This is not strictly Bare Ruined Films-related, but I met my hero Clive Barker a few weeks ago.
I've been a fan of his since I read The Books of Blood in 1986, based mostly on the Stephen King quote on the front -- "I've seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker." I may have also read a review of the Books in Fangoria around that time. In any case, I was hooked. His short stories "Dread," "The Yattering and Jack," "In the Hills, the Cities," and most definitely "The Midnight Meat Train" were a revelation to me. I also LOVED his novels The Damnation Game, Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show and the novellas Cabal, In the Flesh and The Inhuman Condition.
I was fortunate enough to edit all the DVD special features for Barker's most recent film,* The Midnight Meat Train, but I had never met him in person. So when the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention offered up a two-hour lecture about "writing horror" by Mr. Barker, I signed up immediately. I was there at the convention doing research for the Horror Doc (which is titled now: The Horror of It All: Why We Love Scary Movies) and shooting the "zombiewalk," which involved hundreds of people dressed like zombies walking around downtown LA together. It was an awesome sight. The lecture turned out to be two hours of questions and answers, but it was fantastic to hear Mr. Barker's thoughts on the craft. Inspiring. And he thanked me and told me that "Many people have come up to me to say how much they loved the piece about me painting," referring to Clive Barker: The Man Behind the Myth, which I edited/produced. I told him how meaningful it was for me to work on those DVD pieces, and that was that.
On a related note, I also saw the newest Barker-approved movie: Anthony DiBlasi's Dread. This was a big one for me. I was actually a little pissed off that anyone but me was directing that movie, as the short story it was based upon was hands down my favorite Barker short, and it's the one I've revisited the most over the years. But the film is wonderful. It's a classic. In the top 5% of all horror films, period. I loved it, and can't imagine a better film being made from that amazing short story. Kudos to Mr. DiBlasi -- who wrote the screenplay and directed -- for expanding the story and changing some elements, but making the film absolutely true to the spirit of the original. It's an amazingly faithful adaptation, even if some of the details are a bit different. And, actually, the film is even darker than the Barker story, which is a fucking feat. His vision as a director is as assured as PT Anderson's, and I do not say that lightly. Dread is a beautiful, sickening, heartbreaking, scary movie. It's wonderful. It also doesn't have distribution yet, but I suspect it will be out in the fall.
* It's Barker-approved. The Hellraiser sequels (beyond part 2) and many of the movies that have Barker's name on them are apparently not things that Barker will claim as his own.
I was fortunate enough to edit all the DVD special features for Barker's most recent film,* The Midnight Meat Train, but I had never met him in person. So when the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention offered up a two-hour lecture about "writing horror" by Mr. Barker, I signed up immediately. I was there at the convention doing research for the Horror Doc (which is titled now: The Horror of It All: Why We Love Scary Movies) and shooting the "zombiewalk," which involved hundreds of people dressed like zombies walking around downtown LA together. It was an awesome sight. The lecture turned out to be two hours of questions and answers, but it was fantastic to hear Mr. Barker's thoughts on the craft. Inspiring. And he thanked me and told me that "Many people have come up to me to say how much they loved the piece about me painting," referring to Clive Barker: The Man Behind the Myth, which I edited/produced. I told him how meaningful it was for me to work on those DVD pieces, and that was that.
On a related note, I also saw the newest Barker-approved movie: Anthony DiBlasi's Dread. This was a big one for me. I was actually a little pissed off that anyone but me was directing that movie, as the short story it was based upon was hands down my favorite Barker short, and it's the one I've revisited the most over the years. But the film is wonderful. It's a classic. In the top 5% of all horror films, period. I loved it, and can't imagine a better film being made from that amazing short story. Kudos to Mr. DiBlasi -- who wrote the screenplay and directed -- for expanding the story and changing some elements, but making the film absolutely true to the spirit of the original. It's an amazingly faithful adaptation, even if some of the details are a bit different. And, actually, the film is even darker than the Barker story, which is a fucking feat. His vision as a director is as assured as PT Anderson's, and I do not say that lightly. Dread is a beautiful, sickening, heartbreaking, scary movie. It's wonderful. It also doesn't have distribution yet, but I suspect it will be out in the fall.
* It's Barker-approved. The Hellraiser sequels (beyond part 2) and many of the movies that have Barker's name on them are apparently not things that Barker will claim as his own.
