In this engaging candid memoir, horror legend Stuart Gordon gives a vivid account of his remarkable journey, from a student manning the barricades during the civil unrest of the 1960s, via an infamous stint as an experimental theater maverick, to ultimately becoming an iconic figure in cult cinema.
While he’d started his professional career as a theater director, Gordon’s first love was cinema, and in 1985 he shocked the world with his wickedly witty debut feature Re-Animator. The film established an unofficial Gordon repertory company, including the actors Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, producer Brian Yuzna, and writer Dennis Paoli. It also established Gordon as the pre-eminent cinematic interpreter of legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft, a writer many had previously regarded as largely unfilmable.
Gordon went on to undertake a succession of horror, science fiction, and thriller productions that saw him working across the globe, from Italy (Castle Freak), Hungary (Daughter of Darkness) and Australia (Fortress), to Ireland (Space Truckers) and Spain (Dagon). In these pages, Gordon recalls a wealth of anecdotes, revealing what it was like to direct acclaimed actors such as Anthony Perkins, Dennis Hopper, Oliver Reed, Edward J. Olmos, Lance Henriksen and William H. Macy. Gordon also spills the beans on working with Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg on the family comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids at Disney Studios.
Stuart Gordon’s memoir is authentically funny, disarmingly honest, and unexpectedly touching – a compelling glimpse into the life of a director happiest in Hollywood’s hinterlands, pushing the limits of what the mainstream would accept. It’s the story of a bona fide original, an uncompromising artist with the common touch, and of a loving family man who delighted in disturbing us all with his restless, brilliant imagination.
Gordon’s filmography ranges from the iconic Lovecraftian horror From Beyond (1986), to science fiction action flicks including Robot Jox (1990), gruelling period pieces such as The Pit and the Pendulum (1998), the noir thriller King of the Ants(2003), and his David Mamet adaptation Edmond (2005).
Naked Theater & Uncensored Horror is Stuart Gordon’s final completed work, presented here unexpurgated, and fully endorsed and approved by the Gordon family trust.
