Director Stuart Gordon and actor Jeffery Combs' (pictured above, from left to right) remarkable twenty-five-year collaboration has produced such contemporary classics as the H.P. Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator and From Beyond, and their latest work, Nevermore -- a one-may play about the last days of the immortal Edgar Allan Poe. Throughout its ninety-minute running time, Nevermore features Poe's poetry and prose, and offers a unique look inside the troubled mind of one of horror's founding fathers. I caught up with Gordon and Combs at this week's Fantastic Fest, where the two shared their insights into Poe, his literary progeny H.P. Lovecraft, their future plans for the play, and the Re-Animator musical (!). Read our conversation after the jump. 

Has the play changed much since it debuted last year in Los Angeles?

Combs: I think so. The structure is there and everything, but I've found some things, a different tone, a different quality in some places, a different emphasis on manner. I know when I opened the last thing that I learned was "The Tell-Tale Heart". Because I had so much to learn, and I figured, "Well look, I've got it right in front of me. I'm holding the papers." At this point I've got it a little more under my belt, a little more off book, shall we say. So that for me is the biggest thing.

Gordon: There are a lot of little discoveries. We're still finding things. I mean, there was stuff last night that I'd never seen before.

Combs: And you know, every time we go someplace else to do it, the dynamics [change]. I have to alter some things.

Gordon: It changes the show.

In your opinion, what is it about Poe that still resonates with readers?

Combs: I just think that Poe is very universal. He's so gifted that he, like any great artist, can make anyone feel like he's speaking to them. He deals with themes that are the human condition. There's a pathos and a melancholy aspect to him and his stories, and a darkness that a lot of people are unafraid of. Somehow they can deal with it in reading him, but it's sort of submerged in their own life. He's a brilliant artist.

Gordon: I think there's sort of a rock-star quality about Poe. I think the fact that he died so young, it's kind of like Jim Morrison. There's something like that about him. He's kind of this brilliant sort of flame that went out too soon. I also think what's fascinating to me about Poe is how he could be his own worst enemy. I think everybody feels that way sometimes. Poe always would talk about the perverse, the idea that just as things are going well you have to do something to screw it all up. I think that's why high school kids love him so much. They can relate to that completely, and I think we all can.

That's something Poe shares with Lovecraft. Is that part of why you find both writers appealing?

Gordon: There wouldn't have been Lovecraft if there hadn't been Poe first. Poe was a big inspiration for Lovecraft. I think even in his writing style he was trying to imitate Poe. But they moved in sort of different directions ultimately. Poe was much more about relationships and about women. With Lovecraft there are no women in his stories. It's kind of interesting in that regard. Lovecraft is all about these cosmic fears, and Poe is much more about personal anxiety.

Combs: I'm right there with you. There's something much more about relationships with Poe. There are people and you get to know those people. In the show, I do "The Tell-Tale Heart", and it's basically a monologue about an insane killer and his justifications. They're irrational, but he doesn't see it that way. That's very human. You don't get that in Lovecraft. Lovecraft is more atmospheric and metaphysical and "I can't even describe it it's so awful."

Gordon: But Lovecraft deals with madness a lot too. In "The Tell-Tale Heart" there is a connection with a lot of Lovecraft. Lovecraft's always about the guy who's in an insane asylum telling a story. So it's sort of like the set-up of "The Tell-Tale Heart".

Combs: There's also a lot in Lovecraft, with Re-Animator, with just that single-minded obsession people have, like Herbert West or the guy in "Mountains of Madness", who leads the expedition – nothing's gonna stop him.

Gordon: In Poe, here's a guy killing another guy because of his weird eye. One of the things that came through to us when we were working on this play was how eyes are such strong imagery in Poe's stories. He talks about Helen's eyes following him wherever he goes, or the Raven's burning eyes and so forth. The idea of being watched is something that really seems to be one of Poe's big fears.

When the play began there was some discussion of adapting it into a film. Is that still a possibility?

Gordon: Yeah, absolutely. I would love to make a movie based on Nevermore. It'd be great. We've been talking about doing more Poe projects. Because Poe is just such a fascinating guy. He's the creator of the detective story as well. There's a wonderful book about Poe solving a real murder that took place in New York City. It was a girl named Mary Rogers who was murdered in a very sensational story, in all the newspapers. Poe claimed that he could solve the murder, without leaving his apartment; that, based on all the accounts, he could piece together who did it. He set the story in Paris and he called it "The Mystery of Marie Roget", and it's really Poe's solution to an actual murder.

After you wrap Nevermore here in Austin, you're taking it to San Diego. Is that right?

Combs: Well, before that I'm going back to LA. I'm going to do one night at a Creation Weekend of Horrors Convention, October 16th. Then I go back to San Diego and do four nights there, December 9th through 12th. I did it there in January and they've asked me to come back.

Gordon: And we're talking to some people about the possibility of an east coast tour.

What else is next for you guys?

Gordon: I'm working on a couple of movie projects, but I'm also working on a musical version of Re-Animator for the stage, which I'm hoping to do at the Steve Allen Theater in LA next year.

Jeffrey, are you involved in that as well?

Gordon: I've tried to talk him into that, but to no avail.

Combs: Re-Animator's been very good to me, but I'm not sure I want to sing about it. [Laughs.] I'm doing some voiceover work. I'm the voice of Ratchet in the new animated series of the Transformers, coming up later this year on a new cable channel called The Hub. And I'm recording a voice for a movie next week called Motivational Growth, about a guy who's a recluse in his apartment. I'm the pile of mold in the corner that's giving him advice. [Laughs.] I've never done that before.

In real life, what are your greatest fears?

Gordon: I think everything. I can't really narrow it down. I'm a very fearful person.

Is that another reason why you relate to Lovecraft?

Gordon: Yeah, it really is. Lovecraft, he was the same way – he was afraid of fish, he was afraid of germs, he was afraid of women, and he was afraid of other races. And he kind of tapped into that – he took his fears and, as they say, made lemonade out of lemons. So yeah, I can't really narrow it down to one fear, unfortunately.

Combs: I'm with Stu. In fact, my fears are private. I don't really want to talk about them, out of fear! [Laughs.]

Gordon: I have to tell you a story about Dennis Paoli [the Re-Animator and Nevermore scripter], as long as he's not here… We went to the University of Wisconsin together (we've known each other since high school), and they made us all take this psych test when we first came to the university. They asked us, "Are you afraid of drowning? Are you afraid of snakes? Are you afraid of fire?" It was all these questions. Dennis answered "Yes" to everything [laughs], without having to go to the psychiatrist's office. I said, "Why did you do that?" He said. "Well, if I'm underwater for more than a minute, I'm afraid of drowning. If my house is on fire, I'm afraid of fire." [Laughs.]

Combs: They should have said "Do you have an unnatural fear of…"  Because everybody's afraid of those things! [Laughs.]

He sounds like a very honest man. [Laughs.]

Combs: Literal. He's a very literal man. [Laughs.]

Thank you both very much.

Gordon: Our pleasure.