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

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (3)

GROTESQUE (Jap.: Gurotesuku) (2009)

A young couple Aki and Kazuo (Tsugumi Nagasawa and Hiroaki Kawatsure) are snatched off the street while having their first date as a romantic couple after a few years working in the same office, and wake up shackled in a scary basement, which has all its walls covered with plastic. With no further explanation, a sadistic madman (Shigeo Ōsako) degrades, tortures and mutilates them. Initially, he punctures Kazuo's belly with a screwdriver and slices his tongue, then rapes both, one at a time, forcing the other to watch. Sometimes he stops the torture to provide medical assistance and cure the couple's wounds, so they can continue alive for a long period of time. This way he cuts off all their fingers, makes collars with them, pops out Kazuo's right eye, removes the girl's nipples and cuts off her right arm.
As the torture progresses, it is revealed he is simply doing it for sexual stimulation, and tells the couple he wants the two to survive...

Director: Kôji Shiraishi
Producer: Kazue Udagawa, Kyôsuke Ueno
Writter: Kôji Shiraishi
Starring: Hiroaki Kawatsure, Tsugumi Nagasawa, Shigeo Ōsako
Running Time: 73min, Japan: 69min (censored version)

Rating: 7/10

HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE (1996)

The film begins at Space Station Minos in the year 2127. Paul Merchant, the man who built the station, has a robot solve the Lament Configuration (the robot is subsequently destroyed). However, several guards led by Rimmer capture Paul. Paul tells Rimmer the story of his bloodline.
A flashback is shown to around 400 years ago. Philip Lemarchand, a French toymaker, makes the Lament Configuration for a wealthy aristrocrat named Duc de L'Isle, who is obsessed with dark magic. He and his apprentice, Jacques, kill a woman and remove her insides from her skin, and L'Isle uses dark magic with the Lament Configuration to summon a demon princess named Angelique in the woman's skin. She is theirs to command unless they stand in Hell's way. However, Angelique and Jacques betray and kill de L'Isle. Lemarchand, in the process of inventing a design (the Elysium Configuration) to destroy the demons, attempts to steal back the box but is discovered. Jacques callously informs the toymaker that he and his bloodline are cursed until the end of time because of the box he created, before ordering Angelique to kill him. However, his wife survives...

Director: Kevin Yagher, Joe Chappelle
Producer: Clive Barker, Anna C. Miller, Paul Rich
Writter: Peter Atkins
Starring: Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, Kim Myers, Charlotte Chatton, Paul Perri, Doug Bradley
Running Time: 86min

Rating: 8/10

AUDITION (1999)

Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower who lost his wife to an illness seven years prior, is urged by his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), to begin dating women again. Shigehiko is somewhat doubtful of his father's love life, but plans to move out when he finishes school and does not want his father to be alone. Aoyama's friend and colleague, Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), a film producer, devises a plan to hold a mock-audition, in which young, beautiful women would audition for the "part" of Aoyama's new wife, under the impression that they are auditioning for a new film, but actually so Aoyama can marry one of the finalist contestants.
Aoyama is immediately enchanted by Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a 24-year-old woman with a soft voice and reserved, yet confident, mannerisms. In her audition, Asami says that she was once a ballerina headed for greatness, but had to give up dancing after an injury. Aoyama, still reeling from the death of his wife, is attracted to her apparent emotional depth.
Yoshikawa warns him about Asami, saying that he has a bad feeling about her. None of the references on her résumé were able to be reached and her job history is shaky. The music producer she claimed to work for had gone missing. Aoyama is so enthralled by her inner and outer beauty that he is blinded by his feelings for her.
She lives in an empty apartment, furnished only with a sack and a telephone. Four days following the audition, she sits perfectly still in the middle of the floor next to the telephone, waiting for it to ring. When it finally does, the sack lurches across the room and makes gurgling sounds. She ignores it as she waits a few rings before answering.
When Asami answers the phone, she confesses to Aoyama that she never expected him to call. After several dates, she agrees to accompany him to a seaside hotel...

Director: Takashi Miike
Producer: Satoshi Fukushima
Writter: Ryu Murakami (Novel), Daisuke Tengan
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina
Running Time: 115min

Rating: 9/10