Stuart Gordon's
Re-Animator is in the weirdly unique position where its unrated version is actually shorter than its censored, R-rated version. By several minutes, too; not just a few seconds. I remember holding both VHS tapes in my hands back in the day and thinking they had to have been mislabeled; but no, it's true. Why? Because the R-rated version, though missing the most extreme, controversial shots like you'd expect, features a bunch of less shocking scenes trimmed out of the unrated version. I guess for pacing. But I grew up with both versions, and so, while horror fans naturally gravitate towards the bloody unrated version, I always thought something special was missing from it. Of course, something special was missing from the R-rated version, too; and if you've seen the film, you know exactly what moment I'm thinking about. heh
Update 7/17/15 - 6/7/26: Wow, talk about a page in need of an update, huh? Well, I've skipped a few editions since I originally wrote this, but I'm back with the new 4k UHD from Second Sight. Oh, and yes, the title of this post does come from the fact that I'm listening to
this song. I'm easily susceptible.
When Elite Entertainment released their excellent 10th anniversary
Re-Animator laserdisc, it included, amongst many other things, the unrated version with all of the deleted scenes as extras and a detailed timeline of where each of those would fit into the complete film. I always wanted to use those to make a composite cut, but back in those days, getting a digital recording of a laserdisc and trying to edit a high quality movie file on a personal computer was technically possible, but rather daunting.
So, when Elite came out with their Millennium Edition special edition, I got that; and when Anchor Bay came out with their re-release, including a new 70-odd minute making of documentary I switched to that version. And I've still got that one, so we can use it for a comparison here. Yeah, Image put out a blu-ray; but I never felt compelled to upgrade. And I'm glad I didn't, because a year later, the German DVD company Capelight came out with their own 3-disc special edition blu. And not only did it feature a new and much improved 4k scan and restoration from the original negatives, which frankly would've been enough, but they used that new transfer to create "the Integral Cut," which combined all of the extra R-rated version's footage with the essential unrated moments. It's the
Re-Animator I've always wanted... although admittedly some of those long scenes of
Bruce Abbot and
Barbara Crampton could've been left on the cutting room floor. But still, this is now my definitive
Re-Animator; it's great.
Now, Capelight's released a couple different versions of their new
Re-Animator blu. A cheaper single disc edition, a combo pack with
Bride of Re-Animator, and the one I opted for: the 3-disc mediabook set. The 3-disc set is two dual-layer blus and one DVD, containing all the extras (more on that later). It has the Integral cut, of course, but also the traditional unrated version from the same 4k scan, in case you're not as sure of the new cut as I am. And it has a standard def presentation of the TV cut as well, for completists, or yaknow, just for fun. It was the cutting edge ten years ago.
But now we've had some new contenders. Arrow released a blu-ray which is basically the same as Capelight's, but with some extra features mostly about
Re-Animator: The Musical. And more recently, Ignite in the US and Second Sight in the UK have made a new scan (well, I think Ignite made it and SS licensed it) for a proper 4k Ultra HD release, taking it to the next generation for the next decade. Let's take a look.
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1) 2007 Anchor Bay 2007 DVD; 2) 2013 Capelight Integral BD;
3) 2013 Capelight Unrated BD; 4) 2013 Capelight unrated DVD; 5) 2013 Capelight TV BD;
6) 2025 Second Sight Integral UHD; 7) 2025 Second Sight Unrated UHD.
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I'll get one thing out of the way right off the bat: not only are Capelight's Unrated and Integral cuts using the exact same transfer, so is Second Sight's Integral cut, which despite being on a UHD disc is still just 1920x1080. Their unrated version boasts the new transfer, but their Integral cut is just a carry over from 2013 (and the same is true, for the record, of Ignite's release), no upgrade to be had there.
Now, let's get into the framing. Anchor Bay's 1.82:1 aspect ratio may be more correct than Capelight's 1.78:1 numerically, but seeing how it chops off Dean Halsey's hand, I'd say the Capelight more properly reveals more. But Second Sight finally perfects it with an exact 1.85:1 ratio and most of the picture AB lacked. Also interesting is the TV cut, included on one of the blu-rays but in
standard definition none the less. Sure, it's the fuzziest and worst looking of the
lot, but it's also open matte. At 1.32:1, while it has all the same picture on
the sides (compared to the older framing, of course, as seen on the AB
shots), there's additional picture on the tops and bottoms. Ugly, boxy misframing, of course, but fans may want to at least pop it
in and scan through it as a curiosity piece.
