One of the more frustrating blu rays that I've ever purchased.I have had the DVD version of the film for a few years, and had gotten the DVD from my collection and was comparing the features listed on the backs of both boxes. I put the blu ray in and settled in to see what kind of improvement in picture and sound quality that the blu ray was going to have.
When the film started, I actually had to get up and make sure that I had, in fact, inserted the blu ray into my player, and not my old DVD version. I literally could not tell a difference in quality. This went on for a few minutes, and then the picture became very clear and had a slight improvement in quality...then it went back to DVD quality. I am about 45 minutes into the film and it keeps doing this. It honestly looks like an upscaled DVD in image quality.
After only 45 minutes, however, I have seen enough scratches and specks in the film to tell myself that this was not worth upgrading to blu ray from DVD. It doesn't appear that the film was restored or remastered for a blu ray release. The only thing I can really say that I noticed is that it seems to be a bit brighter than the DVD, which isn't necessarily a good thing because it makes the low budget makeup effects stand out more...you can see where the makeup stops and the real flesh begins.
The blu ray has nothing additional in the line of extras from the DVD that I already had, and the sound and picture quality are not enough of a difference to warrant an upgrade. If you have the special edition DVD that was released by Anchor Bay, this really is no improvement. If you have the Millennium Edition DVD that was put out prior to the Anchor Bay release, it has features that were not carried over to the blu ray.
The plot is taken (loosely) from an HP Lovecraft tale, "Herbert West, Re-animator". The taglines kinda say it all. Dan Cain is a young medical student dating the Dean's daughter, who takes in a roomer and meets up with West, brilliantly played by Jeffrey Combs. West has discovered a "reagent" that will bring the dead back to life, except the serum still needs lots of work. When the dead people wake up, they do not seem happy at all to be brought back, and in fact have the tempermant of a grizzly bear on PCP. Added to the mix is the creepy Dr. Hill (who looks like an uglier, way creepier version of James Woods), who clashes with West and also has an icky obsession with Dean Halsey's daughter. (the attraction results in the movie's most outrageous scene that I'm sure you've heard about, which gives new meaning to a slang term for oral sex that..well, you'll figure it out).
This movie is scary, gory, original, and above all, lots of fun. Just when you think it can't get any more over-the-top, it does. Combs steals the show as West, who looks like a cartoon version of a brainy young scientist with huge hornrimmed glasses. I appreciate his performance more each time I view the movie. He gets most of the best lines, such as when Dan yells at him when a hysterical Meg has found her pet cat, Rufus, in West's fridge with a broken neck, that if he found the cat that way as he claimed, West could have left a note. "A note saying what? 'Dan: cat dead. Details later'?" he dryly replies.
Stuart Gordon made other great movies later on such as From Beyond and The Pit and the Pendulum (also with Combs) but he never topped this underrated, underseen gem.
A word of caution-make sure you are renting the unrated version, as the R version has most of the gore cut out and the last 20 great minutes reduced to 5 or so. The R rated version has some scenes not in the unrated one that you might find interesting if you are a big fan (I rented it by accident) but really, the unrated version is the way to go.A reviewer below said that this film will only seem good to those who saw it in the 80s and that people who have never seen it shouldn't. Well I really have to disagree. I'm only 15 so I obviously never saw this film in the 80s, but a few months ago I bought this DVD for 15 bucks and it was one of the best 15 bucks I ever spent. This film is great. If you actually like real horror films then you should like this film. Also the same reviewer said that the special efx were only good when the film came out, but I thought the efx were great and better than the CGI of today. So if you're a fan of horror and haven't seen this film yet you should go out and buy it right now. The DVD is amazing by the way and pretty cheap.
Read Best Reviews of Re-Animator (1985) Here
I compared the special features in this release with the one released by Elite (millennium edition). Most of them are the same. The only real notable difference is that this one has a new 70 minute documentary. I'm sure that's worth the effort of rebuying another 2-disc set. If you have the Elite version, you may want to pass on this.Want Re-Animator (1985) Discount?
One of the most outrageous horror comedies from the 1980s, Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR is certainly great fun if not great cinema. Very loosely based on a story by the highly revered horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, the film follows the exploits of Herbert West, an impudent medical student who, after being thrown out of a Swiss institution due to his unorthodox and unethical medical experiments, has enrolled at the Miskatonic University Medical School in Massachusetts, USA. After hours, West secretly continues his experimentation, which basically involves the tweaking and fine-tuning of a serum he has developed that can re-animate the dead. West engages the assistance of his roommate and fellow med student Dan Cain, much to the chagrin of Cain's pretty girlfriend Megan, and soon the two are reviving numerous cadavers in the medical school's morgue. Unfortunately, West and Cain haven't quite perfected the formula, and the re-animated dead don't seem too happy to be back in the land of the living. But when Megan, her father (a dean at the university), and the school's prestigious surgeon Dr. Carl Hill get caught up in West's shenanigans, that's when the fun really begins.RE-ANIMATOR is horror comedy at its best. Writer/director Gordon and his cowriter Dennis Paoli are savvy enough to realize that taking an earnest approach to the preposterous premise of their story is not likely to fly with the discriminating horror audience, so they wisely milk the material for laughs instead. Playing the lead role of Herbert West is the wonderfully offbeat actor Jeffrey Combs. Combs is able to generate interesting facial expressions that are somehow simultaneously deadpan and whimsical, and when combined with his impeccable comedic timing, it is nearly impossible not to laugh at every scene he's in. (Genre fans may recognize Combs from his appearance in numerous horror films, as well as from his countless appearances in episodes of the various TV incarnations of STAR TREK.) As Dan Cain, Bruce Abbott is the perfect straight man to Combs, and together the two keep the energy level and humor factor high throughout the film. The beautiful Barbara Crampton--who would go on to greater fame performing in various TV Soaps--does a great job playing Cain's perky girlfriend, Megan, and she is especially affecting when she disrobes. And rounding out the principals is actor David Gale as Dr. Hill. When his character gets juiced with West's re-animation serum, Gale's subsequent performance is delightfully over the top.
Many critics liken the storyline of RE-ANIMATOR to that of the FRANKENSTEIN mythos, with mad scientists attempting to bring forth life from the dead. But it actually seems that the basic plot is more akin to Stephen King's 1983 novel PET SEMATARY. (The movie version of PET SEMATARY, while very faithful to the book, did not appear until 1989, four years after RE-ANIMATOR.) In both stories, an individual learns the secret to bringing folks back from the dead, but at a cost--the revived are not quite the same as they were before kicking the bucket. And despite their failures, the individuals with the power to re-animate relentlessly keep on trying to get it right. The only real difference between the two stories is that King's novel, though well written, is earnest and depressing, whereas RE-ANIMATOR uses the premise as a springboard for dark, wry humor.
The "Millennium Edition" RE-ANIMATOR DVD from the folks at Elite is well worth the money. It offers the unrated (uncut?) version of the film in anamorphic widescreen format, along with two great commentaries--one with director Gordon, one with most of the principal cast--as well as lots of other cool goodies. So many cool goodies, in fact, that it takes two discs to hold 'em all!
Yes, RE-ANIMATOR is gory and chock-full of sick gallows humor, with lots of nudity and cheesy (but cool!) special effects thrown in. And some of the scenes are so outrageously over the top that they have to be seen to be believed. But, hey, what more could a lover of horror comedy want?
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