CLIVE BARKER WRITER

CANDYMAN (1992)

Helen Lyle is a graduate student conducting research for her thesis on urban legends. While interviewing freshmen about their superstitions, she hears about a local legend known as Candyman, who is summoned by anyone who looks into a mirror and chants his name five times (similar to the Bloody Mary folkloric tale). However, summoning him often costs the individual their own life. Later that evening, Helen and her friend Bernadette jokingly call Candyman's name into the mirror in Helen's bathroom but nothing happens.
While conducting her research, Helen enters the notorious gang-ridden territory known as Cabrini–Green, the site of a recent unsolved murder.

Based on the short story "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker, though the film's scenario is switched from England to Chicago.

Director: Bernard Rose
Writter: Clive Barker(Short story), Bernard Rose(screenplay)
Starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Vanessa A. Williams
Running Time: 99min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lFxWo_C2qs

Rating: 9/10

THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (2008)

The film opens as a well dressed, barrel chested man stalks the late-night passengers of a subway train. He kills several people with a meat hammer and a butcher's hook. He dispatches his prey with unnatural strength. He wears a ring on his finger, adorned with an eight pointed star. We are then introduced to Leon (Bradley Cooper), a photographer who heads into the city's subway system at night to take photographs and saves a woman from a group of guys harassing her. The next day, he discovers the girl has gone missing. Leon is intrigued and begins to investigate newsreels about similar disappearances. His investigation leads him to a butcher named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), who he suspects has been killing subway passengers for as long as ten years.

Based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name, which can be found in Volume One of Barker's collection Books of Blood.

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Writter: Clive Barker(Short story), Jeff Buhler(screenplay)
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Roger Bart, Ted Raimi
Running Time: 100min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk4u8dOOEcE

Rating: 7,5/10

DREAD (2009)

The outcast cinema student, Stephen Grace, does not drive cars due to the trauma of losing his brother in a car accident. He befriends, Quaid, who since the age of 6 has experienced dreadful nightmares and daydreams about the death of his parents. Quaid proposes they research about each one's innermost fear. Stephen sees the chance of developing an original thesis for college and invites his friend, Cheryl, to work with them. Among the interviewees, Stephen talks to his colleague, Abby who works with him in the library. Abby has a complex about the way she looks. When the work is almost complete, Quaid has an outburst at one interviewee's and ends up destroying the camera and editing equipment. Stephen begins to re-evaluate the situation.

Based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name, which can be found in Volume One of Barker's collection Books of Blood.

Director: Anthony DiBlasi
Writter: Clive Barker(Short story), Anthony DiBlasi(screenplay)
Starring: Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Evans, Paloma Faith, Hanne Steen, Laura Donnelly,
Running Time: 108min
Country: United Kingdom
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrrpBC3aqpY

Rating: 7/10

CLIVE BARKER WRITER & DIRECTOR

HELLRAISER (1987)

A man and wife who move into an old house and discover a hideous creature - the man's half-brother, who is also the woman's former lover - hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of S&M demons, the Cenobites, he is brought back into existence by a drop of blood on the floor. He soon forces his former mistress to bring him his necessary human sacrifices to complete his body... but the Cenobites won't be happy about this...

The story is based upon the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, who also wrote the screenplay and directed the film. It is the first film in the Hellraiser series. Seven sequels followed with the eighth, Hellraiser: Revelations, now in the works. A remake of the original Hellraiser film has also been announced and will be presented in 3D.

Director: Clive Barker
Writter: Clive Barker
Starring: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman, Oliver Smith, Doug Bradley
Running Time: 94min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAx34IZ8bTk

Rating: 9,5/10

NIGHTBREED (1990)

Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer) is a young man plagued by dreams of a city called Midian, a place where monsters can go to be forgiven and accepted. As a means of coping with these recurring nightmares, and at the request of his girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby), Boone is seeing psychotherapist Dr. Phillip K. Decker (David Cronenberg), who is in reality a serial killer. Donning a grotesque mask, Decker has been murdering families who he sees as disgusting "breeders". In their last session together, Decker attempts to pin the blame for his killing spree on Boone. Decker cites the fact that Boone has described the victims while he was under hypnosis as the key evidence. He gives Boone a bottle of Lithium and twenty four hours to turn himself in. Boone wanders the streets in a hallucinogenic haze, and is hit by a truck. He is taken to a hospital where the doctor informs him that he was under the effects of LSD and not Lithium. Boone realizes that Decker has set him up...

