Nostalgia Kinky

Ignite Films and Eagle Rock Pictures have released the absolute greatest version of Stuart Gordon’s classic Re-Animator (1985) as a beautiful 4K/Blu-ray collection. My highest recommendation possible for this incredible restoration, featuring two cuts of the film and an amazing abundance of bonus features. This is amongst the greatest archival releases of the decade. Here are a few thoughts on one of my favorite films, along with some local Indiana/Kentucky clippings from my youth I located.
Order it at Ignite or over at MVD.

I was gearing up for Junior High the year Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator (1985) hit theaters near my family’s home in Indiana, where we had moved the year before from Kentucky. I thought I was big-time, fresh out of the 6th grade, but frustratingly not quite old enough to see Re-Animator on the big screen. It was very upsetting for a little guy like myself who was obsessively tracking it in Fangoria, and the fact that my boy from down the road Roger Ebert had given it the biggest thumbs-up had me all worked up. In hindsight, I’m kind of glad I had to wait until VHS, as the film is now so intertwined with my memories of movie nights at home, I would hate to separate it. Save for a memorable Midnight showing at Lexington’s Kentucky Theater (which I might have imagined), I have still only seen Re-Animator with its many various home video incarnations, starting with that original VHS. I recently rewatched the film via its justly celebrated 4K Ignite Films release, and I wasn’t at all surprised to see it still thrive as one of the great American Independent films. Re-Animator has never looked or sounded better, and the hours upon hours of supplements will excite even the most jaded fan.

It feels a bit pointless reviewing Re-Animator.
For anyone who has seen it, watch it again.
For those who haven’t, OMFG watch it right now.
Stuart Gordon managed to make a film that is one of the best comedies of the eighties, one of the best science-fiction films of the eighties, and most of all, one of the best horror films of that much-mulled-over decade. Erotic, perverse, scary, and transgressive, Re-Animator remains one of the most audacious and winning debuts in all of modern film.

As a bit of a lifetime loner, I don’t often chart the history of my favorite films via memories of the people I watched them with, but Re-Animator is different. From late-night watch parties with high-school and college friends to introducing the film to pretty much every girlfriend I had, Re-Animator delivers a different kind of nostalgia for me. I love this delightfully twisted film dearly.

Ignite Films 4K/Blu-ray set is an insanity of riches. Along with the extraordinary new 4K presentation of the film’s original theatrical version, the extended ‘integral’ version is available (also looking better than ever) as a bonus on the set’s Blu-ray. The spectacular 4K scan is a big enough selling point, but it is via this set’s supplements that Ignite really flexes.

How packed is Ignite’s new Re-Animator collection? Well, you can start this thing in the morning and still be working on it well into the night. To begin, Ignite has produced nearly three hours of new extras, including new cast and crew interviews, and a look at Gordon’s stage-musical update, plus so much more. I especially appreciate how much attention is paid to Gordon and his wife’s history with Chicago’s legendary theater scene of the seventies. We even get a rare 1977 documentary, featuring Gordon, about the Organic Theater Company of Chicago. Amazing stuff.

While it can be exciting to upgrade a favorite film, I always find it frustrating chasing down editions to get all the various extras that are rarely carried over. Thankfully, Ignite has remarkably ported over extras from at least three past deluxe editions, perhaps even more, making this truly the ONE edition of Re-Animator that deserves to be called definitive.

My past deluxe versions of Re-Animator include the original Anchor Bay Special edition DVD and the Arrow Blu-ray. I’m happy to report I can retire those two still superb editions, as it looks like Ignite has ported over EVERYTHING from these past releases. We also have extras from, I believe, two other special import editions I don’t possess. Ignite has performed a real licensing miracle here, allowing viewers to watch supplements produced over more than three decades. Watch in amazement as lovely Barbara Crampton seems to get younger and younger! I’m currently having the opposite problem.

Ignite’s 40th anniversary collection reminds me of the excitement that Re-Animator’s tenth-anniversary laserdisc held. Whether you were able to snag one of the limited box versions or just the fully-loaded standard edition (which contains everything save for the box’s book), this new Ignite collection is really special. People who wax nostalgic about the eighties don’t realize how boring life could be as a Midwest kid. Finding films like Re-Animator brought a wondrous strangeness to my youth. I remain as grateful as ever to guys like the much-missed Stuart Gordon for my earliest glimpses into a more subversive cinema.
I remain as dazzled as ever by Re-Animator.

-Jeremy Richey, March 2026-