Re-animator 4K (1985)

"Fantastic 4K Restoration of an All-Time Classic"

Second Sight have produced a gorgeous, extras-packed edition of Stuart Gordon's classic film of H P Lovecraft's story for RE-ANIMATOR's 40th anniversary, and are releasing a new 4K restoration of the film as both a limited edition UHD / Blu-ray combo and separate standard UHD and Blu-ray editions.

Medical student Herbert West, fresh from a gory fracas in Zurich, joins Miskatonic Medical School to continue his research into the reanimation of dead tissue on the sly with the assistance of his slightly unwilling colleague Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). However his reagent doesn't work terribly well, except in the worst possible case, and soon he has to deal with his recently decapitated research rival and lecturer Dr Carl Hill (David Gale) who has designs on Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) the Dean's daughter and Dan's girlfriend. 

A frenetic, frenzied approach to adapting Lovecraft that skilfully adds generous doses of humour and sex to produce a work of manic genius on a par with Herbert West himself, Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR made deserved instant stars (at least in the exploitation world) of some of its cast. Along with George A Romero’s contemporaneous DAY OF THE DEAD it also elevated the reputation of both mad scientist and zombie movies to new levels. The nifty screenplay takes the essence of Lovecraft’s story (something Gordon and screenwriter Dennis Paoli would later do successfully with DAGON, their adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth) and deftly turns something pretty turgid (try reading it) into one of the classics of the genre. 

        Gordon works wonders with an obviously small budget (rehearsal time and Gordon’s theatre experience helped) and credit should be given to Richard Band’s score which, while derivative in places (especially that main title theme), hits just the right note of twinkle-in-the-eye ‘you won’t believe what’s coming next’ so many times that he can be forgiven the steals from Bernard Herrmann. But the film belongs to Jeffrey Combs, who in his performance as Herbert West created an icon of modern horror – one who refreshingly could talk, didn’t solve all his problems with a machete, and had actually been to university. Even if he had been thrown out for making his professor’s eyeballs explode.

REANIMATOR has always looked a little grainy (and a lot grainy on VHS transfers) but Second Sight's 4K restoration is a thing of beauty. Even if you have every other version of REANIMATOR on disc, in fact especially if you do, you're going to want this to marvel at what a terrific restoration job has been performed, with clearer image, more vivid colours and deeper blacks with no picture noise. Really excellent.

New extras kick off with a commentary track by Eddie Falvey who literally wrote a book on the film and knows his stuff, offering a fact-packed track that's well worth a listen. Mike Muncer provides a 10 minute 'primer' video essay on H P Lovecraft using THE THING, FROM BEYOND and others as illustration. Reanimator at 40 has Combs and Crampton in conversation with producer Brian Yuzna for 45 minutes, and there are new interview with editor Lee Percy (15 minutes) and actor Carolyn Purdy-Gordon (14 minutes). Legacy & Impact is 18 minutes in which film-makers Joe Lynch, Mike Mendez, Nicholas McCarthy and others talk about the impression the film made on them. 

Older extras include Barbara Crampton in Conversation - a record of her 2015 Frightfest interview with Alan Jones (37 minutes) and Nucleus Films' Guide to Lovecraftian Horror from 2016,  nearly hour long piece in which Chris Lackey guides you expertly through the sub-genre. Reanimator Resurretcus is an Anchor Bay piece with cast and crew from 2007 (69 minutes) and oldest of all are interviews from 2002 with Gordon and Yuzna (49 minutes), writer Dennis Paoli (11 minutes), composer Richard Band (15 minutes) and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone (5 minutes). Also included is the 'Integral Cut' which runs 104 minutes, 23 minutes of extended scenes, one deleted scene and the usual trailers, TV spots and still galleries. Second Sight's limited edition also comes with a 120 page book with new writing on the film, six art cards and a slipcase to keep it all in.

 

Stuart Gordon's REANIMATOR in 4K is being released in a limited edition UHD / Blu-ray combo as well as standard edition UHD and Blu-ray editions on Monday 15th September 2025

In the Mouth of Madness 4K UHD (1995)

"I Think Therefore You Are - In 4K!"

