MORE HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR INFORMATION!

Yeah, let's talk movies! I've written on this before, but Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator's original director) will be shooting this one soon. Gordon's "Stuck" should be out this year, probably in the summer, and boasts an almost all-star cast that includes Stephen Rhea and Mena Suvari.Virtually all the original crew are going to be coming-back, including writer Dennis Paoli, producer Bryan Yuzna, Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbot as "Dan" from the first film, the strong-possibility of William H. Macy as the president, and with some luck--Barbara Crampton, the svelt-gal who...you know. Yuzna had this to say in December to Gli Occhi sul Cinema, and it reveals a lot of the plot points of the series:

"The proposed first one, HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR would have West being called to the White House to re-animate the deceased Vice-President. Of course, by the time the dust settles, even the President has been re-animated and West is the power behind the throne. The second would be RE-ANIMATOR UNBOUND! West would have his own feifdom amidst a war zone. There his experiments take him directly in conflict with religion and face to face with the Old Ones of Lovecraftian lore. The final episode would be RE-ANIMATOR BEGINS. After having his mind pretty much erased by the trauma of Unbound! West is brought back to his senses (during which we get to see some of West’s boyhood) by a mysterious doctor who turns out to be his mentor Dr. Gruber’s niece. Back at the medical school in Switzerland (where it all began in the original RE-ANIMATOR) West recreates his early experiments, but makes the fatal mistake of breaking one of his basic tenants when he finds himself having feelings for....a woman."

Sounds excellent with Stuart Gordon directing, and Dennis Paoli writing!! The original Re-Animator will always be one of the best of 80s indie-horror, and has a fond place in most genre fans' hearts. I doubt highly that Gordon and company will disappoint, he gets better-and-better with each film. It should be noted that House of Re-Animator is not an explicit satire of the Bush administration, they already do a better job themselves. Gordon and Yuzna are products of the counterculture, but they know how to make movies that are lasting. While Gordon has had more hits than misses than Yuzna, they're a great team, and a boon for those of us who want to see the envelope pushed again as they did in the 1980s.

Yuzna and Gordon seem poised to do so again, against all conventional wisdom and odds! Gordon recently had a new short film aired on Showtime's Masters of Horror series, an interpretation of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Black Cat," and it sounds like one of the best versions yet. Please go the to entire interview, it's instructive in how the process of movie making works (or doesn't). It's a good day for film when these kind of movie makers have a blank-check! 2007 and 2008 might be some of the best years for horror yet. Rumors at esplatter.com tell two-stories: one, that Jeffrey Combs has stated at a horror convention that the project is dead, the other a confirmation from Bryan Yuzna that it is not (http://www.esplatter.com/2006news/houseofreanimator.htm). Time will tell. Besides, when the world is on-fire, horror tends to thrive. Now, if Cronenberg would just do one-more horror film...

Gli Occhi sul Cinema: http://www.occhisulcinema.it/Dos-Brian%20Yuzna%20USA.htm