When I woke up Wednesday morning to the news that Stuart Gordon had passed away, I was shocked. I obviously knew that he was not a young man, but his films had retained such a subversive energy, I suppose I always thought of him as—at oldest—around my age. It was bracing to realize that he was actually 72-years-old—not just because it made me feel suddenly older (especially given current circumstances), but because up until the very end of his career, Gordon was doing nervy, fearless work both on screen and on the stage that felt like a young man’s thumbing of the nose at the establishment.
I don’t like to write traditional obituaries. There are plenty of other sites that do a fine job of giving a person’s background and highlighting their major accomplishments. Instead of doing that, I just want to write a few hundred words to appreciate the astonishing run of great movies that Gordon so meticulously crafted on often tiny budgets.
Starting in 1985 with RE-ANIMATOR to 2008’s release of STUCK, Stuart Gordon directed 13 features. That number in itself is quite impressive—especially for a director who worked almost exclusively outside the studio system. But when you take into account that the least artistically successful of that number is still something as entertaining and goofily inventive as SPACE TRUCKERS, the mind boggles.
What I love about his work is that no matter the genre he was working in, the result was clearly a Stuart Gordon movie. Few directors have managed to meld the grindhouse with the arthouse so consistently and creatively. Even when he ventured away from horror and sci-fi territory to make a trio of unsettling crime films with KING OF THE ANTS, EDMOND, and STUCK, they contained the same wide streaks of dark humor commingled with violence and the despairing idea that an uncaring Universe unfairly punishes the weak. It is no wonder the man was so good at adapting Lovecraft.
It could be easy to not look beyond the blood, gore, visual puns, and overt sexuality present in much of Gordon’s work and assume that his film’s staying power had everything to do with the imaginative bloodshed on display. But in Gordon’s films, I also see a real understanding of the frustrations and bitterness of the little guy when dealing with institutions of power. Sure, Herbert West is a terrible person, but his actions, while horrifying, are understandable when you see him as a brilliant young man whose genius goes unrecognized by the medical community. The persecuted lashing out against the established order that holds them down is a theme Gordon would return to over and over again in films like FORTRESS, ROBOT JOX, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, and CASTLE FREAK.
The ability of the bruised, doomed humanity to shine through in Gordon’s films is a testament to his background as a theater director. Gordon was known for taking the time before shooting to rehearse his cast—something that is often not possible given the budgetary constraints of indie filmmaking. But taking that time allowed for richer performances and great on-screen chemistry even with contrasting performance styles. Think about how Jeffrey Combs’ often arch, theatrical style meshed so comfortably with the naturalistic performances of Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton in RE-ANIMATOR or with the intensity of Lance Henriksen in THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM. Without that rehearsal time, much of the nuance found in Gordon’s films would not have been possible. His movies would have still been entertaining, but I doubt they would have retained any power beyond shock value.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of the film business that Gordon was not able to get another feature off the ground after STUCK. Unlike many aging directors, Gordon was still evolving and still confrontational. But he took his creative energy back to the stage, re-teaming with Combs for the well-regarded Edgar Allan Poe one-man-show Nevermore, adapting RE-ANIMATOR as a musical, and directing Taste—a play based on the real-life “Rotenburg cannibal” case.
No one is simply a collection of their work, but I did not know Stuart Gordon personally and can only speak to what I saw in his films. Reading remembrances of the people he worked with has been heartening because by all accounts, he was a warm and giving soul who just happened to make grotesque, oft-hilarious portraits of humanity pushed beyond its breaking point.
My thoughts go out to Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and his family.
Tags: Barbara Crampton, Brian Yuzna, Castle Freak, Chicago, David Mamet, Edmond, Fortress, From Beyond, H.P. Lovecraft, Jeffrey Combs, King Of The Ants, Madison Wisconsin, re-animator, Robot Jox, Space Truckers, Stuart Gordon, Stuck, The Pit And The Pendulum
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