Goodbye, Chuck Russell

Chuck Russell never achieved the status of horror legends like Carpenter, Craven, Cronenberg, Romero, or Hooper, but I put him in the same category as any of them.

Russell didn’t stick with the genre, which could be part of the explanation. He moved on to bigger productions in the nineties. His work in the field we love so much is relatively brief, but the ones he made are legendary.

Does any horror movie represent what was so fun about the mid-late eighties more than A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors? Wes Craven’s original movie is obviously the best of the series, but Dream Warriors is perhaps the most rewatchable.Fans adore this one in the same way we love Night of the Creeps. It touched our hearts and our souls.

In a way, aren’t we all dream warriors? We battle the monsters that invade our night thoughts. It’s a ceaseless struggle, but with the right weapons we keep the demons at bay. Our tools are horror movies and books. They are our strength and our unity with other horror people of the world.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is emblematic of its time and the MTV influence is strong. If there is such a thing as pop horror, this is it. Pop doesn’t necessarily have to be cheap and phony. Dream Warriors brought us together and it was a potent elixir for the genre.

Sure, this movie turned Freddy into a comedian, but that’s what we wanted. We wanted to laugh and cheer for the effects. This kind of movie is a celebration. If we wanted unrelentingly grim horror, we could always turn to Argento or Cronenberg.

We all know Stephen King ruled in the eighties. He lived up to his name as the monarch of horror. The Blob doesn’t really have anything to do with King or his work, but it feels like it should. The small town, the snappy dialogue, the humanity inside the horror. In retrospect it’s unsurprising that The Blob’s screenwriter, Frank Darabont, later directed a few of the finest King adaptations.

The Blob is one of the triumvirate of movies horror fans hold up as evidence that all remakes do not suck. The others are The Thing and The Fly. The Blob might not be in quite the same league as those two masterpieces, but it was a perfect film at the perfect time.

What’s not to love? Great practical effects, a comfortable setting, engaging characters, and one of the coolest alien monsters in cinema history. Tell me, why didn’t Kevin Dillon become a bigger star? The guy is good.

You’d think director Chuck Russell would be off and running with a horror career after the beloved Blob, wouldn’t you? Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

Horror fans loved The Blob, but that isn’t enough. The movie didn’t resonate with general audiences and it failed to make its production budget back.

Horror had hit a peak and was on the way down. Home video, once our savior, became a sinklhole. Horror product, or as they say today, content, began piling up on shelves. Direct to videotape, uninspired, lackluster productions were everywhere.

Chuck Russell didn’t direct another movie for six long years, but the next one was his biggest success. And I’ve never even seen it.

C’mon. It was 1994. My head was deep into the realms of the underground. I read Film Threat and was largely disgusted with Hollywood productions. They abandoned us and I abandoned it.

Many people chortled over Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, and Pauly Shore in the early nineties, but I wanted nothing to do with any of it. I was particularly nauseated by the previews of Carrey’s Ace Ventura: Pet Detective movie. So I wanted nothing whatsoever to do with The Mask. I heard it wasn’t bad, but the movie looked so garish and, in all honesty, the trailer made me physically sick.

I was aware that Chuck Russell directed The Mask, and I was happy for him. The movie was an enormous box office success. It just wasn’t for me.

Then there was Eraser. I had given up on the eighties action guys by then. Arnold, Chuck, Sylvester, Jean-Claude, their day had passed. Again, I heard Russell’s Eraser was pretty good, but if I was going to watch an action movie in those days, it was going to be Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, or something by Tarantino. It was another hit for Chuck.

I barely noticed some of his other movies. Bless the Child looked like a mess and The Scorpion King? Thank you, no.

I recently heard Chuck Russell helmed a remake of the eighties non-classic Witchboard. Good call, that. If you’re going to remake something, make it a bad movie with a decent premise. Like Witchboard.

I heard nothing but bad things about the Witchboard remake, and there’s no physical release that I know of, so I added it to the refuse pile.

Last night I heard Chuck Russell died, and it felt like a knife in my heart. I thought back to those halcyon days when my love of horror was untarnished. When a jokey franchise sequel was a spiritual experience for me. When everything was possible and nothing was off limits.

I mourned, but I didn’t watch Dream Warriors or The Blob. Instead I watched one of my very favorite comedies. A movie that was not directed by Chuck Russell, but produced by the man. I’m talking about Back to School.

I remember back when we saw Back to School. It was my old best friend Dennis, my brother, and me. We went to our last standing drive-in and we had a ball. Just us three, a case of beer and a bag of weed. A hot night, but we ignored the heat and the mosquitoes. We roared with laughter at Rodney Dangerfield.

I like Rodney’s Easy Money, but it’s a little grungy. Back to School is sweet and cheerful. There’s a little old school sexism, but even that seems innocent. It’s harmless fun and not hateful or dirty in any way.

And what a cast. Keith Gordon is wonderful and he shows some of the same range he displayed in Christine. Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Robert Downey, Jr, Adrienne Barbeau, M. Emmet Walsh, and Net Beatty are all great, and Oingo Boingo makes an appearance. Not only that, Kurt Vonnegut does a funny cameo.

For me, Back to School is a perfect comedy. I’ve seen it dozens of times and it still makes me happy.

Such joy. So many memories. Now Chuck Russell is dead. My brother Rick and my oldest friend Dennis are dead. The Cinema City Drive-In is dead too.

The movies live on, as do the warm memories. Three of Chuck Russell’s movies made indelible impressions on my soul. I literally would not be the person I am today without them. Without Chuck Russell.

Thanks, Chuck. Your time on this Earth was well-spent. Your movies help drive an entire genre and they are revered today. They will be remembered as long as people love to have a good time being scared and to laugh away the Grim Reaper.

Written by Mark Sieber