DVD review
Directed by Stuart Gordon
Starring Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton
Release date 23 April 2007

Medical student Herbert West discovers a formula for bringing the dead back to life. The only problem is that he hasn’t quite perfected it and soon bloodthirsty zombies are running riot in his university’s morgue…

Re-Animator was a breath of fresh air back in 1985 when the horror genre was becoming increasingly bogged down in lifeless slasher sequels and grimy women-in-peril flicks. Thankfully, this debut feature from Stuart Gordon (who went on to write Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) has its tongue placed firmly in its cheek and it is hard to take the various gruesome set pieces seriously.

Nevertheless, this is the first time that British fans have had the chance to see the movie with its notorious “head” sequence intact – although today’s viewers, weaned on the likes of Hostel, will probably wonder what all the fuss was about.

What makes Re-Animator so special - in addition to its excellent special effects and hilarious one-liners (“who is ever going to believe a talking head?”) - is the top notch performances from its then-unknown cast. Jeffrey Combs owns almost every scene as the insane Herbert West but his co-star Bruce Abbott (who plays his housemate Dan) does a fine job of dryly reacting to each increasingly violent interlude. Heroine Megan (played by Playboy model Barbara Crampton) screams in all the right places, however it is her copious nude sequences that, no doubt, made her such a popular “scream queen” in the eighties.

Although Re-Animator may not be as well known as An American Werewolf in London or Scream it remains one of the best examples of a successful horror-comedy and it is hardly surprising that both Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna were launched into off-Hollywood careers.

This new region two double-disc DVD betters even the old, jam-packed region one release. The horde of extra features include two audio commentaries (Crampton’s reaction to her nude scenes are hilarious as she urges her suddenly-silent co-stars to “check out these breasts”) and a 70 minute “making of” documentary. These gems are accompanied by numerous interviews with the cast and crew, a seemingly endless number of trailers and a vast array of deleted sequences, some of which actually further the story of the original movie rather than just act as useless gristle. DVD-Rom material includes the original H.P. Lovecraft short story. Calum Waddell

VERDICT: 10/10
Over 25 years later, Re-Animator remains one of the best horror films ever made.