Arrow Films are releasing a special 4K edition of the third in John Carpenter's loosely themed 'Lovecraftian trilogy', all of which were critically panned on release and opened to either indifferent or disastrous box office returns. Of course it's a different story now. THE THING (1982), PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987) and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1995) are all considered classics but believe me, it wasn't always easy being a Carpenter fan back in the day, sitting in an empty cinema on opening weekend and then having to defend them when critics in both the small and large presses were heading their reviews with titles like 'Quatermass and the Shit'.

There's a nod to Nigel Kneale's third Quatermass in ITMOM, of course, with the novel The Hobbs End Horror playing a key role. John Trent (Sam Neill) is an insurance investigator charged with looking into the disappearance of best-selling horror author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) and finding himself in the town of Hobbs Ends where it turns out Cane's novels are becoming reality and are preparing to open the gateway for the return of the 'Old Ones'.

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS does a fine job of telling its story while allowing Carpenter's obsessions with loss of control and the nature of reality to bubble along as subtext for some of it before throwing logic to the winds and becoming full-blown metatextual. Like Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner before it, IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS threw down a gauntlet of 'follow that' in the mid-1990s that nobody had the slightest inclination of picking up, which remains a huge shame. But at least we still have the film.

Arrow's 4K transfer is excellent. Flesh tones are a little red at the beginning but obsessive fans who know the film inside out will likely still be surprised at the degree of extra detail that can be picked out, not least much of the writing on posters and signs. 

The disc comes with an excellent set of extras. There are three commentary tracks, including a new one from podcasters Rebekah McKendry and Elric Kane which is packed with facts & enthusiasm and bubbles along nicely. Archival commentaries consist of one with John Carpenter and producer Sandy King, and the other with John Carpenter and cinematographer Gary B Kibbe.

There are are interviews with King (22 minutes) and Prochnow (7 minutes) and archival ones from the  2018 Shout Factory release with Julie Carmen (10 minutes) and Greg Nicotero (17 minutes). Other archival material includes Horror's Hallowed Grounds looking at the movie's locations (12 minutes), 12 minutes of behind the scene footage and a brief five minute making of.

There's more new material in We Are What He Writes which offers, over its 34 minutes, perspectives on the movie from three different creatives - Camille Zaurin, Tom Lee Rutter and George Lea. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas gets her own video essay where she looks at the history of 'cursed media' including paintings and music. There are also trailers, TV spots and an image gallery. The set also comes with a reversible sleeve, double-sided poster and a book featuring new writing on the film. An excellent package for a long under-appreciated work.

John Carpenter's IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is out from Arrow Films in a limited 4K UHD set on Monday 20th October 2025

Die, Monster, Die! aka Monster of Terror (1965)

 

It's time for a UK Blu-ray release of the feature directorial debut of AIP art director Daniel Haller, and the second of AIP's HP Lovecraft adaptations (after 1963's THE HAUNTED PALACE). It may seem a bit odd for the BFI to be releasing an American horror picture but given that DIE, MONSTER, DIE! aka MONSTER OF TERROR (it was obviously 'lack of inspired titles' day at the AIP offices) was shot in the UK and features both some familiar locations and actors it actually fits very nicely into their 'Flipside' series.

Whereas THE HAUNTED PALACE was an adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and starred Vincent Price, here we have Boris Karloff, Freda Jackson, Suzan Farmer and Nick Adams all rather shoehorned into a 'bares bones and before its time' version of The Colour Out of Space, a story that recently received a much better adaptation from writer-director Richard Stanley. But that doesn't mean DIE, MONSTER, DIE doesn't have its points of interest. In fact any fan of 1960s BritHorror will want it in their collection.

Because - this is the only time you get to see mid-1960 Surrey doubling as Lovecraft's Arkham, and Oakley Court as the home of Lovecraftian horrors. Then there's that still disquieting shot of those weird rubbery monsters that live in the greenhouse, familiar faces like Patrick Magee, Sydney Bromley, Leslie Dwyer, Harold Goodwin and Terence De Marnay all doing their bit in their only Lovecraft adaptation and a music score by Don Banks (Hammer's THE MUMMY'S SHROUD, Lippert's WITCHCRAFT). The BFI's print isn't a restoration but does represent a considerable upgrade from the DVD. 

