How A Series Of Gory B-Horror Films Led To Honey, I Shrunk The Kids
When Martin Scorsese set to work making "Hugo," a film based on Brian Selznick's children's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," it immediately got tongues wagging. What on Earth was the director behind films like "Taxi Driver," "Goodfellas," and "The Departed" doing helming a whimsical kids' adventure? At the time, his youngest daughter, Francesca (who's now internet famous for the Tiktok videos she makes with her old man), was only a preteen "We always joke around, my wife saying, 'Make a film your kid can see for once,'" Scorsese told THR. He added that it wasn't the only reason he made the film, "but it did help."
The point is, sometimes filmmakers just want to make a film their kids can watch. Such was the case for Stuart Gordon back in the late 1980s. The late multi-hyphenate had burst onto the horror scene earlier that decade thanks to his back-to-back H.P. Lovecraft adaptations "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond." Building on his controversial theater shows in the '70s, Gordon's films are splattery, nasty pieces of work. Reviewing "Re-Animator," Roger Ebert called the film "a livid, bloody, deadpan exercise in the theater of the undead" that had the audience he saw it with "emitting taxi whistles and wild goat cries."
Gordon's third film, "Dolls," was another gory B-horror film. It focuses on a group of people who are stranded and forced to spend a stormy night at the home of two elderly doll makers, unaware that their dolls are vessels for evil spirits. (Somewhere, James Wan just shivered.) After that, however, Gordon pulled a complete 180 by co-writing "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," Disney's smash-hit 1989 family adventure about an eccentric scientist who accidentally shrinks both his and the neighbors' kids with his latest invention. Why? Well, much like Scorsese, Gordon wanted to make a film fit for his daughter.
'Dad, how come we never get to see any of your movies'
In an interview from Maitland McDonagh's book "Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, The Bad, and the Deviant Directors" (via We Minored In Film), Stuart Gordon recalled how he and Brian Yuzna, who produced his first three directorial efforts, got it in their heads to make "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" in the first place:
"I remember really clearly how it all began. I was with Brian Yuzna in his backyard, and he was really upset because his kids had gone to see a movie called 'The Journey of Natty Gann,' which was directed by a neighbor (Jeremy Kagan) whose kids went to the same school as they did. The director's kids invited the entire class to come to an advance screening, and Brian's kids came home afterward and said, 'Dad, how come we never get to see any of your movies,' which knocked his nose a little out of joint."
Joking that Yuzna "will actually show his kids anything" (apparently, his son even sat in on the dailies for "Re-Animator"), Gordon explained, "My eldest daughter loves horror films, but my middle daughter [...] is terrified by them, and the slightest little thing will set her off and give her nightmares." Illustrating his point, he alluded to an incident where his middle daughter visited the set of "Dolls" and asked if she could keep a doll with "white buttons" after he assured her it wasn't evil like the other toys. This incident, coupled with Yuzna's own experience with his kids, convinced the duo to make a film that, among other things, their children could visit during production without fear of being traumatized.
A gentler B-movie, but a B-movie all the same
As Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna started brainstorming, Gordon said they "started talking about little kids playing in the backyard, because that's where we were having this discussion. And all of a sudden this idea kind of came together, about kids who get shrunk so they're teeny-tiny and the adventures they have trying to get across the yard, and we brought it over to Disney."
Knowing its origins explains so much about "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" when you think about it. Gordon and Yuzna's love of B-genre cinema is on full display in the film, which plays like the duo and director Joe Johnston's love letter to 1950s titles like "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "The Fly." It might not be a dyed-in-the-wool sci-fi/horror flick like they are, but it absolutely has one foot planted in that tradition. For all of its wondrous visuals and broad comedy, most of the film is about the titular kids avoiding a horrific premature death by the skin of their teeth after they're miniaturized, be it drowning in a muddy pool of water, getting torn to shreds by scorpions and lawnmowers, or being eaten by their own parent. Composer James Horner even employs an electric organ in his score at times, further emphasizing the horror-tinged nature of the story.
"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is also a blast to watch when you're a kid. It's intense enough to keep youngsters on the edge of their seats, yet upbeat, playful, and even heartfelt enough to avoid overwhelming them. It might even be the perfect gateway to sci-fi and horror B-movies to show your own children, if that's what you're looking for.