I suggest this release because you get a great presentation along with a boat load of great special features!
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director: Stuart Gordon
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Blu-Ray Release Year: 2012
Theatrical Release Year: 1985
Time Length: 86 mins.
Company: Image Entertainment
Website:
www.watchimage.com
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