Re-Animator 4k Re-Issue
Article by Mark Woodring
You know, in 1985, I had heard of this crazy movie called Re-Animator, and it crossed my radar every so often in the intervening years, but somehow, I never actually managed to watch this movie which seemed to be right in my B-Movie wheelhouse.
As a child of the 80s, I don’t know how I could possibly have managed to not see a horror movie with gratuitous (and comical) violence… and boobies.
I said it.
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
84 Minutes, Unrated
Written by H.P Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli, William Norris
Directed by Stuart Gordon
Synopsis:
After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.
Imagine my surprise when earlier this year I was offered the opportunity to screen a 4k restoration of Re-Animator by Ignite Films and Eagle Rock Pictures. What luck!
Finally, I could catch up on one of the quintessential period horror pieces of the 80s! That’s a viewing blind spot I was happy to fix.
Let’s be clear: movies in the 80s, especially lower budget ones, weren’t shot in the highest quality anyway. 4:3 was the dominant aspect ratio for television, and “pan-and-scan” cuts of theatrical films were everywhere.
16:9? Forget about it. Not going to happen anytime soon.
So the idea of turning a film of that era in to a 4k product would seem like a monumental task. I’m no tech guru, so I don’t know how they do it, but they do, and we should all be thankful.
I know a lot of cinephiles will insist that when “restorations” eliminate film grain and whatnot that something is lost in the translation; the purity of the original film is somehow cheapened. While I can agree that those things can lend a sense of a film’s original time and place, if leaving a truly substandard product the way it is means having a nearly unwatchable film, one where any semblance of detail is lost and the viewer is just left with a slightly fuzzy, scratchy picture, or worse.
That’s not nostagia. Nostalgia is the lousy special effects in late 70s and 80s science fiction films. Nostalgia is, yes, pining for the Science Fiction or Sword-and-Sorcery films of the time that focused more on the forms of the female leads than on the quality of the fight sequences or story.
What we, back in the day, affectionately referred to as “Skinemax movies,” because you normally only got to see them late at night on the Cinemax premium cable channel.
[Google it, kids.]
Anyway, I would, after watching Re-Animator, considered it a kind of “Skinemax-lite” entry in the sci-fi oeuvre.
Based on the story of the same name, from author H.P. Lovecraft, Doctor Herbert West is our protagonist, a man convinced he can bring dead tissue back to life.
Re-Animate it, if you will.
After fleeing Europe after a disastrous experiment, Dr. West arrives at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts, where he continues his work, this time with the help of gifted medical student Dan Cain. Dan’s professor, Dr. Carl Hill discovers Herbert’s now-successful (-ish) work and attempts to claim it as his own.
West defends himself and Dr. Hill ends up dead. Re-animating him to save himself, Herbert opens a can of worms that threatens to engulf himself, Dan, and Dan’s girlfriend Megan.
What I loved about this movie is how truly it hews to the formulas and tropes of the time: crazy scientist, evil superior, attractive and helpless girl, weirdly sexual situations, and lots and lots of crazy violence.
At some point, we get the headless corpse running around. It’s exactly as hokey and crazy as it sounds, and for those of us with a certain sense of humor and callous disregard for decency, it’s pretty f—ing incredible.
The performances are great. Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West should prepare you for his career-spanning dominance of the genre film and TV series. No one has played more villains, aliens, or otherwise messed up folks in near-lead roles than Jeffrey Combs.
He’s a goddamned national treasure and will be mourned profusely at the hour of his (hopefully far-off) death.
Bruce Abbott as the gifted student Dan Cain fills his role to perfection, vacillating between disgust at Herbert’s plans and intense intellectual curiosity upon seeing the successes of Herbert’s efforts.
The other gift to genre films here, aside from the aforementioned Jeffrey Combs, is Barbara Crampton as Megan. Somehow managing to embody both the most wholesome girl-next-door appeal and the irresistible sexpot, Crampton has also entrenched herself as one of the go-to female leads in genre films throughout her career. Her turn in From Beyond is… something else, I must say.
Seriously, though, she is terrific in this, and a darned nice lady, to boot, I might add, though I’m unsure how she got us talking about politics in the 3-5 conversation we had…
I look forward to exploring these actors back-catalogs in more depth in the coming months.
As for the 4k restoration? I got to talk to the three leads this summer at Texas Frightmare Weekend and while none of them had actually gotten to see the 4k (while signing it for me… SQUEEE!), they all wanted to know how it looked.
And I had to tell them it looked absolutely fantastic! Sure the cinephiles I mentioned about might not like the sheer clarify of the picture, which is immaculate, but you can really feel yourself in the film. It was like being in the room with them as the deaths and re-animations mounted and the screams rang out through the sound-system, it was an intensely pleasurable experience to watch this.
Some 4k conversions/restorations don’t offer much of an improvement of a blu-ray or even DVD quality picture.
Re-Animator takes what probably felt like a VHS version taped off TV and makes it feel brand new.
That is saying something.
Bonus features include a reunion of Combs, Crampton and producer Brian Yuzna, as well as a look at the process of doing the 4k restoration. I can’t wait to get into those.
All in all, I can’t recommend this one highly enough. Yes, it is absolutely a product of its time; I think the kids today would call it “problematic,” though the only problem I see with it is the attitude you bring into it.
It’s also a touchstone piece of cinema which influences filmmakers moving forward. Remember, we don’t get to the movies of today that you love without the movies of yesterday.
And that includes the ones some folks would like to erase because they’re an affront to the “modern audience.” Dear “modern audience,” don’t like it, don’t watch it.
But I’ll be watching it again… more than once.
Re-Animator stars Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbot, and David Gale.
The Re-Animator 4k Re-Issue is currently on backorder at Orbit DVD, but can be pre-ordered HERE.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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