A release like this, which will appeal most to those who already know the film inside out, is going to stand or fall on its extras and as always, the BFI has gone the extra mile to provide some fascinating stuff. First off is an excellent, lively commentary track from Flipside standbys Vic Pratt and William Fowler where they discuss not just the film but its literary basis, managing to get in a couple of mentions of the works of Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood as well. Stay till the end for Vic's list of 25 Gothic Tropes you can see in this film.

Other extras include a couple of scene reads from the as-yet unfilmed picture about LET ME DIE A MONSTER. The 14 minute piece also features an introduction by co-writer Ken Hollings and an outro by co-writer David McGillivray. The two also return to talk about Nick Adams and DIE MONSTER DIE! for a seven minute featurette. A Karloff Konversation is 20 minutes of chat about all things Boris between Vic Pratt and Stephen Jacobs. Otherwise there's 12 minutes of unit publicist Tony Tweedale's memories of working on the film, an image gallery and trailer, and a curious 16 minute black and white short entitled THE PEACHES. Finally, there's a booklet with new writing on the film, LET ME DIE A MONSTER, and H P Lovecraft.

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! is out on Blu-ray from the BFI on Monday 22nd July 2024

Sacrifice (2020)

 

Probably still best known for her star turn in Stuart Gordon's 1985 REANIMATOR, Barbara Crampton has been quite the festival favourite of the last few years, appearing in all manner of low budget fare from the impenetrably art house (SUNCHOKE) to the frankly daft (PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH). While some of the films have been (to put it kindly) rather below par, her performances in them have always been consummately professional, frequently delivered with an effective and deliciously sinister edge.

In Andy Collier and Tor Mian's film SACRIFICE, getting a release in the UK from 101 Films, she plays a police officer for a small Norwegian village who is keen to question Isaac Pitman (aha!) who has returned home after his mother took him away 25 years ago. There are Cthulhoid statues on sale in the local shop (aha again!) and a cult devoted to something the locals call 'The Slumbering One'. Is Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) going to start growing gills or is the cult more interested in his very pregnant wife Emma (Sophie Stevens)?

SACRIFICE premiered at last year's Frightfest where it became known as 'the one where there's a shot of eggs being boiled from underneath', which indeed there is. It boasts some terrific locations and for such an obviously ultra low budget affair the direction is competent (and believe me that's not always in the case with films that make it into festivals - even Frightfest). In an era when many movies of this type just scrape past the 74 minute mark it seems a shame to suggest that the 87 minute running time of this one could have been tightened up a bit, but there are just a few too many dialogue scenes which feel drawn out, too many sequences with the same 'it was just a dream' punchline, and nowhere near enough made of the potential to build what could have been some great atmosphere, especially in the scenes with the cultists.

Barbara Crampton's performance is excellent (she always gives it her all and what a treasure she is) and there are some refreshingly different locations for the Deep Ones to be hanging out in (or is that under) but ultimately SACRIFICE is just a bit too rough around the edges (and not in a Chad Ferrin's THE DEEP ONES kind of way way) for it to qualify as top tier Lovecraft-inspired horror. 

SACRIFICE is getting a digital release from 101 Films on Monday 15th March 2021

Evolution (2016)

“Lovecraft Through a Renaissance Lens”

Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s weird and meditative body-horror picture on the nature of reproduction (amongst other things) gets a UK release from Metrodome just after it finishes its run on the art house cinema circuit.

        On an isolated island of rocks and black sand lives a strange community of young women and young boys. While the boys are fed a worm-filled gruel and subjected to bizarre medical procedures at a grim hospital, the women congregate by the sea where they commune naked, possibly through the strange sucker-like appendages on their backs. 

This bizarre ritual culminates in the creation of tiny, foetus-like creatures that then have to be implanted within the abdominal cavities of the boys so they can gestate. When young Nicolas (Max Brebant) is brought in for implantation, he develops a relationship with one of the hospital nurses through the pictures he loves to draw. How the relationship ends is something you can discover for yourself.

