Clive Barker: Horror-smith
July 7th, 2008 Posted in Books, Games, Movies/TV, Reviews
Those who have known me for some time know that if I am a fan of anything, it’s horror movies. I love them, thus I love all things horror. In fact, I even enjoy nightmares — provided nothing happens to anyone I love or that I am not to endure any undue stress, of course. Of course, I am a fan of Sci-Fi too, so my favourites include the Alien series, and Event Horizon, the latter demonstrating my true love… Clive Barker. Sure, I know Barker had nothing to do with Event Horizon, but it was quite obviously a love dedication to him (among others, of course). For me, the Barker-isms were what tattooed that film in my heart, and for this reason, my favourite horror films of all time may be evident to those in the know: the Hellraiser series.
Don’t get me wrong. Not all of them are even worth watching. For me, the Hellraiser series ended at number 4, Hellraiser: Bloodlines (although I believe they have now reached 9… sigh) — the first four movies cemented the story in stone, while the later flicks just milked the name. Some of them weren’t terrible… but most of them were. Watch 1-4, enough said.
But my love for Barker doesn’t end at the Hellraiser movies (although in reality, Barker didn’t play a major part in the Hellraiser series after the first couple) — I also enjoyed the critical flop Nightbreed, also based on a story by Barker (entitled ‘Cabal,’ Hellraiser was based on his ‘The Hellbound Heart’ story), and for this reason, I got into his books as well, some of which are genius and severely underrated. Weaveworld is a prime example, and should be read by any fan of fantasy — while there are some very minor elements of horror in these stories, many of them are fantastical at heart (excluding the dedicated horror stories, of course, such as the also-brilliant ‘Books of Blood’).
Barker has had a lot of influence on video games as well. His most recent effort, ‘Clive Barker’s Jericho,’ was again not the success it could have been, but probably not due to any fault of the man himself, and more due to some flawed gameplay aspects. However, the demo I played kicked absolute ass, I must admit. In fact, when I find the game at a more reasonable price, I’m pretty sure I will pick it up.
My problem does lie, though, in the fact that my wife is incredibly anti-horror. She has bad dreams, and cringes like it really hurts her to even hear the sound effects… Sigh… Means I have to play/watch only at extremely opportune moments, and possibly only by using a set of headphones. Damn. I had to play Bioshock alone, for example! Extreme!
Anyway, my main point here is Clive Barker is a horror genius, and well-respected for it. He has a very interesting view on horror, one that can be emulated (and in the case of Event Horizon, emulated well), but it is obvious when the person behind the design is Barker himself. On top of that, Pinhead is one of the most recognisable horror characters around, even known to those who have never seen the movies. And he’s a GREAT character. So what’s happening in Barker-land?
Well, the first Hellraiser is being remade. At first, I thought this was sacrilege, but it turns out it will be rewritten by Barker himself, and brought into the modern age. Sounds like fun! Then there’s a new book coming, based on Pinhead in somewhat more detail than ‘The Hellbound Heart’ (in which the demon is not even named, nor aptly addressed), to be titled ‘The Scarlet Gospels.’ Looking forward to that. In fact, I think Mr. Barker has been pretty busy of late, lots of new books available recently/soon. Good. Then there are the movies… The Midnight Meat Train looks good, and is coming out this month. Next will be the Book of Blood, possibly coming this year as well, followed by (what I think is) a really interesting one - Down, Satan!, which was a (very) short story about a man that created Hell on Earth to get God’s attention. Sounds like a nifty idea, looking forward to watching that alone, too…
If you’re into horror, or even just fantasy, Barker is worth checking out. I definitely recommending.
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