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This book explores the diverse literary, film and visionary creations of the polymathic and influential British artist Clive Barker. It presents groundbreaking essays that critically reevaluate Barker's oeuvre. These include in-depth analyses of his celebrated and lesser known novels, short stories, theme park designs, screen and comic book adaptations, film direction and production, sketches and book illustrations, as well as responses to his material from critics and fan communities. The book examines Barker's earlier fiction and its place within British horror fiction and socio-cultural contexts. Selected tales from the Books of Blood are exemplary in their response to the frustrations and political radicalism of the 1980s British cultural anxieties. Aiming to rally those who stand defiant of Thatcher's polarising vision of neoliberal British conservatism, Weaveworld is revealed to be a savage indictment of 1980s British politics. The book explores Barker's transition from author to filmmaker, and how his vision was translated, captured, and occasionally compromised in its adaptation from page to the screen. Barker's work contains features which can be potentially read as feminine and queer, positioning them within traditions of the Gothic, the melodrama and the fantastic. The book examines Barker's works, especially Hellraiser, Nightbreed, and Lord of Illusions, through the critical lenses of queer culture, desire, and brand recognition. It considers Barker's complex and multi-layered marks in the field, exploring and re-evaluating his works, focusing on Tortured Souls and Mister B. Gone's new myths of the flesh'.
conflicted collisions between sexuality and horror. Following Hellraiser , Barker would direct just two other feature films, Nightbreed (1990) and Lord of Illusions (1995), both of which continued the engagement with themes of transgression, sexuality, and the body. This chapter will examine how each of Barker's directorial efforts deals with these issues in relation to
the Crypt 's ( 1989 –96) Cryptkeeper. Barker's involvement in these theme park mazes has received no attention in scholarship on his relationship to the film and media industries, with most work focusing on his innovations as a director in early films like Hellraiser , and subsequent frustrations with studio interventions on titles like Nightbreed (1990) and Lord of
fiction) is in fact extremely popular amongst female horror fans and holds strong appeals for women. 6 The filmic adaptations of his work are a specific pleasure for these female horror fans, with Hellraiser , Candyman , and Nightbreed being well-loved and highly regarded films amongst this group. In the discussion that follows, I will interrogate the ways in which these
-consuming roles of the writer/director on Hellraiser did little to slow Barker's remarkable publishing pace: in 1988 Barker published the novella Cabal (which was quickly adapted to the screen and was the second film to be directed by Barker, re-titled as Nightbreed ( 1990 )), and made a significant departure from the horror genre with the publication of two of his
nothing but trouble. As a mainstream filmmaker, 4 Barker had started with something of an Orson Welles moment. From the triumph of Hellraiser (1987) came the disaster of Nightbreed (1990), which, like The Magnificent Ambersons ( 1942 ), was compromised and re-edited following studio interference. 5 Though also compromised in theatrical exhibition Lord of Illusions fared
Barker's work and restoration director of Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut (1990/2012) has remarked: ‘Barker had an affair with comics when he was young. He saw that words and images could go together.’ 1 Barker himself has asserted earlier in his career that: ‘I think the two major narrative impulses which brought me to the way I write were comics and movies, no doubt about
particular favourites. 5 Hellraiser , adapted and directed by Barker from his novella The Hellbound Heart , is the most frequently mentioned film, named by 33 participants. 6 Nightbreed (again adapted and directed by Barker from his novel Cabal ) is named by 13 participants and appears in 13th place on the list. In addition, two Hellraiser sequels – Hellbound
is the human, the facade of the normal, that tends to become the place of terror within the postmodern Gothic. 12 This empathy with the ‘other’ and the unmasking of the tyranny of the ‘normal’ is an expected subversion with the postmodern Gothic, with Cabal (1988) and Nightbreed (1990