From The Archives: The Unholy Rebirth of Clive Barker0
Posted In Blog,Books,Entertainment,Interviews
“What it comes down to is two words: creation and imagination.”
– Clive Barker
You know his name, you know his movies, and you damn well better know his books. Twenty years ago, Clive Barker redefined horror literature with his infamous Books of Blood; a genre-shattering, breakthrough collection of abbreviated nightmares in print. His fantastic tales were a masterful blend of extreme horror and poetry of the perverse, comparable to the best of Poe and de Sade.
His six controversial anthologies, of course, were a huge success and lead Barker to a rightful seizure of horror’s cinematic throne just three years later with Hellraiser, the highly influential, flesh-wrecking slice of sadistic cinema and unholy nativity of Pinhead, one of the genre’s most intriguing and enduring icons.
Nevertheless, over the last decade, Barker has been criticized by genre fans for abandoning horror in both literature and cinema, his last directorial effort having been 1995’s Lord of Illusions. But a closer look at his body of work reveals that, despite varying subject matter, he’s never really left us at all. Now armed with a bloody bible of new material and grand designs, Clive Barker is poised to reinvigorate the genre in the way only he can.
Like the great William Blake, Barker is an artistic polymorph; whether it be painting, poetry, erotica or horror, his monolithic imagination has always addressed the strange, dark and unusual right on through to Abarat, his new series of childrens’ fiction. Whatever artistic discipline he expresses himself through, Barker always dives deep into the dark waters of his soul for inspiration, fearlessly exploring its boundless depths.
Barker comes full circle with his film label Midnight Picture Show, a collaboration with Anthony DiBlasi and Joe Daley, the creative team behind Barker’s Seraphim Films (Saint Sinner, Lord of Illusions). The new genre-specific, hard horror label plans to produce two films per year taken from the Books of Blood anthologies, with the purpose of creating and entire library of movies aptly-titled the Films of Blood.
Beginning with Midnight Meat Train, a cannibalistic tale of subway train terror from the very first volume, MPS plans to follow up with a delicious assortment of Blood stories including Pig Blood Blues, Age Of Desire, In The Flesh, The Madonna, The Life Of Death, Jacqueline Ess and Twilight At The Towers.
In addition to producing the Films of Blood, Barker also plans to return to the directors chair with Tortured Souls, a new movie based on his McFarlane line of toys. And if you’ve been turned off by the fantasy literature that the author has been pumping out over the last ten years, a new anthology of collected shorts and poetry – which includes a story that will spell the death of Pinhead – is the violent Viagra pill you’ve been waiting for.
SuicideGirls communed with Barker in a frank and intimate talk on everything from his struggle to get the Books of Blood published to his fear of dying. Sit down, eavesdrop…
