Candyman
Clive Barker is an observational repugnance auteur best sleep together for his riveting debut lineament , 1987’sHellraiser . While a polemical contribution to the genre , Hellraiseris undeniably morose , visceral , and original . Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites continue some of the most iconic character in cinematic history .
Technically , Clive Barker has only directed three feature films - includingHellraiser . However , Barker ’s fictional novels and short stories have been the inspiration for multiple films . Barker has even adapted a few of his put out works into screenplays himself . Everything of Barker ’s attests to his singular , one approach to scary storytelling .
Best: The Midnight Meat Train (2008) - 6.1
Bradley Cooper starsin this adaptation of Barker ’s short story"The Midnight Meat Train,“published in his acclaimed seriesBooks of bloodline . Cooper play an obsessive and struggle photographer discover Leon . Leon discovers a woman is miss the night after he saves her from being assault by a radical of men on the subway .
After the police force drag their foot , Leon becomes obsessed with forecast out what come about to the woman . Eventually , he crosses paths with a butcher named Mahogany , at which point the photographic film cut into into sheer psychological terror . Ryûhei Kitamura directed the film , and Jeff Buhler wrote the screenplay .
Worst: Book of Blood (2009) - 5.3
Book of Bloodis another film ground on story from Barker’sBooks of Bloodcollection . Barker did not write the screenplay or send this feature ; John Harrison directed and co - wrote the screenplay with Darin Silverman . The informant materials for the photographic film are Barker ’s frame stories inBooks of origin : " The Book of ancestry " and " On Jerusalem Street ( A Postscript ) . "
Jonas Armstrong playsa paranormal investigatorwhose piece of work leads him to a house that serves as a meeting stead for someone on their way to the afterlife . The film received overconfident reviews from critic , but many genre fans findBook of Blooddaunting and easy - pace .
Best: Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) - 6.5
The follow - up to Barker ’s esthetic and intenseHellraiserwas directed by Tony Randel with a screenplay by Peter Atkins . However , Barker served as executive manufacturer and earned a writing credit for composing the novelette the original movie is adapted from . After the consequence of the first film , Kirsty Cotton get herself in an institution make out by Dr. Phillip Channard .
While Kirsty compete to save her Father-God from Hell , Dr. Channard invokes Pinhead and his Cenobites in hopes of finding the gateway for his own personal substance . Full of evocative body horror , surreal set designs , and interminable teaser , Hellboundis revere among Barker fan asa inviolable continuation .
Worst: Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) - 5.3
Tony Todd reprises the nominal role in this sequel to1992’sCandyman . Why is this franchise featured on a list of Clive Barker film ? It ’s because Barker write the brusque account that breed the cinematic explorations of the vengeful spirit brutally mangle in the 19th century for being part of an mixed kinship .
Farewell to the Fleshwas direct by Bill Condon and written by two people : Rand Ravich and Mark Kruger . While the first motion picture take berth in Chicago , the sequel transpires in New Orleans . Candyman appear in the place of origin of malarkey , where he targets a young , white schoolteacher . The film miss the background of the original while enjoy too much in blood and gore .
Best: Nightbreed (1990) - 6.6
Nightbreedis Barker ’s second motion-picture show as director . Barker also wrote the screenplay based on his 1988 novelCabal . Combining revulsion and illusion , the ensemble feature stars Craig Sheffer as Aaron Boone , a untried man drawn into a unknown mankind known as Midian , where creatures call Nightbreeds reside .
Aaron is convinced by his deranged , psychopathic therapist – played by horror director David Cronenberg – he is responsible for for consecutive murders entrust by the healer . Aaron , suffering from mental duress , seeks shelter in Midian , where he is eventually transformed into one of the monsters . While it never received critical plaudit , Nightbreedis a testament to Barker ’s world - building skill .
Worst: Rawhead Rex (1986) - 5.3
Barker wrote the screenplay forRawhead Rex , the second base of his stories to be adapt into a feature - length pic . Set in Ireland , the motion-picture show follows an ancient pagan god unintentionally set loose in modern - day Ireland . The brute embarksupon a annihilating , carnage - fuel trip around the island body politic .
The subpar creature designing and effects make the film more laughable than terrify . Barker was not happy with how the film - directed by George Pavlou - turned out , and neither were critics .
Best: Candyman (1992) - 6.6
The title of the Barker story that inspired Bernard Rose’sscreenplay forCandymanis " The Forbidden . " In the film , also directed by Rose , Virginia Madsden work a alumnus student named Helen living and working in Chicago . She starts investigate story about the Candyman , a disgraceful man massacred by a white mob for being in love with a white woman . Rumor has it his feeling still haunts people in certain parts of the city .
Helen travels to the Cabrini - Green locality to figure out if there ’s truth to the urban legend , and she before long finds herself face - to - side with much more than an quondam story . Tony Todd gives a excruciating performance as the statute title fibre , andCandymanis considered a vital share to the horror musical genre . In fact , aremake of the filmis jell to be release in 2020 .
Worst: Underworld (1985) - 4.2
Clive Barker ’s first screenplay was co - written by James Caplin and based on a tarradiddle from theBooks of ancestry . Directed by George Pavlou ( who also directedRawhead Rex),Underworldstarts with the kidnapping of a high - death distaff sex activity doer and travels to London ’s underground subway scheme , where a unbalanced scientist harbor a deformed species of humans .
Fearful the sex actor has been kidnapped by the scientist , Dr. Savary , one of the woman ’s client hires a man to track her down . LikeRawhead Rex , Barker ended up hating what Pavlou did with his hand .
Best: Hellraiser (1987) - 7.0
Barker ’s cinematic calling get hold of off with the release ofHellraiser , a visionary , medieval tale that push horror to its point of accumulation . found on Barker ’s 1986 novellaThe Hellbound Heart , the picture show follows Ashley Laurence ’s character Kirsty Cotton , a adolescent suck into a world worry by supernatural Explorer have sex as Cenobites .
These Cenobites , when summoned , open up human being to a globe where there is no limit to animal experience and where there is no preeminence between pleasance and pain in the ass . Barker ’s old house compatriot Doug Bradley plays the most infamous Cenobite , Pinhead . The film ’s achiever launcheda long - running franchise .
Worst: Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) - 2.7
While Clive Barker received acknowledgment for creating the characters used in this ninth addition to theHellraiserfranchise , he had nothing to do with the making of the celluloid . It ’s the firstHellraisermovie not to sport Doug Bradley in the Pinhead function . The histrion flatly pass up to participate .
The picture ’s production company , Dimension Films , rushed the filming of the movie because they were do to lose the right to the dealership . The result is a derivative , predictable , and poorly acted flick directed by Víctor García and written by Gary J. Tunnicliffe .
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