THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240011
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: profile
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
SOMEHOW WE EXPECT Clive Barker, the man who made all those ``Hellraiser'' movies and wrote ``The Books of Blood,'' to slither in, rather than walk.
After all, this is the man who dreamed up Pinhead, the Deacon of Darkness, the High Priest of Pain. This is the man who took audiences to hell, but not quite back.
We turn the pages of his books with trepidation. We watch his movies through peek-a-boo fingers. Even the King of the genre, millionaire scare-athon writer Stephen King, called Barker ``the future of horror.''
It comes with some surprise then that the Clive Barker who enters the Los Angeles hotel suite is a thoroughly pleasant, British and fairly bubbling man who looks much younger than his 43 years. He doesn't look at all like the mad scientist planning some dastardly scheme to take over the world and unleash the forces of the dark side. And yet. . .
And yet, there is also the sneaking suspicion that we can't quite trust him. After all, his new film, ``Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions'' (opening Friday), should churn out a few bloody bodies.
``I want them not to be able to eat their popcorn,'' Barker said, settling down and extending a hand.
He's more than a little perturbed that his horror flicks have a certain stigma about them in Hollywood.
``I was irritated that on the night `The Silence of the Lambs' won the Oscar, no one seemed to admit that the intention of the movie was to horrify people,'' he said. ``They didn't want to admit that a horror movie, finally, had won the Oscar.''
Waiting in the wings, to be released in November, is ``Clive Barker's Hellraiser IV.'' His latest novel, ``Clive Barker's Everville,'' is out in paperback. It's all designed to scare the yell out of his fans.
``We are all drawn to the dark side - to things that simmer just below the surface,'' he said. ``When we see a wreck on the highway, everyone slows down - not because they want to see the cops in action but because they want to see if there are any bodies. It's nothing to be ashamed of. What is problematic is that it is thought to be weird. But we are told not to like the monsters. We are told to think that they are evil. It is a lie. It is a damnable lie.''
He's on a roll now. There's no stopping the future of horror when he gets on this subject.
``We are taught that some things are distressing. When you think about it, why are the flying monkeys in `The Wizard of Oz' images of terror? Actually, they're kinda neat. The drama teaches us that they are terrible.''
He thinks just as fondly of his own creation, Pinhead, a being that has become something of a horror icon since the first ``Hellraiser.'' ``I don't think he's an ugly image at all. Strange, weird - but not ugly. There is an elegance about him. I'd much prefer to see him than a body being dragged out of a car.''
Actually, the character had no name in ``The Hellbound Heart,'' the original story, or in the first ``Hellraiser'' movie. He was just identified as the Head Cenobite (cenobites being residents of hell), and Barker wrote that ``every inch of its head was tattooed with an intricate grid and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes,a jeweled pin was driven through to the bone.'' The public dubbed him Pinhead.
After the first ``Hellraiser'' movie, which Barker directed and wrote for a mere $1 million, he sold the rights and has been less involved with each sequel.
He was involved in every way, though, with ``Lord of Illusions,'' which he wrote, produced and directed. It is his long-desired effort to bring to the screen his ``film noir'' detective Harry D'Amour (played by Scott Bakula), who stumbles upon a mystery in Los Angeles involving a world-famous magician, his beautiful wife and an evil cult leader named Nix.
Joanne Sellar, Barker's co-producer for the film, said that ``his first love is writing novels, not making films. He is in complete control with the novels. He doesn't have to collaborate. I don't think he'd ever be interested in directing movies based on someone else's writing.''
Barker confirms that ``the word is as potent as ever in scaring people. Edgar Allan Poe's `The Fall of the House of Usher' or `Murders in the Rue Morgue' work as well today as ever but it is increasingly more difficult to scare people at the movies. It's difficult to believe today that people were fainting and passing out at James Wells' `Frankenstein.' And a picture like `The Haunting,' which was so effective not many years ago, just wouldn't be tolerated by audiences today. It would be too slow, too oblique, not enough special effects.
``Audiences wouldn't put up, today, with the first hour of `The Exorcist,' which was such a tease. Today, you've got to deliver up front, and quick. That's why I tried to make the first scene of `Lord of Illusions' so ominous.
``You have to work harder today to get under someone's skin. You have to push the envelope on what they can take. I'll do whatever I have to do.''
His critics claim he goes too far in the blood and gore category, and he had to make cuts to avoid a NC-17 rating on some of his films. He claims the ``censors,'' as he calls them, missed the point.
``Blood is primal. It is a force of life, not death. The balance of good and evil is very delicate, and hope is constantly under siege. That is a very Christian theory, although I've been accused of not using religion in my films. It is true, I don't think a crucifix or some easy solution would stop a vampire. It wouldn't be that easy. I've seen the real horror - many friends dying of AIDS, with no hope.''
The presence of Bakula, who starred on TV's ``Quantum Leap'' for five years, is hoped to bring a crossover audience of women to ``Lord.'' The film's big love scene was cut, though, because audiences laughed at it. ``They're conditioned, in horror films, that sex means death,'' Barker said. ``In all those `Friday, the 13th' things, anyone who had sex, and particularly people who might have enjoyed sex, died almost immediately.''
Barker was a pudgy, near-sighted youth who, as you might expect, loved fantasy movies at an early age. ``My mother still thinks they brought the wrong baby home. As a child, I was drawing weird creatures with crayons. Personally, I think some of it is genetic. She doesn't think so. I think it's appropriate I grew up in Liverpool. The Beatles came from there, but it's also, always, been a rather sick city. It was once the center for the slave trade.''
As a child, he was prevented by a strict British ratings code from seeing most horror movies, but he fell in love with the posters outside. ``They couldn't show much of the ants in `Them' because they would have looked too hokey and silly,'' he said. ``Today, they can show every close-up and hair. Technically, we have so many more weapons today.''
He was a student of English literature and philosophy at Liverpool University. He founded a theater group to present his play ``Frankenstein in Love,'' which showed the monster being skinned by his creator, only to be refitted with a new skin by a rather strange tailor. He then wrote a play called ``A History of Satan,'' which he still hopes to revive on Broadway. It starred Doug Bradley, who now plays Pinhead in the ``Hellraiser'' movies.
His six anthologies, ``The Books of Blood,'' were published in 1984 and 1985 in England, taking some two years to get to America. His illustrations have shown up in museums. He turned to movies only after he disliked the first two movie versions of his stories ``Underworld'' and ``Rawheat Rex.''
``I don't think I would have directed film if I hadn't wanted to protect my own vision,'' he said. ``Directing a film is exhausting, and slow, work. I was surprised when `Hellraiser' took 10 weeks of 18-hour days. It was an act of will.''
His fans will be shocked, perhaps in a different way than usual, when yet a third Clive Barker film comes out this Halloween. It will be the animated musical film ``The Thief of Always,'' based on his children's novel. ``No one gets killed in it,'' he said.
Barker admitted that when he was a child, he felt as if he were different. ``But haven't we all felt that way?'' he pondered. ``We all must say, `I don't quite fit into the pack. I don't want to be just a foot soldier. I will not resemble the rest of them.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Dimenison Films
Doug Bradley plays Clive Barker's creation Pinhead in Hellraiser
IV," scheduled for a November release. The series began in 1987.
B/W photo by United Artists
Above: Barker with one of the creatures from "Lord of Illusions."
Color photo
Left: The latest of his popular novels, now out in paperback.
UNITED ARTISTS photo
Scott Bakula protects Famke Janssen from the forces of evil in Clive
Barker's ``Lords of Illusions.''
by CNB