a) Complexity of modern horror movie monsters
Clive found that the horror market has demanded more graphic, complicated and sophisticated monsters. That ey must be seen clearly. He thought that 'Alien' would be unthinkable without showing the alien. He wanted to count the tentacles. He was saying 'Show Me! Show Me!' As an appreciator of Cronenberg's work he would even compare the original versions of 'The Thing' and 'The Fly' with the remakes and decide that horror was done these days.
Clive saw how there was a Sphinx-like beauty and ambiguity in what's on the
canvas in Giger's work, but what comes out on the screen is so he saw, largely monstrous..
However, he saw how much that HR Giger had been transformed by Hollywood into a monster make and so his role as a painter was left under valued. While he seemed to be painting aliens, the closer one got, the most it was visible that he was painting twisted versions of mankind, which disturbed Clive even more
For him, Giger's paintings which are his true gift to the world of the
imagination: the creations which the Alien films for their power to
excite can but wanly imitate. With this he came forth with the view that to simply characterise Giger as 'the
artist of Alien' is like calling Michelangelo the set designer for the
Agony and the Ecstasy.
Clive Bark was pleased with with Mick Garris' work in ' Spirit city USA' . So he decided in 1989 the Garris should script planned full throttle adaptation of the books of blood novella ' In the flesh' as a feature film which barker planned direct for Warner Brothers.
Clive's pitch to the studio was blunt and direct 'it's Alien in a prison".
He planned to deliver a
ferocious film and certainly not a punchline horror movie 'very dark
very grim very creepy. Garris says there was not much humour other than
the audaciousness of Clive's situation
So here Clive Barker was able to use an alien as a comparison but it was interesting that very soon, the Alien 3 script would be rewritten to be set in a prison in a film to be directed by David Fincher
Barker had created a story for Jericho is a horror first-person shooter video game. He was excited about the game because he believed that the story iwas fresh and because of that the game creator team had a greater chance of scaring the shit out of the players around the world.
He had been carrying the idea of
Jericho around in his head before I'd even talked about the project,
so he feel very close to it. He want people to think of Jericho the way he
thought of perhaps 'Alien'. That movie at its best was the way he thought that the game could work
He noticed that when that movie was about to come out. it teased with glimpses but never given the whole monstrous truth until the story was told on the screen. So his Jericho had be the same. Unique and terrifying..
He went as far with the Jericho to get the characters revoiced because he didn't get enough feeling out of them, or that there was a sense of them being stirred up and panicked. So something else that he felt about Alien was that the audience didn't know much about the characters but they would know enough to care
- Barker pleased with Garris' work on 'Spirit City USA' decided in 1989 the garris should script planned full throttle adaptation of the books of blood novella ' in the flesh' as a feature film which barker planned direct for Warner Brothers. Clive's pitch to the studio was blunt and direct 'its alien in a prison. He planned to deliver a ferocious film and certainly not a punchline horror movie 'very dark very grim very creepy. Garris says there was not much humour other than the audaciousness of Clive's situation (p301-302 Clive Barker, the dark fantastic, by Douglas E Winter (2002) found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: I've said, again from this platform, that I think the distinctions between horror and fantasy and science fiction basically don't make much sense. You see, I think 'Alien' is every bit a horror movie as it is a science fiction movie; it doesn't make sense to make these differentiations. And the only people who do it are studios - film studios - and publishers. And they do it because they like to divide us all up. And they like to divide us - they say, 'OK, these guys only like science fiction - we'll put a spaceship on the cover of this book. (Bride Of Weekend Of Horrors, Talk by Barker at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention, New York, 1992 found at www.clivebarker.info))
- Clive Barker: I'm excited about the game because the story is I believe fresh and
because of that we have a greater chance of scaring the shit
out of the players around the world! I'd [been] carrying the idea of
Jericho around in my head before I'd even talked about the project,
so I feel very close to it. I'd love people to think of Jericho the way I
thought of, let's say 'Alien', when that movie was about to come
out. Teased with glimpses but never given the whole monstrous truth
until the story was told on the screen. Jericho should be the