         I’m not really giving too much away with that synopsis, in fact it might actually help explain some of what is going on. There is more than that of course in this, director Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s first film since the equally peculiar INNOCENCE (2004). The director has herself admitted that EVOLUTION was influenced by the films of David Lynch and David Cronenberg. One assumes the red sheets in the hospital are in homage to Cronenberg's own gynaecological horror picture DEAD RINGERS (1988).

There’s a strong Lovecraft feel to the proceedings as well, though. Lovecraft through a Renaissance lens, perhaps, with some often startlingly beautiful compositions. Some of the female characters do have a rather ‘aquatic’ look about them. I was reminded of axolotls and was actually expecting the boys to grow up to become them. Who knows? Perhaps they do, but if so that’s not made clear here. 

        The first two thirds of the film are equal parts beauty and fascination. As we enter the third act of EVOLUTION, however, the film does begin to feel as if things have been stretched out a bit to get it to feature length. It’s still definitely worth watching, though. Metrodome’s DVD contains no extras other than the option of 2.0 or 5.1 surround sound mix. 

Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s EVOLUTION is out on Region 2 DVD from Metrodome on Monday 20th June 2016

Bride of Reanimator (1989)

The sequel to Stuart Gordon's 1985 classic horror picture REANIMATOR gets an impressive / exhaustive 3-disc release from Arrow Films in a new Blu-ray / DVD dual format limited edition set that also comes with a perfect bound edition of the prequel comic Dawn of Reanimator.

Let's get something out of the way right at the start. REANIMATOR is one of the greatest horror films of all time, a frenetic and perfectly paced mix of outrageous splatter, well-timed humour and some good old-fashioned horror tropes given a delightfully enthusiastic spin. Add in some good acting, including a riveting central performance from Jeffery Combs ably assisted by some great villainy (David Gale) and an engaging, sympathetic female lead (Barbara Crampton) amongst others, and a music score that should incense with its unoriginality but actually, somehow, turns out to be the perfect accompaniment, and it's no wonder that REANIMATOR is a film that never feels old.

So, REANIMATOR is a classic.

BRIDE OF REANIMATOR is not.

To be honest, it's probably unfair to compare the two. While the first film is something of a case of catching lightning in a bottle, BRIDE is more an attempt by someone who has seen the lightning caught to do the same thing but doesn't really understand some of the major elements that caused that lightning to get trapped in the first place.

So what's the plot?

Eight months after escaping the end of the first film, Herbert West (still alive and not strangled by a length of large intestine as was previously suggested) and Dan Cain are in Peru, experimenting with war casualties using a version of Herbert's reanimation serum that had been modified by an extract from a species of iguana. They travel back to the US where they somehow get jobs as doctors at Miskatonic Hospital despite having caused so much havoc there as students less than a year ago (did they even qualify?). All that's left of Megan is her heart in a bag, next to Dr Hill's head in a bag, which is next to various other body parts in a cupboard in the pathology department. Herbert finds the heart and a pathologist (Mel Stewart who for some reason has a bat pinned to his bench (?) gets to play with Dr Hill's head. Herbert convinces Dan they should make a woman using Meg's heart. Herbert gets bored and randomly glues bits of bodies together. The Manchester University Atlas of Anatomy makes a guest appearance (Hooray! Seeing one of our textbooks was the best microsecond of the film for me and my friends when we saw it on its original release) and is used to crush a little scuttling thing made of fingers and an eye.

A very badly acted policeman keeps bumbling around (Claude Earl Jones in desperate need of the direction he probably didn't get). Fabiana Udenio turns up as 'the girl'. Dan makes love to her and has possibly the most appallingly uninspiring dialogue in the entire film. We don't care because we're too busy saying 'Alotta Fagina' in an AUSTIN POWERS accent every time Ms Udenio appears on screen. Kathleen Kinmont plays the bride (really quite well, actually). Dr Hill's head acquires bat wings. Everything goes mental at the end but sadly that isn't enough to save this rather insipid film.

