The horror community, as well as film as a whole, has a huge hole in it after the ing of Stuart Gordon. Gordon became a cult director during the eighties for a slew of movies he made, usually working with Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures and Empire Pictures. He kept a brilliant team, often working with Jeffrey Combs, Barabara Crampton, and working with fellow cult producer, writer, and director Brian Yuzna.
Gordon deserved the talented team he ran with, consistently crafting unique films that always overthrew their coverage, bringing in new ideas and new ways to approach old ones. He is already sorely missed and will be for quite some time. In honor of the icon, here are ten of his most essential films, ranked by their Rotten Tomato Score.
Fortress (1993) - 40%
While this list will eventually evolve into cult horror films, it starts by acknowledging Gordon's time in lower-budget science fiction. Gordon tackled a handful of campy sci-fi projects, none of which were hits at their times, but the first two here have grown cult followings in the time since.
Fortress follows a still semi-relevant Christopher Lambert as he traverses a stylish totalitarian future (2017). The action is present, and the film's visuals are impressive despite being dated, making it a nice piece of Gordon's varying filmography.
Robot Jox (1989) - 41% Audience Score
A weird enigma from Gordon, but a welcome one, is his low budget science fiction film about gladiators that battle each other in giant mech suits. The film is one of the tamers of Gordon's, sporting only a PG rating, and the whole thing is cheesy in a nice way.
The stop-motion robot action and the campy acting of the pilots make the whole film an underrated cult film that just has a comforting quality to it.
Edmond (2005) - 47%
One of the two films about seemingly normal men being pushed to great violence by Gordon, with the other being The King of the Ants. While the other film may be the more entertaining of the two, it lacks a Tomato Score and both films are interchangeable for serving the task at hand, which is showcasing Gordon's interest in crime and noir cinema.
A self-proclaimed fan of crime movies, Gordon spent the last leg of his career mostly making them. Edmond is adapted from a play and follows a man as he finally snaps, leaving reality and peace behind. William H. Macy gives a fantastic performance and it is easily the film on this list most likely to make someone double-check the director credit.
The Pit And The Pendulum (1991) - 56%
Despite successfully adapting two H.P. Lovecraft stories already, and doing another three before his career would end, Gordon took a break and instead covered the other king of classic horror literature by loosely adapting Edgar Allen Poe's short story.
The film is a weird example of Gordon's, and his typical collaborators', versatility, as he and his usual cast and producers drop the campy splatstick style he was a master at and instead create a dark, bleak, gothic torture film that will stick with you.
Dolls (1987) - 62%
A girl has to spend her summer with her abusive father and evil stepmother, but their car breaks down outside a creepy old house where two supernatural doll makers just happen to be living. What follows is the Full Moon Pictures style of film performed at max potential.
Small cast, single location, and cheap practical effects-driven puppetry, not unlike the other Full Moon classic Puppet Master. The difference, however, is that Dolls absolutely rules, not falling into the pitfalls of boredom that many of the company's other films get trapped in.
Castle Freak (1995) - 63%
Based in part on H.P. Lovecraft's The Outsider, this schlocky splatter movie follows a family as they inherit a dark castle that already has one angry occupant. The deformed creature of a man inside the castle proceeds to stalk and slaughter his targets, making for a weird, bloody, campy, and somewhat scary cult slasher film.
The freak returns, in a new form, this summer as a Fangoria-produced remake will be released, directed by special effects expert Tate Steinsiek and produced by scream queen and regular Gordon collaborator Barbara Crampton.
Dagon (2001) - 67%
Proof that after the prime of his career, neither Gordon's talent for directing nor his love and understanding of Lovecraftian horror had waned. This horrific tale, based on multiple works by Lovecraft, tells the story of a small fishing village that is secretly hiding a dark and powerful secret.
The effects are great despite the movie being a lower budgeted effort, and the atmosphere of the film is top-notch, creating a terrifying world that pulls you in, no matter how hard you try to resist.
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1986) - 75%
While he didn't direct, Gordon co-wrote the smash hit family sci-fi film about a quirky scientist that accidentally shrinks his children to insect size with his friend and longtime horror collaborator Brian Yuzna. It's an essential piece of Gordon's career because his filmmaking, when boiled down, is all about not doing the same thing twice.
As another example of Gordon's multifaceted career, it is interesting to think about a version of the film directed by Gordon or Yuzna. Would the insect terror have been even more extreme? Would Jeffrey Combs had played the iconic roles that went to Rick Moranis? Probably.
From Beyond (1986) - 75%
With this cult classic horror, Gordon took on a challenge that many filmmakers have failed and attempted to adapt Lovecraft's style of vague, ultra-powerful, cosmic horror. The result is a film that is not just essential to Gordon's filmography, but essential to all of horror.
The weird, grotesque, story of scientists bringing beings from outside our dimension to Earth influenced the genre in more ways than one, most notably with its color palette and body transformations.
Re-Animator (1985) - 93%
Gordon's masterpiece of splatter comedy follows Jeffrey Combs' incredible performance as an eccentric medical school student as he develops a serum that can re-animate dead tissue, and eventually, bring a dead corpse back to life.
There's very little to say about the movie that many more educated writers haven't written over and over, but I will say that the movie is a perfect example of tonal shifting that doesn't feel unnatural and that the blend of genres is ever-present, creating an unbelievably unique film that we should all be watching right now instead of reading about it.