Based on his novella Cabal, Barker has expressed disappointment with the final cut and longs for the recovery of the reels so it might be re-edited.

Director: Clive Barker
Writter: Clive Barker
Starring: Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, David Cronenberg, Charles Haid, Doug Bradley
Running Time: 108min / Uncut: 159 min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MntiEGXQFk

Rating: 8,5/10

LORD OF ILLUSIONS (1995)

During a routine case in L.A., NY private investigator Harry D'Amour stumbles over members of a fanatic cult, who are waiting for the resurrection of their leader Nix. 13 years ago Nix was calmed down by his best trainee Swann. In the meantime Swann is advanced to a populary illusionist like David Copperfield and is married to the charming Dorothea. She hires D'Amour to protect Swann against the evil cult members. Short time later Swann is killed by one of his own tricks and the occurrences are turning over. And it crackles between Dorothea and D'Amour...

The film is based on his earlier short story, The Last Illusion (from Books of BloodVol. 6), and it presents Barker's signature character Harry D'Amour onscreen for the first time. Barker asserts that the director's cut of this film is his definitive version, as the theatrical release does not represent his true vision.

Director: Clive Barker
Writter: Clive Barker
Starring: Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O'Connor, Famke Janssen, J. Trevor Edmond
Running Time: 109min / Director's cut: 120 min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyJvOuxZDHY

Rating: 7,5/10

HORROR TV SERIES

THE KINGDOM (1994-1997)

(Danish title: Riget)

The Kingdom is the most technologically advanced hospital in Denmark, a gleaming bastion of medical science. A rash of uncanny occurrences, however, begins to weaken the staff's faith in science-a phantom ambulance pulls in every night, but disappears; voices echo in the elevator shaft; and a pregnant doctor's fetus seems to be developing much faster than is natural. At the goading of a spiritualist patient, some employees work to let supernatural forces rest.

American horror writer Stephen King developed a thirteen-episode mini-series based on Riget, under the title Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, which was broadcast in 2004. The plot retained many of the elements of Riget, transferring the location of the hospital to Lewiston, Maine, and placing it on the site of a mill built before the Civil War.

Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Søren Pilmark, Ghita Nørby, Baard Owe
No. of episodes: 8
Country: Denmark
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5McczZo-u4o

Rating: 9,5/10

THE WALKING DEAD (2010-...)

The Walking Dead tells the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse; it follows a small group of survivors, traveling across the desolate United States in search of a new home away from the shuffling hordes of the undead. The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a sheriff's deputy in King County, Georgia, before the zombie outbreak. As their situation grows more and more grim, the group's desperation to survive pushes them to the brink of insanity. At every turn they are faced with unspeakable horrors- both from the dead, and from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace.

Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun
No. of episodes: 6
Country: United States
Website: http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwpatSeulLs

Rating: 8,5/10

SUPERNATURAL (2005-...)

This television drama is about two brothers, Sam and Dean, who were raised by their father, John, to hunt and kill all things that go "bump in the night" after his wife, Mary, was murdered by something supernaturally evil when the boys were young. 22 years later the brothers set out on a journey, fighting evil along the way, to find their recently missing father who, when they finally meet up with, reveals he knows what killed their mother, a demon, and has found a way to track and kill it. Meanwhile, Sam starts to develop frightening abilities that include death visions, visions of people dying before it actually happens. These visions are somehow connected to the demon who murdered his mother...

Creator: Eric Kripke
Starring: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles
No. of episodes: 115 (6 seasons)
Country: United States
Website: http://www.cwtv.com/shows/supernatural

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmKLq1InbQc&feature=related

Rating: 8/10

MASTERS OF HORROR (2005-2007)

In 2002, director Mick Garris invited some director friends to an informal dinner at a restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California. The original ten “masters” attending were John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Don Coscarelli,Joe Dante, Guillermo Del Toro, Garris, Stuart Gordon, Tobe Hooper, John Landis and Bill Malone.Subsequently, Garris organized regular dinners with the group and invited other horror and genre directors to attend including Dario Argento, Eli Roth, David Cronenberg, Lucky McKee, Tim Sullivan, Wes Craven,Joe Lynch, William Lustig, Ernest Dickerson, Kat O’ Shea, Robert Rodriguez, James Gunn, Mary Lambert, Tom Holland, Peter Medak, Lloyd Kaufman and others.
In 2005, Garris created and produced an original anthology television series of one hour movies, written and directed by many of the "Masters" which was originally broadcast in the U.S. on the Showtime cable network. In several international territories, the films were released theatrically.