The one really important thing BRIDE OF REANIMATOR lacks is any sense of the vitality than infused every frame of its predecessor. Dialogue is flat, and acting is even flatter. Jeffrey Combs is still great as Herbert West, but his fiddling about with body parts 'for a laugh' doesn't feel consistent with the driven-and-mad young scientist we know from the first film. In fact if anything, Herbert West seems as bored with this sequel as we are. Richard Band's music cues are very similar, but this time they couldn't afford an orchestra and so it's on synthesisers instead. Is that why it sounds so much less inspiring? Or is it just because the magic isn't there this time around? The pacing is off, everything drags, and the hole-ridden script(which is nowhere near as exuberantly daft as the first film) gets even more shown up for being, well, all a bit stupid, really. It's a shame, but one really needed someone of James Whale's talents (never mind even Stuart Gordon's) to give this BRIDE some life.

If the film itself isn't that great, Arrow's presentation, however, is second to none. BRIDE OF REANIMATOR has never looked very good on home video. The previous Tartan DVD looked like an Eastmancolor print someone had driven a car over (and sounded worse), but Arrow's Blu-ray looks crisp and vivid, so full marks to them for that. Two versions are presented here on Discs 1 (the unrated version) and 3 (the R-rated version). There's actually very little difference between the two.

Extras include three (!) commentaries - a new one by director Brian Yuzna and archival ones with Jeffery Combs and Bruce Abbott, and another with cast and crew. There's a new featurette with Yuzna and another featuring interviews with the special effects artists who worked on the film. There's a deleted scene (Meg is reanimated) and discussion of the excised carnival sequence. The same material is presented on Disc 1 (Blu-ray) and Disc 2 (DVD). Disc 3 is the R-rated cut with some behind the scenes footage as extra.

So there you go. Nowhere near as good as the first film (as is always the case unless you’re called MAD MAX 2), BRIDE OF REANIMATOR will still have the appeal of its totally insane ending for those of us who have to see everything. And now, thanks to Arrow, we can see it all in a really nice print. 

BRIDE OF REANIMATOR is coming out from Arrow Films in a limited edition Blu-ray and DVD three disc set (with some cracking artwork on the box) on 11th April 2016

Lurking Fear (1994)

88 Films presents the UK DVD release of yet another back catalogue B-movie bad boy from Charles Band’s Full Moon Productions. As far as Lovecraft adaptations go (yes, it’s another one of those) it’s actually not too bad, but please bear in mind that when I say that I’m placing it on a scale that ranges from REANIMATOR and DAGON at the good end to CHILL and THE UNNAMABLE at the bad.

LURKING FEAR has a great cast (Jon Finch, Jeffrey Combs, Ashley Laurence - billed as Ashley Lauren presumably as the result of some bizarre credit cost cutting exercise - and Vincent Schiavelli to name but most of them), some nicely atmospheric shots courtesy of director C Courtney Joyner and, on occasion, an almost John Carpenter / RIO BRAVO feel to the scenes in which the motley assortment of characters are holed up in a church awaiting the attack of Something Horrible From Out There. That’s the good news. Sadly, my friends, there is a downside to LURKING FEAR, and I have to say that if incoherent plotting and editing, and a music score performed on a Bontempi home organ, are the kinds of things that mar your enjoyment of such fare, you might want to think twice before giving this one a go.

John Martense (Blake Adams) is released from prison and immediately goes to visit old crime buddy Skelton Knaggs (Vincent Schiavelli) at his funeral parlour. While those of us who obsess about this kind of thing wonder how many members of this movie’s intended 1994 home video audience would have actually got that gag (Knaggs was a character actor of the 1930s-1950s who specialised in playing sinister and weird bit parts) Schiavelli explains that he wants Martense to go to the creepy old rotting town of Leffert’s Corners (actually a creepy old town in Romania and a splendid location) and dig up a body he stuffed with money before burying it.

Off goes Martense and in comes Jon Finch with his gang and his partial dubbing that usually tends to occur when he’s offscreen. The money actually belongs to Finch and he wants it back so, after disposing of Schiavelli, they all troop off to Leffert’s Corners as well.