same. Unique and terrifying...(Q&A: Clive Barker's Jericho By [ ], online for Xbox 360 print magazine 'Readers Only' at www.oxm.co.uk, 13 February 2007 found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: There's no question that when I went to see Hammer movies back in the '70s I was enjoying - I was looking forward to those deaths. What I was really looking forward to with the murders and the big set-to at the end. But now I feel what I've lost is the power to care at all about most of the characters [in these newer horror movies], which is one of the reasons we've gone back [to rework Jericho].All of the Jericho characters are being re-voiced at my request because I don't feel you get enough feeling out of them. I don't think you get a sense of them being stirred up, panicked. A movie like Alien, I'd like to think at its best, that's how this game could work. You don't know that much about the characters, as in 'Alien,' but you know enough to care. (The Clive Barker Interview By N'Gai Croal, Level Up, Newsweek.com, 24 October 2007 (note - full text online at www.blog.newsweek.com/ found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: By and large, Hollywood has seen [Giger] as a monster maker. As a painter, he's undervalued. (Sexy Human-Alien Monster Is Work Of Swiss Painter By James Ryan, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 2 July 1995 found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: Though there's Sphinx-like beauty and ambiguity in what's on the canvas, what comes out on the screen is largely monstrous... Giger seems to be painting aliens, but the closer you look, the more you realize he's painting twisted versions of us. That, to me, is much more disturbing. (Sexy Human-Alien Monster Is Work Of Swiss Painter By James Ryan, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 2 July 1995 found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: It is Giger's paintings which are his true gift to the world of the imagination: the creations which the Alien films for their power to excite can but wanly imitate. To simply characterise Giger as 'the artist of Alien' is like calling Michelangelo the set designer for the Agony and the Ecstasy. (H.R.Giger's Necronomicon Introduction by Barker, 1992 found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: The images Giger has created have a power that demands closer and more reflective study than the sleek, slick hyperactive style of modern fantastic cinema allows. Without such close scrutiny the ambiguities at the heart of the work remain unexplored : the creatures he paints are reduced to the point where all they elicit is disgust. ( H.R.Giger's Necronomicon Introduction by Barker, 1992 found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: I ask you, look again. Though we come into Giger's world astonished and intimidated by its strangeness, it does not take long to learn its codes and its iconography, and the more familiar we become with the landscape and its inhabitants the more familiar it seems. Like all great visionaries, Giger has no truck with superfice; he plunges his hands into the raw stuff of our subconscious, and using methodologies that are unique to him creates a state that is rigourous, hierarchical and, for all its abysmal depths, inviting. ( H.R.Giger's Necronomicon Introduction by Barker, 1992 found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: The content of horror films has changed dramatically, you have to meet audience expectations. A director can't make a film without unveiling the beast when the thing shambles out of the shadows. My books are based on the fact that I show stuff. I don't back away. I write graphic horror fiction with elegance and intelligence. And that's how I've directed Hellraiser.(Horror Master Directs With A Vengeance by Vernon Scott, The Sun Sentinel, 2 October 1987, found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense and thrills, but his work was in a different tradition to horror. I take advantage of the wonderful advances in special effects to create fantastical monsters that are supposed to be seen. The horror market has demanded more graphic, complicated and sophisticated monsters. They must be seen clearly. 'Alien' would be unthinkable without showing the alien. I want to count the tentacles. I say, 'Show Me! Show Me!' All you have to do is compare the original versions of 'The Thing' and 'The Fly' with the remakes to see how much better horror is done these days.(Horror Master Directs With A Vengeance by Vernon Scott, The Sun Sentinel, 2 October 1987, found at www.clivebarker.info)
- Clive Barker: There never has been a time when horror pictures weren't popular. They're not about to disappear like westerns because there are so many varieties in the genre. I've made my movie emotionally intense and claustrophobic. This is a much grimmer picture, for instance, than 'Re-Animator', which was done tongue-in-cheek. Hellraiser was meant to be spookier and more serious. The best horror films touch on serious matters, death, obsession and insanity. (Horror Master Directs With A Vengeance by Vernon Scott, The Sun Sentinel, 2 October 1987, found at www.clivebarker.info)
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