The new colors, even starting with the Capelight, are far more natural than the red-heavy look of AB disc. Grain is very real there, too; though of course the UHD really perfects it. Its Dolby Vision also pulls out a smidgen from the shadows, but honestly not very much. Capelight's restoration was already excellent, there wasn't much else to do in 2026 besides tweak the AR and slap it on a proper 4k disc. The colors and HDR differences are pretty subtle. Don't get me wrong; it's excellent, arguably perfect;
The Re-Animator was just in a really good place already.
Anchor Bay starts us off with stereo and 5.1 remixes, and no subtitles.
Besides the multiple German audio tracks, the unrated version (on both
Capelight's blu and DVD) sports 5.1 and 2.0 stereo English mixes. And
it's got optional English subtitles as well. The Integral cut doesn't
have the subs or 2.0 mix, but does have a DTS-HD 5.1 English track.
Capelight has also added an isolated music score.
And Second
Sight? They've gone back and restored the original mono in DTS-HD, as
well as the stereo and 5.1 mixes on the unrated cut, as well as included
English subtitles on both cuts. Unfortunately, not only does their
Integral cut only have the 5.1 remix, but it's lossy. Their one point
of downgrade. I think they really regard the Integral cut as just an
extra. Oh, and they've dropped the isolated score. Another niggling
disappointment.
Extras are a pretty solid lock for the Capelight blu, carrying over
everything from past editions.
Re-Animator covered itself in the special
features department pretty early on. The old laserdisc already had two
excellent audio commentaries with all the major players, plus the long
list of deleted scenes and trailers. Then the Millennium DVD set added
interviews with just about everybody, plus some storyboards and odds
& ends and even an isolated music score; and those extras have stuck
with just about every subsequent release. Anchor Bay, being Anchor Bay,
of course added something new to the mix: that 70 minute documentary I
mentioned earlier. And that, along with all those other extras have been
ported over to Capelight's release. No, they didn't really come up with
any new extras, but there's not much left that needs to be added that
wouldn't just be redundant at this point.
Re-Animator already came fully-loaded.
The media book packaging includes a nice 24-page booklet, but the text
is all in German. Looks nice, though. There's also a couple inserts and
auto-playing bonus trailers for other Capelight releases on each disc.
But that's the only non-English friendly content. Every cut of the film
and all of the extras are in English.
Redundant or not, though, we have new extras now. Like I said, between Capelight and now, Arrow added the musical-related stuff, plus a new interview with Crampton, that goes over more of the rest of her career, and a long featurette about Lovecraft adaptations on film. Second Sight hasn't carried over the musical stuff (though for the record, Ignite did), but they do have the Crampton and Lovecraft interviews. Then Ignite and Second Sight share a bunch of new stuff, including Re-Animator at 40, a new conversation between
Brian Yuzna, Combs and Crampton, which is a nice look back, but repeating many of the same anecdotes we've heard already in these things. But there are also new on-camera interviews with editor
Lee Percy,
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and a featurette where filmmakers like
Mick Garris and
Joe Lynch sing
Re-Animator's praises. And Second Sight has a couple of exclusives, both by expert
Mike Muncer: a video essay and an audio commentary.
Second Sight's release comes as a single UHD disc or a limited edition which throws in an extra BD copy of the film, plus a 150-page hardcover book and six collector's art cards.
You could tell the people at Capelight really cared about this film, and
came up with a blu-ray package that didn't just upgrade our old DVDs to
HD but really strove to give us a definitive release. Other countries
are started to pick up on their 4k scan and integral cut and
release it around the world, including Second Sight (hey!), Arrow and
Umbrella. It wasn't until 2025, when they were able to land this film on a higher gen disc, that there was really cause to upgrade. And even now, more casual fans may be satisfied with any of the BDs with the Capelight scan, and hold out for a UHD restoration of the integral cut, too. But there's no denying that they've been topped. Time comes for us all. And then we're left carrying our heads around in a small surgical pan.
