We've been following the House of Re-Animator story for a little while now, but the project seems to be officially dead and buried at this point. According to a recent Fangoria piece, director Stuart Gordon was unable to get the funding for his splattery political satire, and now that George Bush is about to leave office -- the premise wouldn't exactly feel all that fresh. So while the Re-Animator series may live on in one form or another, it won't be going in this particular direction. Darn.

But in the same article, Mr. Gordon announced that he's just about to start casting for his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Thing On the Doorstep. While this short story is hardly one of Lovecraft's most acclaimed efforts, I think it's a damn solid little terror tale. Production on Doorstep will begin this summer. (Oh, and Gordon's Stuck opens this May, and if it plays near you, I'd say check it out.)

The second edition of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival gets underway Thursday night. Among the dozens of films premiering for local audiences, Stuart Gordon's Stuck, inspired by real-life events that transpired in nearby Fort Worth, stands out like a sore thumb to me. The film received some good reviews when it premiered in Toronto last fall; our own Scott Weinberg called it "more of a twisted thriller than an out-and-out horror movie ... [with] a sly and simple streak of social commentary." But my interest lies in issues beyond the film itself. Namely, can fictional depictions of real-life stories affect people like secondhand smoke?

One evening in the fall of 2001, twenty-something nurse's aide Chante Mallard partied at a club, drank some alcohol, split a tab of Ecstasy, smoked some marijuana, left the club, accepted a ride from a friend, picked up her car at her friend's apartment, and climbed into her gold Chevrolet Cavalier. A few minutes later, she hit a man on a dimly-lit highway. She was a mile and a half from her house in southeast Fort Worth, Texas.

Gregory Glenn Biggs flew into her windshield head-first. Mallard headed home. Badly injured, bleeding profusely and stuck in the cracked windshield, the hapless Biggs pleaded for help. Mallard pulled into her garage, got out of her car, closed the garage door, and went to bed. Biggs died.

How many times has this happened to you? You spend the evening drinking and doing drugs, and as you precariously drive home, you hit a pedestrian, leaving him embedded in your windshield. You figure he's dead, so you leave him where he is, park the car in the garage, and hope nobody finds out.

I think we've all been there. Iconic horror filmmaker Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) made a movie based on the idea, Stuck, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and has now been acquired by Image Entertainment for U.S. release. Sister company ThinkFilm will release it theatrically next spring, and then Image will handle the DVD sales.

The film stars Mena Suvari as the driver and Stephen Rea as the victim. The story has him not quite dead after all, and understandably P.O.'ed when he realizes she's left him out in the garage, stuck to her windshield, to die. Cinematical's Scott Weinberg, who knows horror like Rosie O'Donnell knows pizza, reviewed Stuck at Toronto and said: "Backed by a pair of very fine lead performances, several colorful background players, a quick pace, and a handful of truly memorable scenes, Stuck might just be Stuart Gordon's best flick since Dagon -- or even From Beyond."

Furthermore, it's "a surprisingly smart flick that starts out slowly and gradually explodes into a darkly satisfying finale."

It's based on a true story, apparently this one, which happened in Fort Worth. But Snopes, the indispensable urban-legend-cataloging site, shows that the Fort Worth incident is by no means unique. This confirms what I've always suspected: there are a lot of really scary drivers out there.

All the horror fans love Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, and the really hardcore horror fans are also well-versed on titles like From Beyond, Dolls, Fortress, Dagon and King of the Ants. Hell, even Gordon's relative misfires (Robot Jox, Castle Freak, Space Truckers) are more entertaining than most genre fare. Plus the guy's a well-respected stage director in Chicago, a close personal friend of David Mamet, and a filmmaker who sometimes steps away from the gory stuff and delivers a really crafty flick like Edmond.

So clearly I'm a fan of the guy's work. And when I saw that the Toronto Midnight slate was offering the director's latest project, I was pretty psyched indeed. (It doesn't hurt that the slate also includes new offerings from guys like Romero and Argento, but I'm digressing like a geek.) Anyway, Stuart Gordon's latest film is a welcome return to his old genre stomping grounds. More of a twisted thriller than an out-and-out horror movie, Stuck is still more than generous with the thrills, chills, and gooey gore-spills. Plus it has a sly and simple streak of social commentary, which adds a satisfying dash of subtext to a brutally bizarre story.

