Re-Animator Celebrates 40th Anniversary with 4K Release

Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator turns 40 this year. Ignite Films is celebrating the anniversary with a new edition of the gory classic on 4K and Blu-ray. The release, available in Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate Boxed Set editions, has been restored with a 4K transfer approved by producer Brian Yuzna, Gordon’s longtime collaborator and the schlockmeister behind Society (1989). Loaded with newly produced extras and a massive helping of special features from earlier editions, the new disc features the film looking better than ever—and this is coming from someone who has owned various editions over the years, from an Anchor Bay DVD to the Blu-rays by Image Entertainment and Arrow Video.

Based on the H.P. Lovecraft story “Herbert West–Reanimator” from 1922, the film boasts a 1980s-brand modernization from Gordon, a renegade filmmaker with a background in experimental theater and provocateur antics. Gordon’s version underscores the prescience of Lovecraft’s story, which presents an even more macabre and demented take on Mary Shelley’s titular mad scientist from her novel, Frankenstein. If Lovecraft’s tale went even darker than Shelley’s, Gordon pushed the envelope even further at a time in Hollywood when horror filmmakers sought to outperform each other in the practical effects department. Gordon’s film still remains one of the most shocking of its kind, although its sense of humor makes this splatterfest somewhat more palatable. 

For the uninitiated, Re-Animator stars Bruce Abbott as Dan Cain, a medical student whose new roommate, Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), experiments with a “reagent” that brings dead tissue back to life. This gets West into trouble with his advisor, Dr. Hill (David Gale), who schemes to take West’s research for his own. As West attempts to preserve his find, his clash with Dr. Hill results in revived cadavers, dismembered bodies, and a particularly unsettling encounter between Hill and Cain’s girlfriend (Barbara Crampton). 

Gordon’s original remains a cult favorite, followed by two inferior, Yuzna-directed sequels, Bride of Re-Animator (1990) and Beyond Re-Animator (2003). The late Gordon would continue working with Combs and Crampton on other horror gems, including From Beyond (1986) and Castle Freak (1995). But his reputation remains tied up in this enduring shocker, from its over-the-top effects to its playful, darkly comic edge. 

I first saw Re-Animator over 25 years ago and found its gross-out style confronting, hilarious, and repulsive. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate and cherish Gordon’s transgressive approach and sensationalism. The film winks at horror iconography with its delightful animated title sequence and Bernard Herrmann-esque score by Richard Band, and it also pushes boundaries of representation—but always with a winking embrace of subversion and knowing bad taste. Today, it registers to me more as a comedy than a work of pure horror, and that’s meant as a compliment.

Besides just a new and sublime physical media release—the Deluxe Edition of which features a bobblehead, a hardcover book, art cards, and more—Ignite Films has teamed with Fright Rags to offer new merch in honor of the anniversary, including some great-looking shirts featuring the new disc’s cover art. Ignite has also arranged for a small theatrical re-release and several giveaways to coincide with the release, which is available and shipping now. And while I prefer the sturdy Arrow packaging and cover art, Ignite’s new restoration remains the definitive audiovisual presentation on disc. 

Check out the special features, new and old, below, and order here.

Newly Produced Bonus Features

• Re-Animator at 40: A Conversation with Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and Brian Yuzna 
• Piece By Piece: Cutting Re-Animator – A New Interview with Editor Lee Percy
• The Horror of It All: The Legacy and Impact of Re-Animator
• I Give Life: A Look Back at Re-Animator: The Musical
• Suzie Sorority and the Good College Boy: An Interview with Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
• Re-Animating a Horror Classic: The 4K Restoration of Re-Animator
• The Organic Theater Company of Chicago: A 1977 documentary featuring Stuart Gordon
• New 40th anniversary 4K UHD trailer

Legacy Bonus Features

• Integral Version (105 mins)
• Isolated Score
• Audio commentary with director Stuart Gordon and actors Graham Skipper and Jesse Merlin of Re-Animator: The Musical 
• Audio commentary with Stuart Gordon
• Audio commentary with producer Brian Yuzna, actors Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott, and Robert Sampson 
• Re-Animator: Resurrectus – Feature-length documentary on the making of the film featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew
• Interviews with director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna, writer Dennis Paoli, composer Richard Band and former Fangoria editor Tony Timpone
• Music discussion with composer Richard Band
• The Catastrophe of Success: Stuart Gordon and The Organic Theater – Director Stuart Gordon discusses his early theater roots and his continued commitment to the stage 
• Theater of Blood – Re-Animator: The Musical lyricist Mark Nutter on adapting the cult classic for musical theater 
• Extended scenes 
• Deleted scene 
• Trailer & TV Spots
• Still Gallery
• Barbara Crampton In Conversation: The Re-Animator star sits down with journalist Alan Jones for this career-spanning 2015 interview 
• A Guide to Lovecraft Cinema: Chris Lackey, host of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, provides a comprehensive look at the many cinematic incarnations of Lovecraft’s work. 
• Doug Bradley’s Spinechillers: Herbert West, Re-Animator actor Jeffrey Combs reads H.P. Lovecraft’s original classic story