CliveBarker

We're about a month away from a one-night-only screening of Clive Barker's Nightbreed, uncut. The film will be shown at HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis, which takes place March 26-28. I have never wanted to live closer to Indianapolis before in my life, but jealousy abounds as I write to you from my desk on the East Coast, broke as a mofo.

The story of Nightbreed is a long and sad one but here's the gist. Basically, the studio screwed Barker by forcing him to release an edited version of his original cut. Poor marketing and what seems like a general lack of interest on the studio's part made the film fade away. Fans supported the film, however, and it was elevated to something of a cult flick. Hardcore Barker freaks speculated about the lost film footage since the film's release and recently Barker's friend, Mark Miller, learned that the footage did still exist and was sitting a vault the whole time. When Miller approached studio execs about the find, he was told that the film didn't warrant the money needed to produce an extended cut. Fans signed petitions on Barker's website and continue to build a case for the film's DVD release, which you can help out with here.

For years, people talked about 25 minutes worth of scenes excised from the final version, but it was revealed that a 145 minute version of the film's mid-1989 workprint exists. Barker's website posted this:

Camelot's DarKnight Pictures will be releasing two horror documentaries, the subject of which is oh so sweet. Unearthed: The Hellraiser Saga and Zombie Culture: Documentary of the Living Dead will be produced by Anthony Masi (Halloween 4, Halloween: 25 Years Later, His Name Was Jason).

With a Hellraiser reboot (heretics!!!) on the way, it seems like the perfect time to release a behind the scenes feature. Unearthed will explore every facet and theme of Clive Barker's two decades of Cenobites in his beloved Hellraiser series. Meanwhile, Zombie Culture is investigating the zombie craze--delivering a retrospective on an eight-decade international obsession with the popular movie monster.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen His Name Was Jason but from what I've heard it was a decent overview of the Friday the 13th franchise, with a lot of great behind the scenes stories. According to one friend, the most amusing thing about the doc was listening to everyone try to take credit for revolutionizing the use of a hockey mask. Hellraiser creator, Clive Barker, has said the cenobite fashions and creature designs were heavily influenced by religious garb and alternative lifestyle fashions. This is just one of many compelling factoids behind the franchise so my bets are that Unearthed can't be half bad. As far as Zombie Culture goes--you can never have enough zombie anything. I do hope the documentary touches upon some of the social and/or political influences on zombie cinema. For me, that's a huge part of the undead appeal. What about you?

The After Dark Horrorfest 4 lineup is looking good and Clive Barker's new film Dread is on my must see list. The story comes from Barker's Books of Blood--one book in my library that is well worn after years of adoration. Check out the brand spanking new trailer that Shock Till You Drop posted for Dread after the jump.

The story surrounds three college students who set out to make a documentary about fear, but become the subjects as their most terrifying fears are realized and brought to life. Anthony DiBlasi, a producing partner of Barkers, directs the film–working from his own screenplay. Jackson Rathbone (Twilight Saga and The Last Airbender) stars alongside Shaun Evans (Boy A), Hanne Steen and Laura Donnelly. Clive Barker is a producer for the film.

Shock is co-hosting a sneak preview of Dread in Los Angeles at the New Beverly Cinema on January 23, with the cast and crew in attendance. The rest of us will humbly have to wait until January 29 when it hits theaters.

If it has Clive Barker's name on it, I'm going to see it. And lucky for fans of the author his newest adaptation, Dread, is part of the After Dark Horrorfest, 8 Films to Die For series that hits theaters January 29, 2010. The festival runs for one week in theaters across the United States until February 5, 2010, making it the largest nationwide film festival.

Dread comes from volume two of Barker's Books of Blood. Several of the stories have been adapted into movies including Lord of Illusions and Candyman. Anthony DiBlasi has been Barker's producing pal (Book of Blood, Midnight Meat Train) and will be directing Dread--working from his own screenplay. He's also attached as co-producer for the 3D remake of Hellraiser which is currently in development. Jackson Rathbone (Twilight Saga) stars in Dread alongside Shaun Evans (Boy A), Hanne Steen and Laura Donnelly. Clive Barker is staying on as producer for the film.

The story surrounds three college students who set out to make a documentary about fear but become the subjects as their most terrifying fears are realized and brought to life. As the study progresses, one of the students begins to seek salvation from his obsessions by exploiting the terrors of his fellow participants.

You can become a fan of Dread on Facebook and check out DiBlasi's pre-script notes and other goodies. Hit the jump to check out some stills.

Word of a Hellraiser remake has been floating around since 2007 when it was revealed that Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, the duo behind the French sensation À l'intérieur, were attached to direct. After a year of near-stagnation, it was then revealed that the scribes of Feast / some of the Saw movies Marcus Dunston and Patrick Melton were attached to write the remake. Eventually, Pascal Laugier, the director behind the controversial French flick Martyrs, became attached to the project. Then, because Pinhead really doesn't seem to want this remake to get made, Laugier took his business elsewhere.

