TRAILER TRASH: Hellraiser Edition!

Hump-Day Harangue: What the Hell Is the Industry's Problem with Clive Barker?

As if I don't rant enough already up in here, I'm kicking off a new very special section in which to unleash my vitriol in print form. And in this case, the source of my frustration is the apparent complete lack of confidence that film producers and distributors seem to have in one Clive Barker. Yes, Clive Barker, the man who is one of the finest writers of horror literature of the 20th century, the man Stephen King wishes he could be. And yet, for some reason, this guy can't seem to get arrested in Hollywood.

First came last year's Midnight Meat Train debacle. Based on one of Barker's stories, the film was one of the most original, daring and visually stimulating pieces of horror cinema in 2008. And yet at the last minute, the theatrical distribution got pulled. The masterpiece of a horror flick was destined for the direct-to-DVD pile, but thanks to a grassroots campaign started up by an outraged Barker himself, it was at least released to rinky-dink second-run houses in a few select markets. A far cry from what should have been.

I suppose the feeling was that a film with such a hard R rating would have trouble raking in the bucks. But come on, there are plenty of hard R flicks out there that do quite well without pandering to the coveted high school demographic. I mean, here you have a horror film that is actually imaginative and interesting, as opposed to the slew of derivative garbage that seems to get carte blanche out there in the market these days. I just don't get it.

And now, the latest Barker-related controversy has to do with what is, for my money, one of the most underrated horror films of the 1990s, Barker's Nightbreed. The picture marked the return of Barker to the director's chair for the first time since the original Hellraiser, and was another truly original and arresting vision. And yet as great as it was, there was always talk of lost footage that was cut against Barker's wishes, and the fact that a true director's cut would prove to have been an even better film.

So obviously, the recent news that, contrary to previous beliefs, the supposedly lost extra footage of Nightbreed actually exists, was met with some excitement from Barker fans. Excitement that was quickly squelched when it was learned that the studio had no desire to dig up the footage and do anything with it, since they felt there isn't enough of a market for it to justify the expense. Not of creating a director's cut--not even of remastering the film for Blu-Ray release.

What gives? Why the lack of support for the work of one of the most beloved authors in the horror community? The Midnight Meat Train thing was bad enough, but this Nightbreed situation is really a slap in the face, both to Barker and his fan base. Don't forget, we're talking about two excellent, innovative and truly unique horror films--not the PG-13 pablum that gets spoonfed to us on an almost weekly basis (the bad-assery of Drag Me to Hell being a major exception, obviously).

But fear not, gentle readers. Because once again, everyone's favorite openly gay horror writer is back on the case, and we can all help him. The footage does indeed exist, which is very good news. And which means that all it will take is a good swift fanboy kick in the ass to these studio execs to make them see that there indeed enough freaks out there willing to plunk down their hard-earned ducats for this bad boy.

The excellent website Clive Barker Revelations is working with the author on another grassroots campaign. If you're a Nightbreed fan who'd like to see the flick get the director's cut, special edition DVD and/or Blu-Ray release it deserves, email these guys here or send a Tweet to @philandsarah. The full Twitter page is here. The support has already reportedly been rolling in. You can also read a lot more about the whole mess, including comments from Barker himself, right here.

There's nothing we can do about the Midnight Meat Train stupidity, what's done is done. But we can take a stand and see to it that Nightbreed gets the treatment it really deserves. And that the visionary Clive Barker actually gets shown a little bit of respect from an industry that seems content to spew out the likes of Prom Night remakes and Final Destination part 27.

Clive Barker Praises New Hellraiser Director, Trashes New Pinhead Design

Ryan Rotten over at ShockTillYouDrop has an exclusive up with Clive Barker that is pretty interesting. Kudos to Ryan for getting the notorious opinionated Barker on the horn.

The writer/director had much to say about the upcoming remake of his most famous work, Hellraiser. Firstly, he commented on the addition of another writer/director, Pascal Laugier (nominated for a Cyber Horror Award for his work on Martyrs), who replaced Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury of Inside fame:

"I fuckin' love Martyrs... it's a movie that has courage and commitment. [Pascal] is someone who really, really cares about horror movies. I'm supposed to be seeing a treatment soon. I'm not certain, but I believe he is going to back to the first movie, but not with an obsessed loyalty. He's taking the first movie as a launching board, a rock model, but there are things you can obviously do now both visually and sexually... It's a different time, so I'm excited."

Conversely, when the topic switched to the controversial redesign of lead cenobite Pinhead that surfaced on the web a few days ago, Barker was a little less enthusiastic/complimentary:

"The whole point about Pinhead is that he is geometrically severe. Very measured, and the energy of the character comes out of the fact that you have surgical precision which is part of a much larger, sadistic, maybe masochistic, design. Turning the bloodless cuts or scarifications into bloody, irregular gashes removes the point of what made the character interesting in the first place."

Ironically, the new design was created by Gary Tunnicliffe, makeup artist for the sequels to the original Hellraiser.

Want to See The Midnight Meat Train?

Clive Barker fans who were outraged at the way in which Lions Gate shafted his latest film The Midnight Meat Train now finally have the opportunity to see it. Starting today, FEARnet is offering the brutal serial killer pic as part of its cable VOD service. If you don't have FEARnet with your cable package, don't worry, it gets better. On October 30, for one day only, FEARnet has announced you will be able to watch the movie for free on their website.

Adapted from a Barker short story, the film version of Midnight Meat Train was the subject of much controversy recently when Lions Gate raised the ire of fans, and of the author/director himself, by making the last-minute decision to consign the movie to an extremely limited theatrical release, then dump it straight to DVD.

FEARnet is currently carrying an exclusive promo clip from the increasingly unhealthy-looking Barker introducing the film.