If you're a film geek like me, you're sitting on pins and needles waiting for the full Toronto International Film Festival schedule to be announced. I'm skipping out on the fest this year because I just put my kids through a 2,000 mile move (though I will be at Telluride giving you all the coverage you can handle from there), but that doesn't mean I'm not pumped up about Cinematical's TIFF coverage, which will be extensive.

The start of the fest seems ages away, and the full schedule isn't even announced for six more days -- stop teasing us already! (Yes, as a kid I did try to scope out the hidden locations of Christmas gifts well before the big day -- I've never liked surprises. What can I say, I'm a control freak.) In the meantime, here's something to whet your appetite: The TIFF Blogs are up and running at full steam. A little sampling of what you can find there:

The Full Frame Documentary Film Fest programmer Phoebe Brush shares her picks from the Real to Reel section with the group. Since docs are one of my own fave genres, I was especially interested in what Phoebe has to say about the TIFF selections. Phoebe's picks are The Dictator Hunter by Klaartje Quirijns (about the brutal regime of Hissène Habré, the former dictator of Chad) Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me, which played Silverdocs in June, where it won the Sterling Feature competition, and Encounters at the End of the World, which Werner Herzog fans and fanatics will no doubt be lining up to see in droves.

Other TIFF docs that we're especially interested in include Darfur Now, Hollywood Chinese, A Jihad for Love, and My Enemy's Enemy. Scott Weinberg and I saw My Kid Could Paint That at Sundance, and I'd recommend that one for a great doc to see and then talk about over late-night ales at a pub or a 2AM pizza slice.

Midnight Madness is always one of the most fun parts of TIFF, and Scott Weinberg will once again be Cinematical's Man at Midnight, bringing you all the hottest horror reviews and on-the-scene action from those always-zany midnight crowds. Over on the Midnight Madness Blog, MM programmer Colin Geddes gives you a sneak pick at one of the most-anticpated films in the Midnight section, Fumihiko Sori's Vexille. Geddes points all you anime fans to the film's official website, which is streaming the first 12 minutes of the film. Vexille premieres at TIFF on Sunday, September 9 at Midnight Madness.

Other Midnight Madness coverage we're itching to bring you: Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django, The Diary of the Dead, Mother of Tears, and Stuck.

TIFF is one of the few places where you can really sink your teeth into some Canadian film, and there are some hot films from Canada in this year's lineup, including David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which stars one of my other secret movie star boyfriends, Viggo Mortenson. I stood about 10 feet away from The Viggo at last year's TIFF while waiting to interview Laura Linney, and I can attest that he is even better-looking in person -- the man just radiates "movie star" -- but I must confess that I prefer him all dirty and bearded as Aragorn to golden and glowing for press interviews. Other notable Canadian offerings that we'll try to cover: Francois Girard's Silk, Bruce Sweeney's American Venus, Ernie Barbarash's They Wait, and Martin Gero's Young People F*cking (that one just because ... well, because the title alone intrigues us).

That's enough to get us excited for the fest, now we just need to see the full lineup and start counting down the days. Let us know what you're hot to see us cover at Toronto. And hey, indie filmmakers -- if you have a film at TIFF you'd like us to check out, let us know. Some of my own fave fest finds would've gotten lost in the shuffle if a filmmaker hadn't contacted me to let me know about it. Also, please get your film listed on IMDb and get an easy-to-find official website up! The more we can find out about your film, the more likely it will be to stand out from the slew of films we have to sort through to decide what to cover, so help us out a little here, will ya?

Start injecting caffeine into your veins, boys and girls, because the first eight Midnight Madness titles have been revealed for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. The biggest name title has got to be George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, in which the esteemed documenter of the dead goes back to his roots and tells a zombie origin story. Produced independently, Romero follows a kid named Jason (Joshua Close), who "obsessively films the madness" all around him as the dead return to life. I liked Land of the Dead, but I'd love to see what Romero does without studio interference.