Well, according to Bloody-Disgusting, the Hellraiser remake is officially without a director and a writer, but that still hasn't stopped Dimension Films from pimping their bad boy at the American Film Market. They even gave a synopsis:

"Based on Barker's critically acclaimed novella "The Hellbound Heart," Hellraiser tells the story of an unfaithful wife who attempts to assist her dead lover in his escape from hell. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of forsaken demons - lead bby one of the most enduring horror characters of all time, Pinhead - he must force his former mistress to bring him the necessary human sacrifices to complete his body. Clive Barker's Hellraiser promises to be a terrifying journey into the darkest corners of the soul."

While the notion of a Hellraiser remake is indeed a frightening prospect, the fact that it's going to be made in the dreaded third dimension is enough to make the film far more terrifying than any fate Pinhead can bestow upon you. As of now there is no release

Oooh, a twist in the Fates Worse Than Death formula! That's right, fans of painful, drawn-out, memorable exits from this mortal coil, I'm straying from the movie picks and going with a literary horror choice; more specifically In The Hills, The Cities from Clive Barker's The Book of Blood, Volume 1.

Not only is this my favorite short story of all time, but it also features some of the most indelible imagery my mind has ever assembled out of mere words on the printed page. If you haven't read the story, it's about two lovers traveling across Europe who encounter a mind-boggling scene: two rival villages, Popolac and Podujevo, have begun an ancient tradition in which thousands upon thousands of individuals work together to form all the limbs and joints of a human being. Both cities have assembled their entire populations into colossal 'men' comprised of all their citizens (women and children included).

Collectively they have become two massive giants that are, despite their city-sized building blocks, single entities ready to engage in traditional battle. Except something has gone wrong and Podujevo collapses, disintegrating into wave after wave of bodies that writhe and squirm into mush under the pressure of the thousands of people above them.

I can't say that I rely on subways for transportation where I live, and I can't say that I've ever had any problems on those I have ridden. However, if I relied on them to get to and fro, and if I made said commutes at the latest possible hours of the night, then I could see the threat of a late-night butcher creeping into both my poorly lit subway car and the periphery of my imagination.

Midnight Meat Train exploits the pulpy notion that some brooding mute who looks a lot like Vinnie Jones rides the rails every night, looking for fresh meat in order to keep countless (literal) demons at bay. And the ending of MMT -- yes, yes, spoilers be comin' -- relishes the idea that even these supernatural caterers must at some point retire and be replaced.

Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan are cybernetic typewriters sent from the future to make sure there is never a drought in horror news land. True story. What other explanation is there? Surely no mere mortals of flesh and bone can have the work ethic those two share. Surely the duo behind all the Feasts, most of the Saws and The Collector don't actually, eek, love the genre. If you don't believe me, just wait until Saw IX comes out and their true influences emerge. Spoiler alert: Jigsaw has to divert to his backup hydrogen fuel cell in the last act after a teleportation trap goes awry.

Not long ago the two were on tap to collaborate with prolific scribe Clive Barker on the Hellraiser remake. That was until the prospect of an updated Pinhead drifted back into the shadows after a chain of directors walked off the project. Creative differences was the often cited reason for the project's repeated stalling, but with this latest news from the Risky Biz Blog one can assume those differences never arose between Barker, Melton and Dunstan. Turns out the later two will be writing for Warner Brothers Television a series to be co-chaired by Barker and produced by McG's Wonderland Sound and Vision titled simply "Clive Barker's Hotel".

Dread (UK/US): I'm going to act like I don't know how Clive Barker's original short story played out, as I didn't know when going into the film, but that still leaves this adaptation a bit too long-winded for its own good. Stephen (Jackson Rathbone) and Quaid (Shaun Evans) team up for a college project on what people fear most, and sure enough, this little social experiment of theirs goes too far. It's an interesting premise, eventually carried out to a foreseeable but intense climax, shot moodily throughout by first-time director Anthony DiBlasi, but the redundant dorm-worthy moralizing delivered by our fairly obvious villain and a tacked-own ain't-that-wicked twist only make it more apparent that Dread was a story perhaps better deserving of, say, a "Masters of Horror" episode rather than a feature-length treatment.

Watch video after the jump

When it was announced that Clive Barker's short story Book of Blood was being optioned for a film adaptation I did a double take. Why adapt not only the shortest story in Barker's much respected anthology, but the one that serves as prologue to all of the others?

If this trailer (included below and branded with the beloved Red Band) for Book of Blood is any indication, writer/director John Harrison saw something in the tiny story I didn't. Harrison looks to have expanded the premise of a house built on the intersection of several 'highways of the dead' substantially, even mixing in from "On Jerusalem Street: A Postscript", an entry from the sixth volume of Barker's anthology. The scale of the story has evolved so much so that the only thing I recognize from page-to-screen is the carved-by-ghosts body of the main character.

Normally I'd chide an adaptation that deviates considerably from the source material, but the UK production frankly looks better than I ever expected it would. Earning even more favor with this jaded horror fan is the fact that I'm finally reminded of what a real Red Band trailer should contain. I'm happy to say do not click play after the jump if you're at a place of work.