So far so good. The problem with LURKING FEAR is that something is going on in Leffert’s Corners. Something that has already involved Ashley Lauren(ce) in a prologue that feels more like the end of a movie, and is currently involving her, chain-smoking and chain-drinking doctor Jeffrey Combs, a preacher (Paul Mantee), a pregnant lady, a church, something very badly boarded up that lives under the church floorboards, and the necessity for a large quantity of gelignite to be used to blow up the cemetery. This is where the film really falls down, as that’s about as much as is explained. Everyone converges on the church. The monsters try to kill them. In some cases they succeed. LURKING FEAR is all over in just over 70 minutes and to be honest it really needs another 20 minutes of explanation as to just what is meant to have been going on. And that’s a real shame because with a bit of care and attention LURKING FEAR could actually have been very good indeed. The cast are excellent, the locations are creepy, and the production design boasts a style that’s reminiscent in parts of good Hammer.

88 Films’ DVD is in 4:3 aspect which looks like the frame ratio it was filmed in. Quite a few scenes would actually benefit from being in 2.35:1 so if you do decide to take the plunge with this one, even more fun can probably be had from viewing it through a letterbox-shaped piece of cardboard. There’s a making of that’s very superficial and doesn't deal with any of the obvious problems this production must have encountered. Oh, and the transfer isn't terribly good - at least, the disc I previewed wasn’t. In fact the clips they show in the making of look a lot better. Add in the usual 88 Trashy Trailer Park reel & I’d certainly think I’d have got value for money forking out for this. As always, readers are encouraged to make of that what they will.

88 Films released LURKING FEAR on Region 2 DVD on 19th May 2014

Chill (2012)

HP Lovecraft meets Jess Franco in this ultra low-budget homemade effort that uses the classic short story ‘Cool Air’ for its inspiration but throws in some topless prostitutes with their faces peeled off for good measure. Now, just before you go rushing off to watch this on the basis of that here are a few other items you need to consider: CHILL received its first UK release last year but the production date at the end of the film is 2006. Also listed in those end credits is a Mr Tommy Wiseau who is something of a cult underground character, having directed one of the ‘worst films of all time’, THE ROOM (I shudder to think if I’ll ever get round to writing about that one). Mr Wiseau is not the director of CHILL, that honour falls to Serge Rodnunsky who is also responsible for the script, editing and photography using equipment loaned to him by Tommy. The result of this mostly one man effort is by no means terrible but it is rather amateurish and should only be watched by the very kind and forgiving.

Sam (Thomas Calabro) is an ex-doctor and writer who gets a job working in a supermarket owned by Dr Munoz (Shaun Kurtz). Munoz spends most of his time living in a freezer in the back when he’s not driving around in his filthy white van urging his lumbering peeling-faced assistant Tor to abduct prostitutes. Tor should really be called Morpho in honour of the Franco vibe he elicits, and one suspects any reference to the Tor Johnson of Ed Wood’s movies is sheer coincidence. The prostitutes are taken back to the supermarket and hung up in the freezer in faceless prostitute corner. They’re needed for skin grafts, you see, as Dr Munoz has a tendency to extreme exfoliation every couple of days, although why he needs several of these girls hanging up when he’s only taken very tiny areas of skin from each of them (and interestingly never from the breasts) is never explained. 

Sam gets friendly with Maria who works in the shop across the road. Maria is played by Ashley Laurence. Twenty years on from Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER and still looking absolutely lovely one wonders how she got mixed up in a project like this. Dr Munoz kidnaps Maria and wants Sam to become his assistant. Before he or anyone else can say ‘Not on your Necronomicon’ (the doctor has a copy, you see) the prostitutes’ pimp turns up with his gang for a bit of a shoot out and a twist ending that can at best be described as sub-par and at worst as incomprehensible.

CHILL is reminiscent of the worst 1970s EuroTrash, and fans of that sort of silly stuff are the only ones who are going to get much out of this. Dr Munoz even wears a cloak and wanders around as if he’s searching for the Spanish vampire picture in which he truly belongs. Mr Lovecraft's name is on the top of the box cover, but he doesn’t get a mention in either the movie’s credits or on the trailer, which is odd as one would assume that this would be the movie’s sole selling point. One for utter, utter, utter HPL completists only. You know who you are.