Stuart Gordon, for the uninitiated, started off as an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While a theater student Gordon formed the Screw Theater troupe, a group founded in the same vein as Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theater using theater as a political tool. Famous (or infamous) productions from this era included The Game Show in which planted actors in the audience were beaten and (seemingly) raped, and Peter Pan an acid-soaked take on the Pan story using the tumultuous political setting of late 60s Chicago as a backdrop. Both of these productions led to both academic and criminal prosecution, leading Gordon to back away from academia and to found the Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin where he could engage in the experimental performances that inspired him. Eventually Gordon moved on to Chicago where he started the Organic Theater Company. It is with the OTS that Gordon eventually moved into the cinema.
After success with the Organic Theater Company and early film productions, Gordon turned to an interest of his and his colleagues’ childhood: the stories of fantasy/horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. In 1985 Gordon released the cult classic “Re-Animator” based on Lovecraft’s “Herbert West – Reanimator” and starring the lead players of the OTC. Upon its release the film received excellent reviews, and is now a landmark film in the comedy-gore genre and is credited (along with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films) with revitalizing the genre. After the success of Re-Animator Gordon continued with his interest in both Lovecraft (From Beyond 1986) and horror (the truly scary Dolls (1987), however after Dolls Gordon’s work began to receive less attention from studios and Gordon eventually teamed up with Full Moon Productions, a direct to video focused horror and science fiction company. It is with these lower budget films that Gordon made throughout the 90s where his imagination exploded and his works, though sometimes excruciatingly campy due to standard low-budget traps, reached an elegant form.
And it is here in Gordon’s late 1980s through the 1990s period where the WCFTR’s collection shines. Holding original 35mm prints (all in fantastic condition) of Robot Jox (1988), Daughter of Darkness (1990), The Pit and the Pendulum (1990), Fortress (1992), Castle Freak (1995), Space Truckers (1996), and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998), the collection is scary, funny, and ultimately a truly unique body of work. Of all of these films however, Castle Freak has stood out as a jewel in the collection to myself.
Castle Freak is based on the Lovecraft short story “The Outsider” and features Gordon regular Jeffrey Combs (star of The Re-Animator, From Beyond, as well as an excellent later appearance in Peter Jackson’s oft-overlooked The Frighteners) stars as John Reilly, whose recent inheritance of a castle from a long lost aunt (who also happens to be a duchess) finds him, his depressed wife, and their blind daughter relocated to an Italian mountain range. Needless to say, things take a turn for the worse. The film is absolutely wild and beautifully crafted. The acting has many pitfalls of low-budget cinema but manages to pull of something that not many other b-horror can manage: a truly scary film. In essence, the film is about a freak that has been locked up in a dungeon and upon breaking out, goes on a killing spree. A pretty straightforward plot but an incredibly overlooked gem from the mid-90s, and this was the case with a lot of straight to video horror.
This is why I believe the collection at the WCFTR is so important. To have 35mm prints of these works that have been seriously overlooked in the last twenty years is a true asset. I believe that as the cult of Stuart Gordon grows (he and Combs currently have a one man show based on the life of Edgar Allen Poe that has received many accolades and will hopefully be turned in to a feature film soon), these films will be in much greater demand. As often these films rarely featured theatrical releases, owning the prints will be a resource to horror fans for years to come.
And now in the spirit of Halloween, let’s conquer brain death. Here are all of the trailers for the 80s and 90s gems available from the Stuart Gordon Collection:
Castle Freak
Dolls
Robot Jox
Daughter of Darkness
Space Truckers
From Beyond
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