Stuart Gordon

In King of the Ants, the latest cringe-fest from director Stuart Gordon, actor Chris McKenna appears to endure the type of punishment not seen since 1478's Spanish Inquisition. His character is hammered with golf clubs, forced to weather solitary confinement in a locked tool shed and-perhaps most terrifying of all-is sat on by portly Cheers icon George Wendt.

Even so, McKenna has nothing but raves for his demanding director. "Stuart is absolutely insane. He's Grandpa Santa Claus, with dimples. I was expecting him to be some terrifying guy with a limp, a cape and a cane. He was not like that at all."

Grandpa Santa Claus? Try Santa Claws.

After all, this is the director who gave us Re-Animator (1985), a film featuring a severed head attempting to get intimate with a shackled female love interest. He also conjured forth From Beyond (1986), where snake-like, phallic pineal glands sprout from foreheads and scientists melt into puddles of gelatinous slime like the Wicked Witch of the West. Then there's Dagon (2001), where macabre, scaly fish people with human sacrifice on their minds torment unknowing visitors in a Spanish seaside village.

King of the Ants, Gordon's current spellbinder, is another gruesome foray into the dark side of human nature. His coupling of a brutal revenge story (by acclaimed British author Charlie Higson) with a minimal budget (Gordon's wife provided catering for cast and crew) has resulted in a streamlined, neo-noir thriller with macabre overtones. This movie is sure to be a Halloween night favorite.

Gordon's onscreen projects are not limited to horror, however. Futuristic sci-fi outings like Robot Jox (1990), Fortress (1993) and Space Truckers (1997) are also on his diverse director's resume. Meanwhile, he scored a co-screenwriting credit for the smash Disney hit Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and eventually served as executive producer for the popular film's sequel, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992).

This moviemaker's most enduring, go-for-broke, envelope-pushing terror tales have remained his most enduring creations, however. Below, the influential talent recaps his horror career, while offering suggestions on how to nourish your nightmares this Halloween season.

KJ Doughton (MM): What does a horror director like yourself do to celebrate Halloween?

Stuart Gordon (SG): Make-up and special effects expert Rick Baker threw an incredible Halloween party a couple of years ago, when he opened his new studio. He insisted that everyone come in costume. My wife, Carol, and I decided to come as a couple-she as a nurse and me in a straight jacket. I shaved half my head, then had a fake lobotomy scar put on my forehead. I just drooled a lot and no one recognized me. The whole Clark Kent thing really works-you take the glasses off and no one recognizes you. I couldn't use my hands to eat finger food. I was dependent on my wife. Those straight jacket restraints really work.

MM: Is it true that in King of the Ants, a piece of your wife's rosemary chicken was used to gory effect when star Chris McKenna bites a chunk out of someone's neck?

SG: Yes. Carol was catering the shoot, and it was such a low-budget affair that she did the cooking for everybody. We needed something for a particular scene-some meat in his mouth. I also invited Chris McKenna over after the shoot and fed him some ants. Real, honest-to-God, big, black ants on crackers with cream cheese. My brother, a nature writer who lives in Seattle, provided them. He wrote "Eat a Bug Café Cookbook," a gourmet's guide to eating insects. He was invited onto Conan O'Brien's show once. He had Conan eating cockroaches.

KJ Doughton (MM): Can you tell me about the time you took heat from authorities at the University of Wisconsin for staging a psychedelic version of Peter Pan?

Stuart Gordon (SG): I was arrested on obscenity charges in 1968. We did the production as a satire of the 1968 Democratic Convention, happening in Chicago. I turned it into a political allegory. Peter Pan and the Lost Boys became hippies, the pirates became the Chicago Police Department and Captain Hook became the original Mayor Daly of Chicago. After they all went off to Neverland, they dropped acid. That scene got us into trouble, because it was a psychedelic dance sequence and we had a light show projected onto the naked bodies of seven female dancers. We were told that we had to shut the production down. We felt that was a violation of our free speech so we performed it again-and got arrested.

I've always thought it might be fun to do a movie of the event, 'cause it was so crazy. We've even talked of the idea of doing Re-Animator as a musical, which would be really strange, with severed heads singing and dancing.

MM: In 1969, you formed Chicago's Organic Theater and oversaw several productions, including those written by David Mamet. Can you elaborate on that experience?

SG: It was an experimental theater, an ensemble of actors, designers and writers. We created original plays and adaptations. We toured, performed, and brought productions to other places, including New York. We had some wonderful members of the ensemble. Joe Mantegna and Dennis Franz were with us. It was a great time. We produced David Mamet's first play, Sexual Perversity in Chicago.

SG: Eventually, in 1984, you took on moviemaking with Re-Animator.

SG: I took a leave of absence from the theater to direct it, then I went back to work after shooting wrapped. It was during that time that the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The reaction was great.

MM: One of Re-Animator's final scenes, where the zombies burst out of the black bags under command of Professor Hill, is very effective. Each body has a different look to it.

SG: We had a gunshot to the head, a failed operation, a motorcycle accident and a burn victim. One pathologist I'd visited was asking me specifically about the corpses that would be seen in the movie. So I went through and listed them all. He said, "come back tomorrow." I came back the next day and he had a slide projector set up with a screen-and one chair. (laughing) The nurse says to me, "I hope you have a strong stomach," sits me down in the chair and starts going through slides that pathologists had taken of the various bodies they had worked with. It was kind of like, "Stuart Gordon, You Asked for It! Here's the gunshot to the head. Here's the burn victim." I started getting woozy. I was ready to pass out after about 10 minutes. I finally asked them to stop, and said, "Let me just hold them up to the light. If they're smaller, I think I can deal with this a little better."

The pathologist thought it was pretty funny. As a present, he actually ended up giving me a head block that they use for autopsies, which they put behind the neck to keep the head from moving around. Quite a souvenir.

MM: Do you feel that film can be a catharsis for violent emotions? Is it therapeutic, for instance, to produce and direct a horror film and deal with violence in a vicarious way?

SG: I think that horror films do provide catharsis. During the time of Greek tragedies, such productions would show the results of violence. Corpses, bloodied up with entrails. Viewers of Greek tragedies sometimes had miscarriages, it was such scary stuff. But the Greeks wanted to show how awful violence was. In our society, it's just the opposite. We like to show how cool it is and how much fun it is. I think that everyone has dark impulses that need to be purged out of our systems.

MM: Which three films would you recommend for a Halloween video party?

SG: To scare the crap out of someone, I would recommend Takashi Miike's Audition. Also, Cannibal Holocaust, a really disturbing film. Then, to capture a lighter Halloween vibe, Bride of Frankenstein.

MM: Is there a gory special effect in one of your movies that really stands out in your mind?

SG: I always thought that acting was the best special effect. I saw Reservoir Dogs on television recently. The performance of Tim Roth when he's bleeding and screaming in pain is so disturbing. How many times have you seen people get shot in movies? But in the case of that movie, it really stays with you. Roth does a fantastic job.

MM: The violence in King of the Ants is very disturbing. Would it be safe to say that this is a more realistic movie than most that you have directed?

SG: I would agree with that. The violence is brutal. Blunt objects are the weapons of choice-a flower pot, a dinosaur tooth, even a refrigerator. We're breaking new ground here!