Clive Barker Trashes PG-13 Horror, Approves Remakes

Barker has been quite the opinionated little camper in the past year. First, he lashed out against torture porn, then rightfully spoke his mind regarding Lions Gate's treatment of his latest film, The Midnight Meat Train. And now, he's speaking his mind to MTV on some hot topics within the genre.

Firstly, he's made it quite clear that he's all for the upcoming remakes of his classic movies Hellraiser and Candyman, provided there's a good story to be told, and that something different and interesting will be done to make them worthwhile. He inferred that he'd rather see a quality remake than a sequel which does a shoddy job of adding to the franchise. A while back, he had officially given his blessing to the Hellraiser remake in particular, but the directors he had approved have since left the project.

Also, Barker made some strong remarks with regard to the recent trend of trimming down horror flicks in order to get a more audience-friendly PG-13 rating:

"It’s one of the most disgusting developments in the last few years; the whole notion of a PG-13 horror movie to me is a contradiction in terms. It’s like having a triple-X Disney picture. It doesn’t work... Wes [Craven] says that ‘When you go into a horror movie, you need to feel that you’re in the hands of a madman.’ Now what madman makes a PG-13 picture, right? Your horror-movie madman… doesn’t neaten up all the edges and make it all nice for mommy. [Studios] do it because they want to bring in younger audiences and make more money. But they don’t make better movies."

While I agree with Barker primarily, there has to be a distinction made here. In recent cases in which this phenomenon has occurred (such as Prom Night), you're talking about a situation in which studios have taken material that is clearly meant to be of an rated-R caliber and diluted its effectiveness by forcing it into a PG-13 pigeonhole. From a creative and artistic standpoint, that's clearly a disastrous development. However, that said, I don't agree that there can be no such thing as a great PG-13 rated horror movie. In fact, I think that's kind of ridiculous.

There certainly can be excellent horror movies rated PG-13 (and even milder!)--they're just different types of horror movies. Not the kind in which excessive body parts--both internal and external--are on plentiful display. But there are movies which can fully accomplish what they need to, and be effective, without exceeding the MPAA's guidelines for PG-13. For example, movies like The Others, The Ring, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Lady in White were all very good, and all rated PG-13. But to be clear, none of them were "trying to be R."

For that matter, what about every single great horror movie made before 1965, when filmmakers were unable to make movies of an R-rated type? Are we saying none of them are effective, none of them have the power to disturb us? Psycho would certainly be rated PG-13 if it were made today, maybe even PG--do we accuse Hitchcock of "neatening up the edges"? Granted, he didn't have the option of making his movie any more graphically violent, but would that really have made it any better than it is? Heck, Universal gems like Frankenstein and The Wolf Man would probably earn a G rating today. For my money, Nosferatu is a more powerful horror movie than many rated-R horror movies I've seen.

So I guess my point is, filmmakers should not be asked to reign in their vision in order to fit a PG-13 rating--but at the same time, we shouldn't broadly proclaim that it's impossible to make a PG-13 horror film that isn't well worth seeing.

He Has Such Sights to Show You...

British-born Clive Barker, in addition to being a prolific author and filmmaker best known for writing and directing Hellraiser, is also an accomplished artist who has been exhibiting his work for 20 years now. And now for those in the New York area, a rare treat: Barker's latest exhibition will be taking place at the Sloan Fine Art gallery in Manhattan.

An opening reception will be held on Wednesday evening, and the exhibition will last until Saturday, May 10. Included amongst the pieces on display will be some of Barker's conceptual artwork for his upcoming film The Midnight Meat Train (such as the painting above).

Sloan Fine Art is located at 128 Rivington Street. Gallery hours are: Wednesday and Thursday noon to 6, Friday and Saturday noon to 8, and Sunday noon to 6. For more information, or to check out more samples of Barker's work, go to sloanfineart.com.

Pinhead No Match for the Writers Strike

Bad news today for all you Cenobite fans. Box Office Mojo is reporting that MGM's remake of Clive Barker's 1987 classic Hellraiser has been temporarily derailed. Originally slated to come out in September, the Weinsteins' produced flick has now been bumped to an undetermined 2009 release.
The delay in production would appear to be a result of the ongoing WGA strike, which has also reportedly stalled Eli Roth's next project, Trailer Trash.

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The issue with the Dawn of the Dead music tracks from yesterday's post has been resolved. Feel free to check them out!

Barker Rips Roth, Zombie, Current State of Horror

In a very candid interview with Bloody-Disgusting.com, kinky horror maven Clive Barker took a controversial stand against the current trend of so-called "torture porn". After killing a lot of time talking about video games (yawn...), Barker--best known as the creator of Hellraiser and Candyman--was asked what he sees as the future of horror, to which he responded:

"I don’t want horror to become what Eli Roth does and what Rob Zombie does because that would be highly detrimental to the genre. I have no moral problem with this torture porn stuff; it’s just that I’m bored with it."

Barker goes on to stress the importance of getting back to storytelling in horror films, and also seems less than enthusiastic for the latest installment in the Saw series. You can check out the entire interview here.

Vive La Pinhead!

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news today that French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have been brought in to write and direct the Hellraiser remake for Dimension Films. The duo created a buzz for themselves with the gory supernatural shocker Inside, which was picked up by Dimension for distribution later this year.
Apparently, Maury and Bustillo have the "blessing" of Clive Barker--writer and director of the 1987 original--to reimagine his work as they see fit. Barker will serve as producer on the flick, set for a 2008 release.
Following the surprising success of Rob Zombie's Halloween remake, it'll be interesting to see how the Cenobites will fare. Unlike Halloween, an unquestioned classic, I always considered Hellraiser to be one of the '80s most overrated horror movies, and don't believe it has aged well. A freshening-up may be just what Pinhead and the gang needed.