About three months before he passed, I was given the incredible honor of conducting one of the last interviews with Stuart Gordon. I’m extremely humbled to be able to air this never before published conversation between Stuart and me. We happened to speak right on the heels of him completing his autobiography, so Stuart was in a very reflective mood.
Our conversation focused a lot around his life story, his crazy escapades in the theatre, the importance of horror, and many lessons learned from his illustrious career. One of the big things I got out of this conversation with Stuart was the importance of creating art that scares you. Stuart even mentions that if you’re a little scared by something you’re creating, it’s your duty as an artist to put it out into the world. This was very refreshing to hear from the makes of one of my favorite movies of all time, Re-Animator - particularly because we’re living in a time when there’s a palpable fear for people to say or do anything, for fear of being misunderstood or labeled.
Stuart’s work defied convention and was beyond subversiveness. He didn't just push boundaries; he bulldozed through them and created some of the most memorable horror movies we’ve ever seen. Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dagon, Dolls, and Castle Freak all have elements of madness, nihilism, psychosexuality, and very extreme taboos while maintaining a consistent sense of humor that never devolves into camp.
Stuart was also one of the most prolific adaptors of HP Lovecraft and famously brought his own wonderful and signature interpretations to the cosmic horror writer’s work. With the passing of Stuart, the horror community lost a legend, while many others lost a friend and a mentor.
I will always cherish this conversation. Here, as always, are some directorial lessons from the legendary Stuart Gordon.
Never censor yourself. This perhaps is one of the most crucial pieces of advice for horror directors. Stuart’s entire slate of movies is extremely subversive and, at times, downright perverse. A reanimated severed head going down on a woman is without a doubt, one of the most iconic moments in cinema history to a sick bastard like myself, but it would never have happened had Stuart censored himself.
In fact, when they brought Re-Animator to the MPAA, the film was given an X-Rating! Rather than editing the movie, Stuart, along with Charles Band and Brian Yuzna, decided to release the movie to theatres unrated, which was a very ballsy move back in the day, but it paid off in spades because the movie is an indelible classic. Had they censored themselves, what would Re-Animator have possibly looked like?
We are currently in an incredible era, where you can put out movies that are well removed from the judgmental eyes of the MPAA. VOD has given rise to some very extreme cinema; movies like Terrifier, A Serbian Film, Irreversible, The House That Jack Built all do whatever the hell they want, and it’s great. It is a brave new world; independent directors are no longer beholden to censorship, so why do it? Now, there’s adhering to institutionalized censorship, like the MPAA, and then there’s your own self-censorship. Stuart has confronted both.
If you’re a horror director or a horror fan, in all likelihood, you’re hard to scare, which is why it’s the job of horror directors to scare the masses, because if it scares you, it probably terrifies the average citizen. So if you are writing or conceiving of a film concept and you think it might be too extreme, or if it scares you, even a little, it’s your job as a horror director to confront that fear and make that movie.
Arguably one of the many purposes of horror is its unflinching confrontation of death, the taboo, deepest darkest fears, and all matter of material that makes motherfuckers uncomfortable. Your job as a horror...
