WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
With a lot of the other articles regarding horror directors where I had already seen some of their work. However, when it comes to Stuart Gordon, it was all new to me. Having said that, I had seen one of his films without knowing it was him, Space Truckers, which doesn’t count here as it is not a horror film.
The Pit and the Pendulum
Even though this film was made in the 90s, I don’t think anyone would consider it as a horror film now. I’ll be honest even for me it feels a little more like a fantasy film in places but it also reminds me of a ‘video-nasty’ called Mark of the Devil, just with better production values and no terrible dubbing. Yes, there’s blood and violence – possibly the most uncomfortable part being when the first execution takes place and she is strangled over the executioner’s shoulder but other than that I do not see this as a horror film.
Re-animator
Now, in comparison to the previous film – this starts with blood and gore within the first 2 minutes! So it’s interesting to think that Gordon had either toned down his style by the 90s or it was a case of what suited the film he was creating. The amazing thing is that the film doesn’t need to be gory or bloody. It’s like this film has taken a page out of Psycho’s book as the main character of Herbert West, I don’t want to call him the antagonist because ultimately he is not, but he is almost as creepy as Norman Bates. So much looks realistic in this film – apart from when West re-animates Rufus the cat.
From Beyond
It’s crazy to think that no one speaks for 3 minutes at the beginning of this film! It is then balanced by what feels like 3 minutes of screaming and terrible acting from the character only known as ‘Neighbour Lady’. This is Gordon’s second adaption on this list (the first being Pit and the Pendulum) – neither of which I have read, so unfortunately wouldn’t be able to comment on how well he did it. There’s something about the camera work in certain moments in this film – like the focus on Crawford’s eyes alone increases the intensity of his words when he says “it bit off his head, like a gingerbread man”. I’ll say this much though, I do think that Crawford living at 666 is a little on the nose, even though the creatures aren’t from hell, the poor guy is definitely going through it! I wondered the whole time if these creatures were always there and the resonator allowed our main characters to see them or if the experiment brought them through.
Dagon
Much like the film above – this is another adaption of a H.P Lovecraft story, making three film adaptions in total. I’ll be honest, I was expecting a vampire-style story because of the mention of Dagon in Blade Trinity being another name for Dracula but it seems they decided to go more down the siren route. The inhabitants of the little Spanish town seem to be amphibious and truthfully act more like zombies in my opinion – especially the way they go after Paul as a horde. I didn’t quite understand this film as I’m not sure it’s explained why the people of Imbaco are changing to go into the sea. I wonder if it is them praying to Dagon as their god that they have decided to join him in the sea but no one explains how or what they have done to transform themselves. I’ll say this much though – I actually had to look away when the priest sliced off Ezequiel’s face because it looked so realistic!
Castle Freak
I don’t know if Gordon did this on purpose but this definitely does not look like it was made in the 90s, the grading makes it look much older than that. Interestingly this is actually the 4th film on this article where Gordon has cast Jeffery Coombs in the leading role. Frustratingly, outside of the opening scene and a few howling noises, not a lot actually happens in this film for a long time. The freak doesn’t directly interact with any of the main characters until around 40 minutes in and, even then, I get the feeling he’s just curious – he hasn’t seen another person for a very long time. This is probably going to sound quite cruel but I was actually glad when he killed someone other than just the cat that seemed to roam the castle, because it just couldn’t be left that way. Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad for Agnese because she did nothing wrong but if Sylvana hadn’t attacked ‘the freak’ – would he have killed her? This seems to give him a taste for blood and goes on a rampage for the last twenty minutes. I just wonder why Gordon waited so long and why the story of a little boy’s death took precedence when it didn’t seem to have any bearing on the overall story.