Creator: Mick Garris
No. of episodes: 26
Country: United States, Canada

Rating: 7,5/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (6)

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS (2003)

A girl, Su-Mi, is brought to a psychiatrist. She is unresponsive until shown a picture of her family. She is taken home by her father (Moo-Hyeon) along with her timid sister, Su-Yeon, where they are met by their difficult stepmother (Eun-Joo). That night Su-Yeon awakes to find somebody in her room and she flees to her sister. Su-Mi promises Su-Yeon that she will always be there for her and they fall asleep. Su-Mi awakens after a nightmare to find that Su-Yeon has begun her period, as has her stepmother, on the very same day. The girls look at some old photos, which reveal that Eun-Joo was a doctor and a coworker of their father. Su-Mi sees bruises on Su-Yeong's arms and accuses Eun-Joo. At dinner with guests - Sun-Kyu (Eun-Joo's brother) and his wife - Eun-Joo acts strangely. During dinner, Sun-Kyu's wife begins to choke and convulse on the floor. After they leave, Eun Joo investigates around, only to be startled by a hand that reaches out as she tries to pick up a pin...

Director: Ji-woon Kim
Writter: Ji-woon Kim
Starring: Im Soo Jung, Moon Geun-young, Yeom Jeong-ah, Kim Kap-su
Running Time: 115min
Country: Korea
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anF5XiN8QY8

Rating: 9/10

LAKE MUNGO (2008)

Sixteen-year-old ALICE PALMER drowns while swimming in the local dam. When her body is recovered and a verdict of accidental death returned, her grieving family buries her. The family then experiences a series of strange and inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Profoundly unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of psychic and parapsychologist, RAY KEMENY. Ray discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. A series of clues lead the family to Lake Mungo where Alice's secret past emerges...

Director: Joel Anderson
Writter: Joel Anderson
Starring: Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger
Running Time: 89min
Country: Australia
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2ISuVvP-XI

Rating: 8/10

TIMECRIMES (2007)
(Spanish: Los Cronocrímenes)

The protagonist Hector (Karra Elejalde) sits on a lawn chair outside his new country home, surveying the nearby wooded hillside through a set of binoculars, after receiving a strange phone call. Nearby his wife has just assembled a new coffee table, and, banteringly, he bets he will buy the groceries if the table fits through the front door. Then as his wife (Candela Fernández) returns to take out the car to buy groceries, having lost the bet, he catches sight of a woman removing her shirt amidst the trees and curious, goes to investigate. Finding the woman-but supine, naked and senseless he approaches but is attacked and stabbed in the arm with a pair of scissors by a sinister figure wrapped in a grotesque pink head bandage...

TimeCrimes director Nacho Vigalondo revealed that David Cronenberg is in the running to direct the upcoming English language remake of the popular Fantastic Fest award winner.

Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Writter: Nacho Vigalondo
Starring: Karra Elejalde, Bárbara Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo, Candela Fernández
Running Time: 88min
Country: Spain
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcGj9waK3u4

Rating: 8,5/10

THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009)

The film opens on a voyeuristic shot of college student Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) as she looks at an apartment. She cannot afford the security deposit, but the landlady agrees to accept the first month's rent instead. Samantha needs the apartment because her roommate is a slob who frequently has sex with her boyfriend all night long. When she sees a flyer advertising a babysitting job, Samantha calls the number and leaves a voice mail. The pay phone rings after she has hung up, and Mr. Ullman (Tom Noonan) arranges to pick her up outside the Student Affairs office. However, he never shows up. Ullman leaves a message with Samantha's roommate, and when Samantha calls him back, he apologizes for standing her up and offers her $100 to babysit that night. Seeing the money as the only way to afford her first month's rent, Samantha agrees, and her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) drives her to the house which is in the country. Megan is very skeptical, and begs Samantha to let her stay with her. When they get to the house, Ullman is very evasive when Megan asks him basic questions about who he is. He mentions the evening's lunar eclipse and how the town is the best place on Earth to see it. Eventually, he confesses that there is no child to babysit, only his mother...

The film attempts to recreate the 1970s and 1980s style of horror films, using filming techniques and technology similar to those used in that era.

Director: Ti West
Writter: Ti West
Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov
Running Time: 95min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SOur3WwZvM

Rating: 7,5/10