I was happy to meet Stuart Gordon at Fantasia film
festival in Montreal
Stuart Gordon has a unique talent to unite the
things which are either considered too disparate (like sex and horror) or those
which are rarely blended with such an unmitigated success (like horror and
humor). Nowhere is this mixture so successful as in his debut, Re-Animator, a timeless classic which is
at once sick, depraved, hilarious and utterly what-the-funny. Many directors
aimed for that particular rainbow, but only a few (like The Return of the Living Dead /1985/ and Braindead /1992/) can parallel the insanity and unpredictability of
Re-Animator's inspired splattstick.
Unity of opposites? Hell, yeah! Rooted in
literature and theater (where his productions were nominated for many important
awards), Gordon mastered B-movie entertainment of the horrific and provocative
kind. The same man who conceived the gleefully sadistic The Dentist (1996) also wrote the kiddy fantasy hit Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989).
With
equal wit he adapts Lovecraft and Mamet (in Edmond
Gordon represents the true spirit of the
independents which reigned in the bygone (?) days. His ability to join the
unjoinable and make it enjoyable is all but forgotten in this day and age where
young horror directors can barely concoct a story worth telling – far from
imbuing it with wit, energy and subtext like Gordon so effortlessly could.
As
such, he is both a relic from the past and a lasting inspiration to all those
who can see beneath the surface right into the bloody beating heart of
B-moviemaking.
