Clive Barker

"I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker." Stephen King

Born on October 5th 1952 in Liverpool, England, Clive Barker is a man of many talents. Probably known best as an author and secondly as a director, Barker is also a talented artist, and even forages into the realms of designer.

Barker has been openly gay for some time, though the gay main character in the novel Sacrament is what really brought his sexuality into the public eye. He lives with his partner, the photographer David Armstrong, and his daughter Nicole. They share their house with a small zoo of animals, including a parrot which shares the same name as a character from Abarat: Malingo.

Writing

It was his writing that first brought him to the attention of Stephen King, leading to the above quote. The Books Of Blood consists of six volumes of short fiction, each of which explores themes of sexuality, fantasy andmystery with a clear link to horror. There are stories which tell of a race against hell itself, of mysterious islands where the dead gather. Races of strange creatures co-exist in remote areas of the world, in a dusty settlement somewhere the future of the world is decided by old men playing dice, and in the depths of the modern city lie the grotesque city fathers, demanding blood sacrifice for the continued wellbeing of the city.

Barker's early stuff is pure horror, but intelligent stuff. Rarely, if ever, does Barker descend into cheap and easy blasphemy, the great temptation for all horror writers and a cliché early James Herbert utterly fails to avoid. Instead of casting aspersions on what is, Barker specialises in the creation of complex fantastic worlds, bursting with original - and often unpleasant - ideas. This tendency became even clearer as Barker's career progressed:Imajica and Abarat both feature undeniable elements of horror, but this element of the grotesque takes place as a backdrop for a hidden fantasy world of beauty and wonder.

Many lament Barker's turn towards such fantasy: Barker now describes himself as a fabulist, telling fables primarily to enthrall, though his nature is such that he cannot easily shy away from horror. Even the Abarat Quartet, a series of works aimed at teenage children features stitchlings (little, sewn-together monstrosities), along with a group of vicious hive-minded creatures and Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight.
It would be interesting, were it possible, to ask Steve King if the future turned out quite as he anticipated. I like to think it turned out better, though you'll find, as always, opinion varies...

Movies

One of the most enduring images of horror: a leather-clad man with his face sectioned into squares by deep incisions, a pin driven firmly into each severed intersection, is the creation of Clive Barker. Pinhead, as he is affectionately known, is the chief character of 1987's horror success: Hellraiser. Based on an earlier novella, The Hellbound Heart, it was not Barker's first film, though it remains his most successful. Earlier movies, The Forbidden and Salome are experimental art movies, and aside from a whirling, naked Clive Barker with an obvious erection, hold little of interest for the majority of us. Rawhead Rex was an early adaptation of a Books Of Blood story, which is far eclipsed by Bernard Rose's adaptation of Candyman.

Nightbreed, an adaptation of the novella Cabal, was intended to eclipse the success of Hellraiser. Ultimately, despite a plethora of cutting-edge special effects, a soundtrack by Danny Elfman and an amazing quantity ofpromotion and tie-ins, the film failed dismally. Barker was disappointed, but undeterred. Lord Of Illusions, starring Quantum Leap's Scott Bakula did little better; a shame, for Lord Of Illusions is an intelligent and enjoyable piece of horror.

Artwork

Barker is a bold visual artist. His work, unsurprisingly, features strong elements of graphic horror and brutal, often disturbing sex. A series of strangely beautiful symmetrical ink drawings accompanied his novellaCabal, and The Thief Of Always, too, features painstaking beautiful illustrations throughout.

Two books, Illustrator and Illustrator 2, give full details and many examples of Barker's illustration work, while the books of Abarat feature page after page of full colour images.

Independent exhibitions also provide opportunities to sample, or even purchase, Barker's work. Until recently the Bess Cutler Gallery handled much of Clive's work, though now Luna7 provides access to what little of his work is currently available.

Recently, Barker has begun to collaborate more with his partner, either painting on models before they are photographed or writing prose to accompany their image. Armstrong's book Rare Flesh is an excellent source of these collaborations.

Other Projects

Undying, a game developed by DreamWorks Interactive provided Barker with an opportunity to create a new mythology and enhance it with interactive aspects. Similar in many ways to games like Quake or Alice, Barker placed an emphasis on a strong storyline and, as a result, the game plays as a chilling, interactive short story.

Recently, McFarlane Toys have begun producing a series of collectible figures. Tortured Souls, as they are known, bear some resemblance to the cenobites from Hellraiser.

Works:

Novels:

1985 The Damnation Game
A complex story which would fit well amongst the shorter works featured in the Books Of Blood. A gambler takes on the role of bodyguard to Joseph Whitehead, unaware that Whitehead's power is due to the exchange of his immortal soul. Classic Barker horror.

1986 The Hellbound Heart
Forming the basis for the film Hellraiser, the book's plot differs only in minor details from Clive's subsequent film version.

1987 Weaveworld
An entire world, for safety, is woven into the threads of a carpet. The scourge, sworn enemy of the inhabitants of the Weaveworld is desperately sought by a small but dedicated group of individuals determined to see the Weaveworld destroyed.

