I first watched Stuart Gordon’s 1986 film From Beyond freshman year in college, at some party, barely paying attention. I’m honestly not sure how I managed that, because whatever else this film is, it is certainly something that DEMANDS YOUR ATTENTION.
This movie is SO WEIRD. Keep in mind, please—I’m saying this as a woman who has reviewed an entire retrospective’s worth of Stuart Gordon films. I know from weird, alright, you guys? From Beyond is something…else.
Ahh, so we arrive at the fourth and arguably most celebrated entry in my Stuart Gordon Retrospective: Re-Animator.
(Well, I mean that Re-Animator is celebrated. Not my review of it, which is brand new and hasn’t had the chance to gain notoriety. I have high hopes, however).
Re-Animator was Stu’s first film and it deservedly propelled him into cult status. He wrote it with frequent collaborator Dennis Paoli from, what else?, the Lovecraft novel Herbert West: Reanimator. Gordon pal Brian Yuzna produced, as per yuuzh. It’s demented, irreverent, extraordinarily repulsive and teeming with nudity. It’s a Stuart Gordon joint, you guys! And it’s the best of the West.
Woohoo! I saw a new(ish, 2007) Stuart Gordon movie and loved it! That man’s still got it. Not that I could or shall ever doubt him.
Stuck is based on this absolutely awful true story of Texas woman Chante Jawan Mallard. Gordon clearly didn’t conceive of the film as straight-up horror so much as a horrific thriller, but like every Gordon film, Stuck boasts a scene or seven of some major grue that you wish were not assaulting your eyeballs. It also boasts some majorly gruesome cornrows that you wish weren’t assaulting your eyeballs.
Something happened to me this week that hasn’t happened in many years. Something both wonderful and terrible. Something I thought I’d missed, but I was wrong.
A horror movie gave me a nightmare. That movie? Castle Freak.
The thing is, I’ve seen this movie before. At least twice! And I do not remember having been quite so frightened. It REALLY scared me, you guys! It’s both odd and cool that, unlike one’s tolerance with alcohol, the more scary movies I watch, the more of a lightweight I seem to become. It’s pretty great, because the thing I like most about scary movies is being scared, and it would suck if that part went away. Still, yeeps!
Dagon is actually the first Stuart Gordon movie I ever watched, back in 2001, and I instantly discovered that I had been remiss in waiting so long to celebrate this guy’s catalogue. He’s now one of my favorite directors and the very first person I chose to kick off my new retrospective series—mostly for the excuse to rewatch his many exceptionally strange films. Gordon has long impressed me as a prolific artist who defends the quality of his vision, circumventing the frustrating production company system when necessary to deliver high-caliber films that are entirely his.
As quickly as Re-animator, Castle Freak and all the rest became established favorites of mine, I’ll always have a cozy place in my heart for the peculiar little Dagon.
