Still a Threat: Chris Gore Reflects on 40 Years of Film Threat

From discovering Quentin Tarantino to challenging Hollywood’s conventional wisdom, the Film Threat founder reflects on four decades of independent filmmaking and a new effort to preserve its history. Hollywood has never been particularly fond of outsiders who refuse to play by its rules. Fortunately for the world of indie filmmaking, Chris Gore never seemed especially interested in following the rules. Four decades ago, Gore launched Film Threat as a scrappy, Xeroxed fanzine devoted to the movies the entertainment establishment largely ignored. What followed was a front-row seat to the independent-film revolution, an irreverent magazine that delighted in poking Hollywood’s sacred cows, and a career built around championing filmmakers who didn’t fit the industry’s preferred mold. Take Quentin Tarantino for example. Before Pulp Fiction made him a household name, Tarantino was a young filmmaker whose debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, left Gore and a handful of movie journalists convinced they’d witnessed something extraordinary. “When we saw Reservoir Dogs, it was like a… this is a revolution,” Gore recalled during a recent interview with Bleeding Fool. “This was on another level.” Gore ...