1988 Cabal
Later to become the film Nightbreed, Cabal follows a similar but less complex plot to Weaveworld; a hidden, grotesque society is threatened by outsiders, bent upon its destruction.

1989 The Great and Secret Show
Subtitled 'The First Book Of The Art', The Great And Secret Show is the beginning of an epic tale of magic, mingled with the mundane, hinting at a secret core to reality which underpins and affects everything. Great power is to be had, but it is inevitable that such power can be used for evil, as well as good.

1991 Imajica
Easily Clive's most complex and imaginative work. An entire set of worlds are introduced, and we travel through them with two of the characters, encountering a vast array of imaginative creatures and individuals. Imajica is an intense and amazing work, and its influence on Clive's later works, particularly the Abarat series, is obvious.

1992 The Thief of Always
Aimed squarely at children, yet still retaining a grim and unpleasant undertone, this book features Harvey Swick, who longs for adventure. The holiday home he is spirited away to has more than a few dark secrets, however.

1994 Everville
The second book of the art, which expands further on The Great And Secret Show, and also sees the involvement of Harry d'Amour, Barker's private detective character who appears in his film Lord Of Illusions.

1996 Sacrament
A metaphysical air surrounds this novel, which brought Clive's sexuality to the public's attention in no small way. Dealing with animal extinction, homosexuality and two mysterious and quite deadly individuals, this is an intense and compelling tale.

1998 Galilee
Described as a romance, Clive experiments with a family saga, though as one might expect, the family has more than a few dark secrets, and there's a refreshing amount of magic involved.

2001 Coldheart Canyon
Hollywood, sex, dead stars and disturbing creatures.

2002 Abarat
2004 Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
Forming two of a proposed quartet, the Abarat books feature an imaginary world not dissimilar to that of the Imajica. Aimed at children, however, the horrific nature of Imajica's worlds are toned down somewhat, though the imaginative and creative element is still strong.

Collections:

1984-1985 Books of Blood 1 - 6
1987 In the Flesh
1987 The Inhuman Condition
1991 Clive Barker, Illustrator
1993 Illustrator II: The Art of Clive Barker
1995 Incarnations: Three Plays
1996 Forms of Heaven: Three Plays

Films:

The Forbidden
Salome
These two early films are experimental pieces, showing Clive's interest in film but with little potential for mainstream success.

Rawhead Rex
Based on the story of the same name from the Books Of Blood.

Hellraiser
Barker's first successful mainstream film, for which he wrote and directed.

Nightbreed
Less successful than Hellraiser, this second film was nevertheless a minor hit in cinemas and spawned the usual plethora of merchandise. Ultimately, however, it has failed to achieve long-term appreciation.

Lord Of Illusions
Again directed and written by Barker himself, and an enjoyable film in its own right, this too failed to make much of a splash.

Gods and Monsters
This film is a biopic of the life of gay film director James Whale. A wonderful, engrossing film, directed by Bill Condon with Clive taking the role of executive producer.

Biographies:

2002 Clive Barker: The Dark Fantastic by Douglas E. Winter


Website:
www.clivebarker.info
www.clivebarker.com

Driller

"When the Freescape idea was conceived several programmers approached turned down the opportunity to be involved, saying it couldn't be done." - Ian Andrew, Incentive Software

In the time before dedicated 3D graphics cards, true 3D games were a rarity. The most common approach was to fake 3D: often isometric projection was used, usually by carefully layering pre-drawn graphics - see Head Over Heels, Rasputin or Knight Lore for examples. There were some genuine 3D games, of course: Elite, with its simplistic (yet astounding) vector graphics, and Sentinel, whose filled vector polygons were a step up on Elite, but came with the disadvantage that they took longer to draw. Even with these precedents, upon its release Driller was considered an astounding achievement.

But this was late 1987. Incentive had spent some time developing Freescape, their trademarked system for displaying games in three-dimensions. It was slow - each screen took a second or so to draw, and consequently smooth movement was out. The game advanced in a series of one-frame-per-second cut scenes, but you could understand why; these graphics were amazing! Perfectly shaded polygons (at 176 x 256 stippled monochrome on my Spectrum 128) with perspective - you wouldn't give it a second glance nowadays, but back then to see that kind of thing on your screen was a rare treat. The Freescape engine lasted for a couple more games, as well: Both Castle Master and Total Eclipse would take the gameplay to a higher, more polished level, and the 3D Construction Kit allowed you to inflict your own levels upon unsuspecting friends.

Which is not to say the gameplay of Driller was bad, but compared to later efforts there was definitely something lacking. The game itself took place on the fictitious mines of Mitral, a small moon. For the purposes of the game this moon turned out to be eighteen flat, square panels joined together at the edges, forming a polyhedral surface. The original game provided a cardboard model to fold up and make, at which point it quickly became apparent that there were gaps on the surface of the moon - basically it was a rhombicuboctahedron and the triangular faces didn't exist as far as the game was concerned. Walking blithely over the map quickly resulted in death - drop off the edge of the wrong platform and you were done for.