Stuart Gordon is the other name director in the program and he's represented by Stuck. Not a traditional horror film, it's inspired by a true incident in which a nurse in Fort Worth, Texas (not far from where I lived at the time) struck a homeless man, drove home, parked in her garage, went to bed, and patiently waited until morning before calling the cops -- all with the hapless, bleeding man stuck in her windshield. Gordon has fictionalized the story, added some black humor, and cast Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea. Again, this sounds like it could be deadly good.

Also screening: Wilson Yip's Hong Kong action pic Flashpoint, starring Donnie Yen; highly-praised Japanese superhero comedy Dainipponjin; Xavier Gens' blood-soaked thriller Frontière(s); French "madwoman attacks trapped pregnant woman" suspense flick À l'intérieur; futuristic Japanese animated action film Vexille; and British gore-fest The Devil's Chair. Complete descriptions are available at the festival's site; you can also follow along with programmer Colin Geddes' blog. Two more titles are yet to be announced for Midnight Madness, which kicks off Friday, September 7.

[ Via Twitch ]

Mena Suvari is Stuck in a really really really bad situation. She has cornrows, a difficult job as a nurse practitioner and has just hit Stephen Rea with her car. The first trailer for the Stuck thriller is being hosted on Bloody-Disgusting. It's definitely bloody and the cast happens to include some of my favorite actors -- have you ever seen Stephen Rea not play someone interesting? And I've appreciated Mena Suvari since her very brave performance as the dirty-mouthed yet inexperienced teenager in American Beauty.

Aside from Suvari's terrible imposition, the trailer shows Rea going from one horrible moment to the next. It seems like the kind of bad day that every person wishes they could sleep through. Suvari is a hard working, party girl -- a personality conundrum? -- who appears to want more responsibility at work but puts everything in jeopardy after striking Rea with her car. What happens next could mean death for Rea and a huge cover up for Suvari in order to keep her life running smoothly.

Stuck is written and directed by Stuart Gordon. -- the director who brought us Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a far cry from his 'not for children fair.' Gordon is also responsible for Dagon and 1985's medical school experiment gone bad, Re-Animator. Stuck premiered last month at Cannes Film Festival -- its wide release date has yet to be determined.

Just over a month ago I shared with you the news that genre favorite Stuart Gordon was about to get rolling on an odd-sounding thriller called Stuck -- and I promised to bring you casting news when it became available. I really did! "Stuck begins production in New Brunswick next week. We'll let you know if any cool casting news hits the 'net." See?

Well anyway, some of the aforementioned casting news has indeed hit the 'net, and here's what we got: Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea. She'll play a young woman who smashes into a homeless man with her car, only to find him irretrievably lodged within her windshield. So she drives home with the guy "stuck" there, parks her car in the garage, and waits for the poor dude to die. Nice, eh? Gotta love good ol' Stu Gordon.

More than a dozen other actors have also been named as Stuck employees, but Rea and Suvari are easily the biggest names in the cast. Check out the rest of the actors at Bloody-Disgusting.com, which is where I originally found the information. Obviously.

It only takes one true-blue classic for the horror fans to embrace a filmmaker -- just ask Sean Cunningham -- but in the case of Mr. Stuart Gordon, we have a solid handful of goodies to choose from. Yep, 1985's Re-Animator is the guy's big hitter, obviously, but over the years Mr. G has turned out some fairly entertaining pieces of genre, most notably From Beyond (1986), Fortress (1993) and Dagon (2001). The Chicago-bred filmmaker recently gave William H. Macy some great opportunities in a big-screen adaptation of David Mamet's Edmond -- and now it looks like it's back to the horror scene for Stu.

Gordon's next film will be a thriller called Stuck, and it's about the terror that pursues a woman after she stupidly bails from the scene of a nasty hit & run accident. The director will be co-writing Stuck, which is reportedly based on actual events, with a guy named John Strysik, who once wrote a truly awful horror flick called Deathbed ... for producer Stuart Gordon.

Stuck begins production in New Brunswick next week. We'll let you know if any cool casting news hits the 'net. And there's been no new word on Gordon's apparent involvement in House of Re-Animator, but I have my fingers crossed.