High schooler Michael Tucker (Michael Hurst) goes to meet his father at the hospital where he works. He overhears a conversation between his dad and Dr. Archer Howell (Gary Day) where they discuss a radical procedure that can bring dead patients back to life through mind control or something. Professor Tucker (David Weatherley) is concerned that Dr. Howell is going too far and pleads with him to stop the experiments. Howell sees that Michael is spying on their tête-à-tête and decides to inject mind control drugs into Michael’s naked butt. Then he commands Michael to take a shotgun to his parents and then locks him up in a loony bin for seven years.

When Michael gets out of the insane asylum, he convinces his best buddy Lucas (William Upjohn) and his girlfriend Sandy (Margaret Umbers) to accompany him to an island where Dr. Howell has set up his own clinic where he can let his pseudoscienctific activities go unchecked. The bad doc been performing brain surgery, creating mutants, making folks’ brains explode, and walking around looking rather dapper in his white suits. Michael’s plan to kill the evil S.O.B. gets waylaid by Spider (David Letch), Howell’s most vicious stooge. And once Spider lets all of the horrors locked up in the clinic’s basement out to wreak havoc on the island, all heck breaks loose.

Until it showed up on some Mill Creek 50 movie pack, Death Warmed Up felt like my own little discovery. I first encountered it back in the early 2000s when I read about it in John McCarty’s Splatter Movie Guide. He made it sound great so I picked up the old Vestron VHS used on the cheap from Amazon. The film completely blew me away. The grubby look of the tape couldn’t hide how deranged this movie feels. If anything, seeing it in that format made it seem that much more dangerous. Now Death Warmed Up has even more significance for me: it was also the last film I ever watched with my good friend and podcast co-host Nafa before he passed away in 2017. He had a love of all things New Zealand and I was happy that I finally got to introduce him to it after talking it up for so many years.

Severin Films is doing right by me this year. Between this and their Next of Kin Blu-ray, I’m strongly considering naming my first child Severin. Or maybe if I adopt a dog. Anyway, their print of Death Warmed Up looks great in anamorphic widescreen. If you happen to be nostalgic for the old full frame version, it’s also on the disc. That version is 5 minutes longer and is touted and the uncut New Zealand VHS cut. The extra scenes are just little trims here and there. It’s cool to have both versions but the widescreen is going to be the way to go for me from here on out.

Umbrella Entertainment presents Death Warmed Up in an excellent is an excellent 1:85:1 1080p AVC encided transfer. Everything here looks natural, and quite film like with no apparent issues. Audio is handled by DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 tracks in English, both come through crisp and clear, without obvious issues. Extras include a director/writer commentary, multiple interviews, deleted scenes, a VHS cut and a number of trailers. -Editor

If you don’t feel like watching the VHS version to see what’s different, there is a featurette with all of the alternate scenes with an audio commentary with director David Blyth and writer Michael Heath (who also penned Next of Kin). Speaking of commentaries, Blyth and Heath also provide a feature length commentary for Death Warmed Up. I was very curious to hear what they had to say about the film, especially the inclusion of veteran New Zealand actor Jonathan Hardy in brown-face as Ranji Gandhi, a befuddled convenience store clerk. Weirdly enough, they still think his portrayal is hilarious and claim that the character got lots of laughs when the film played in front of Indian audiences.

There’s a great interview with David Letch, who has some great stories about working on the film and an unusual fan he gained thanks to his portrayal of Spider. One of my favorite things on this disc is the film’s trailer which is just about as wacky as you’d expect. There are also VHS trailers and a TV spot. Rounding things out is a longish featurette with both Blyth and Heath discussing the production of Death Warmed Up, probably sourced from an old DVD.

Even though the film is loaded with only three kinds of characters: over-the-top villains, shithead protagonists, and beleaguered girlfriends, I still love it. The confusing plot leaves me with many questions that still plague me even after my fourth and fifth viewings. Is Dr. Howell using mind control on all of his subjects or just Michael? I think so. Are exploding tumors a side effect of these treatments? Maybe. Just what the hell is stuffed inside Michael’s Speedo? I wish I knew. The only misstep (and hoo boy, it’s a glaring one) that I can’t reconcile is the baffling inclusion of that embarrassing racist stereotype that thankfully only happens in one throwaway scene.

Death Warmed Up is an 80s splatter film through and through. It has an undeniable energy to it -like running down a steep hill while your hair is on fire- and it’s also a nasty piece of nihilistic trash. The menacing mood and sweaty aura is as pervasive as the electro score by Mark Nicholas, who I wish had worked on more horror films. The film has a unique, wide-eyed crazy vibe and plays out exactly like the most reprehensible and irresponsible of entertainments should. Based on just how proudly the filmmakers wear their own excesses on their sleeves, I’m shocked that Death Warmed Up didn’t end up on the Video Nasty list in the UK. Highly recommended.