review: RE-ANIMATOR

Anchor Bay Entertainment  //  Buy from Amazon.com A medical student and his girlfriend become involved in a bizarre experiment into reanimating the dead conducted by the student's incorrigible housemate in this campy sendup of an H.P. Lovecraft story. The emphasis is on humour but once the dead walk, there is gore aplenty. I still remember the first time I watched "Re-Animator" -- I just (really) gotten into b-movies with the advent of DVD and kept reading about this crazy-ass b-riffic flick about a mad scientist bringing back the dead. Right about then, the Elite "Millennium Edition" was released, so I ponied up my $50 (Canadian colored money), ordered the DVD and sat back to enjoy. I was blown away -- I hadn't seen anything like this before, as it was a "good" b-movie (a revelation, as movies like "Monster Squad" and "Howard the Duck" had always just been guilty pleasures). What director Stuart Gordon managed to craft with this film was truly remarkable and holds its appeal very well, right up to & including 2007. I had the pleasure of seeing star Jeffrey Combs talk at this year's Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors in San Jose, and aside from the fact that this is one truly cool cat, his recollections and impressions of making this film were fantastic. Apparently the script read as a pretty straight-laced horror/thriller, and it was the sensibilities of both Combs and Gordon that brought the campy humor out and mixed it up with the glowing green re-animation juice to create an instant classic. The film may not have lit the box office on fire back in '85, but thanks to the magic of video and now DVD, entirely new generations will be exposed to this masterpiece. And thank goodness for that. Video Anchor Bay delivers its release of this uber-b-classic in stellar form, giving it a super deluxe remastering to 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen that is undoubtedly the best this film has ever looked. Any damage or other-than-perfect elements of the picture are due to the original source material and/or the film itself, as this transfer can not be faulted in the least! Audio Your choice of either Dolby or DTS 5.1 surround mixes, and in opting for the latter I was very, very impressed - my sub rattled fantastically throughout. Extras 2 audio commentaries: (1) director and (2) producer & main actors "Re-Animator: Resurrectus" feature-length documentary feature-length interview with Stuart Gordon & Brian Yuzna interview w/ writer interview w/ composer Music Discussion with Richard Band interview w/ Fangoria Editor Tony Timpone deleted scene extended scenes trailers & tv spots still galleries storyboard gallery poster & advertising gallery Stuart Gordon text biography PDF of Lovecraft's original story & film's screenplay Closing Thoughts Truly definitive release for this truly definitive b-classic + 2 discs loaded with extras = must-own DVD for any self-respecting b-movie fan!!