Careful (and slow: don't forget that drawing delay!) exploration of the surface, however, provided plenty to do. All manner of buildings and vehicles cover the surface of Mitral. Plenty of puzzles to solve, switches to toggle, crystals to find and, of course, gas to release. Ah, yes - the gas. That's why it's called Driller. Your job is to release a build-up of gas under the surface of Mitral by appropriately positioning drilling rigs and pressing the right key to relieve the pressure.

We're told that Driller took a year to create, and upon its release the widely held opinion was that it showed. Your Sinclair's Phil South gushed over the graphics, describing them as 'brilliantly rendered' and described the 'quality of workmanship' as superb. Driller was, in its time, a milestone.

I never finished it.

Rescue On Fractalus

Released in 1984, the Atari 5200 game Rescue On Fractalus was one of LucasFilm's early attempts to break into the computer game market. Working closely alongside Atari to produce Ballblazer and Rescue On Fractalus, LucasFilm subsequently went on to produce more games under first this name and, later, the LucasArts label.

Rescue On Fractalus, as the name imples, made extensive and innovative use of fractal geometry to produce the mountainous ranges of the planet. Nowadays, it is by no means the only game to have done this - Captain Blood featured similarly generated alien canyons - but at the time, particularly considering the hardware limitations of the Atari 5200, its graphics were quite stunning.

Stunning... if a little jagged. Early prototypes were known as Behind Jaggi Lines, a reference to the jagged streaks of cockpit that the player was forced to peer through. The jaggy lines became personal enemies of the programmers, and thus the alien forces in the game became known as Jaggimonsters. Alas, despite the development of now-common anti-aliasing technologies, the 5200's colour palette wasn't large enough to allow for fancy graphical techniques. Low framerates and jaggy lines all round, then...

Though best remembered for its fractal graphics, which provided the right level of geek-appeal, the gameplay in Rescue On Fractalus was similarly engaging. Originally conceived purely as a straight-forward rescue mission, George Lucas enquired about the location of the fire button. Rescue On Fractalus rapidly evolved to include gun emplacements, jaggi monsters, suicidal flying saucers and alien impostors, who will leap up and bang on the front window in a most alarming fashion. All of which leads many to believe that Rescue On Fractalus, solely by design rather than luck, was one of the best Atari 5200 games to be produced.

Programmed by David Fox, Loren Carpenter, Charlie Kellner, Peter Langston, Gary Winnick and David Levine, Rescue On Fractalus was released for the Atari 5200 in 1984. Previously it had been named Star Mission, Rescue Mission and the doomed, pun-laden Behind Jaggi Lines.

Freescape

"When the Freescape idea was conceived several programmers approached turned down the opportunity to be involved, saying it couldn't be done."

(Ian Andrew, Incentive Software)

In the time before dedicated 3D graphics cards, true 3D games were a rarity. Many people will fondly remember Wolfenstein 3D, the first truly popular game which (like its contemporary, Ultima Underworld) featured a texture-mapped, three-dimensional environment. Prior to this, back in the days of the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and even the 16-bit machines, a more common approach was to fake 3D, either through isometric projection or careful layering of pre-drawn graphics. There were some genuine 3D games, of course: Elite, with its simplistic vector graphics, and The Sentinel, whose filled vector polygons were a step up on Elite. Even so, upon its inital outing as part of the game Driller, the Freescape system was rightly considered to be an astounding achievement.

This was late 1987. Incentive Software had spent some time developing a way of rendering a three-dimensional environment and allowing a player to move through and interact with it. It was slow - each screen took a second or so to draw - but you could understand why: these graphics were amazing! Accurately shaded polygons with proper perspective, not just isometric approximations. Perfect! Well, as perfect as a Spectrum's graphics got - you wouldn't give it a second glance nowadays, but back then to see that kind of thing on your screen was a rare treat. True 3D graphics, which could be moved through and viewed from any angle, all rendered in this perfect perspective: it was stunning.

Due to the intense calculations and the consequent framerate of less than one per second, the Freescape engine was suited more to adventure games than shoot-em-ups, though this was perfectly familiar territory for a company who was responsible for the Graphic Adventure Creator. Driller, the first freescape game, its box proudly boasting 'Solid 3D!', was released for Speccy and PC, with a plot based around a mysterious moon. Chock-full of problems and puzzles, it became intensely popular, and led to a release of Dark Side on the same platforms.

By this time the commercial success of Freescape was becoming apparent and the system was ported to the Commodore 64, allowing Total Eclipse, replete with ancient Egyptian feel, to be released for three platforms in 1988. Although now aging somewhat, the Freescape engine produced a couple more games of a similar ilk: both Castle Master and Total Eclipse took the gameplay to a higher, more polished level and also saw a release for the Commodore Amiga. The final outing for Freescape, opened out to all and sundry as the 3D Construction Kit, allowed you to inflict your own levels upon unsuspecting friends and, ostensibly, produce another Freescape masterpiece in your own living room.