Stuart Gordon – a True Master of Horror

I was happy to meet Stuart Gordon at Fantasia film festival in Montreal, 2010. My interview with him is coming soon to Rue Morgue's special edition book, HORROR MOVIE HEROES (together with interviews I did with Jaume Balaguero, Sergio Stivaletti and Christopher Lee). Here's, briefly, why I love & respect Stuart Gordon.

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, 2005); he is as inspired by the most outrageous fantasy of From Beyond (1986) as he is by the gritty reality of Stuck, 2007 (based on a true event). From the depths of the Charles Band and Brian Yuzna produced exploitation he is struggling to be political, socially conscious and subversive.

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.

Mutant sex and horror (NSFW)

Here is a gallery of recent works by Serbian artist and director Vanja Čanković. As can be seen, his main inspirations are H. R. Giger and Carpenter's THE THING. Enjoy – if you can!

If you want to buy his prints or just tell him how sick he is, or something, here's his mail: vcankovic at yahoo dot com

Click on each pic to see it bigger!

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG (2009)

Directed by Mladen Djordjevic

Serbia 2009

Genre: Horror drama / road-movie / black comedy

GHOUL RATING: **** (4)

English subbed TRAILER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVUMAZ51vrE

Cast:
Marko-Mihajlo Z. Jovanović
Una - Ana Aćimović
Vanja - Predrag Damnjanović
Džoni – Radivoj Knežević
Maks - Srđan Jovanović
Ceca - Ivan Đorđević
Dragan - Bojan Zogović
Sofija - Nataša Miljuš
Rade - Aleksandar Gligorić
Darinka - Mariana Aranđelović
Franc – Srboljub Milin
Cane – Srđan Miletić
Strahinja – Dragan Đorđević
Sniper – Jovo Maksić

Written and directed by Mladen Djordjević

Director of photography: Nemanja Jovanov

Production design: Zorana Petrov

Costume design: Jelena Djordjević, Vesna Teodosić

Special make-up effects: Miroslav Lakobrija

Film editing: Marko Glušac, Milina Trišić

Music: Janja Lončar

Sound design: Vladimir Živković

Executive producer: Igor Kecman

Producers: Jelena Mitrović, Srdan Golubović

Production: Baš Čelik, 2009.

AWARDS

for THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG:

- SPECIAL MENTION -RAVENNA NIGHTMARE FILM FESTIVAL 2009.

- “NEBOJSA DJUKELIC” AWARD (Awarded by The Jury of the Association of Belgrade's Film Journalists and Critics - Belgrade film festival - FEST, Serbia, national premiere)

- Special mention FIPRESCI Serbia (Cinema City Festival, Novi Sad, Serbia, national selection)

- Special mention, Screenplay Film Festival Vrnjacka Banja 2009, Serbia, national selection

Here is a film from Serbia which succeeds to be shocking and original: Zivot i smrt porno bande (The Life and Death of a Porn Gang, 2009), a debut feature by Mladen Djordjevic. He became known among horror fans with his short films Zivi mrtvaci (The Living Dead, 2000) and Glad (Hunger, 2002) and he earned a wider acclaim with his feature-length documentary about Serbian porn industry, Made in Serbia (2005). These concerns logically continue with his …Porn Gang. It deals with an aspiring filmmaker, Marko, who is unable to pursue a career in horror films. He ventures into the porn industry, but his unorthodox style fails to impress producers. Frustrated, he assembles a crew of junkies, homosexuals and transvestites and starts a traveling live porn show. It draws attention of the suspicious police, but also of the locals, unhappy with their provocative material. Soon a shady producer approaches them and offers real money in exchange for snuff films they are to make for his clientele…

Instead of copying the foreign generic models, as Serbian horrors like T. T. Syndrome and Zone of the Dead have done, …Porn Gang hits so close to home that it hurts twice as much. Its real inspiration lies in the years of (post)Milosevic Serbia in which civil wars and violence of all kinds brough about failure of all ideals. The director, Mladen Djordjevic, grew up among images of slaughtered, decapitated people from the civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia, shown in prime time Serbian news. He takes a documentary form as a way of capturing a stylized, but still very authentic portrait of the complex ways that Eros and Thanatos are merged in today's Serbia.

The motif of snuff metaphorically reveals a strong death-wish present among the disenchanted, disillusioned people for whom death is the only salvation. Thus, Djordjevic presents a line-up of voluntary victims of snuff films: a touching, melancholy cast of the ruined and forgotten ones. Unlike the victims in American torture-porns with snuff motif, who are so full of life and courage to fight until their last gasp, the Serbian ones come to their executioners voluntarily, searching a means of sustaining their impoverished families or a quick escape from unbearable life.

Although the film had a very low budget, this only augments its documentary look. Thanks to the expert digital camera of Nemanja Jovanov, it reaches an authentic feel rarely seen since the days of the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Largely unknown young actors and nonprofessionals invest their characters with honesty and frankness. Unlike their "movie stars" colleagues, they are unafraid to bare all, both physically and emotionally, thus making this shocking and harrowing film at the same time also very engaging and emotional. In its sympathy for the outsiders, but also in its road-movie structure, …Porn Gang continues the tradition of the Serbian "Black Wave" of the 1960s, especially films by Zelimir Zilnik like Rani radovi (1969), but infuses it with modern influences, especially the films of Takashi Miike.

The Life and Death of a Porn Gang exposes the underbelly of contemporary Serbia and pulls no punches in the process. The film throws away almost all taboos, such as group sex, murder, full frontal nudity, violence to animals, homosexuality, bestiality, snuff… only here they come with a socio-political context. What Naked Lunch by William Burroughs was for America in the 1950s and 1960s, … Porn Gang is for post-Milosevic Serbia.

Its significance is well summed up in the catalogue of the Puchon film festival where it shocked and enthralled the audience: "As you see the enthusiastic youngsters dreaming of art and revolution being murdered, raped, and kidnapped one by one, you get to wonder if you're witnessing one of the biggest turning points, or cinematic landmarks, of the Serbian film history."