Goodbye, Stuart Gordon

It was 1986. A tremendous year for horror. Things were happening in the realm of the written word, and there were horror movies coming out every damned week. Great ones, good ones, and movies I thought were a lot of fun. I get all drippy and nostalgic when I think of seeing The Fly, Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives, Vamp, Maximum Overdrive, Aliens, Psycho 3, House, Mountaintop Motel Massacre and many others that year.

A few of us were watching TV and a hell of a commercial came on. It was an ad for a horror movie called Re-Animator. We were stunned by it, and we thought it looked like the greatest thing ever.

And you know what? It was.

Best horror movie ever? Well, there was some stiff competition. The Universal classics, Curse of the Demon, The Haunting, Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, Halloween and others. But, yeah, Re-Animator was something special. It immediately entered the Pantheon of greatest horror movies of all time, and its director, Stuart Gordon, one of the most important practitioners of the art of horror.

I began reading Fangoria shortly after that, and there was a lot of ballyhoo about Gordon's followup to Re-Animator, From Beyond. Both of these movies were based on works by H.P. Lovecraft, even though old HPL would probably have fainted if he had seen them.

There was an incredible amount of hype for From Beyond, and guess what? It lived up to all of it. The name, Stuart Gordon, was firmly in a small cadre of hallowed names like Romero, Carpenter, Hooper, and Craven.

Re-Animator is probably my favorite. I lost count of how many times I watched it. It was released on videocassette at exactly the right time. In 1986 VCRs were becoming affordable for most people who really wanted one. Everyone, it seemed, was watching Re-Animator.

Stuart Gordon remained active, and continued to make pictures. Unfortunately his movies after From Beyond were hit and miss. Dolls was all right. I didn't like Robot Jox in the least. The Pit and the Pendulum didn't really work. Fortress was well-made, but eminently forgettable. I like Castle Freak and Dagon quite a bit, even if they fall short of the glories of Re-Animator and From Beyond. King of the Ants is a really good thriller.

Gordon hit the big time when a script he collaborated on eventually became Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Stuart Gordon worked on some small projects in the last decade, but his most productive period ended in the mid-2000s. I wish he had been able to continue to command decent budgets and make great movies.

Many have striven to made horror classics. Stuart Gordon made at least one. Re-Animator will be watched and marveled over as long as movies are in existence.

Thanks, Stuart. We all owe you. Big time.

Written by Mark Sieber