I am a man of simple tastes. When I see someone reviewing a work by Clive Barker I just give it a like. Your taste and review are spot on as always. Your channel is the best, thanks Cliff! ✌🏻

I am glad to see this story being reviewed. I am only getting into the works of Clive Barker, I mam bowled over by the power of his writing style and his storytelling prowess. He is a writer that I have come to greatly admire as a writer myself and a queer writer. His ability to translate these feelings of utter terror and the tensions of these experiences is amazing! Barker is a wordsmith of the first degree, a born artist and storyteller. I have slowly been making my way through his works, but there is a very good reason why "The Hellbound Heart" and the other of the Hellraiser/Cenobite stories have been as successful as they are: they tap into the dark heart of being human, and our capacity to create suffering for each other. And the Cenobites, while not villains, are amused spectators at the suffering. And when one calls them, they better be prepared. They want pleasure, the Cenobites will deliver tenfold. They are one of the best and most memorable horror story creatures in modern horror literature and horror film history. Once you see them, you never forget them. And the most recent film of Hellraiser (2022), done by Hulu, actually brings to light the very genderless/androgynous aspect of the Cenobites. And the gender neutral actress who portrays the pinhead Cenbobite is remarkable and intimidating and terrifying. Though this would not be my go-to horror story to read for Halloween, "Dark Matter: An Arctic Ghost Story" by Michelle Paver, the collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James, "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, and "Don't Look Now" by Daphne du Maurier are my go-to horror stories for Halloween and the season of the long nights. I hope some of these might interest you? Hope you have a lovely spooky season!!

Favorite Halloween story is either Mask of The Red Death by Poe or Rashomon by Akutagawa. The latter isn't really a Halloween story but the atmosphere of the setting, night descending on an abandoned temple filled with corpses, I think fits the vibe

@nathanielmerchant3286

8 ай бұрын

Yes, but that's *your* view of Rashoman, not everyone's

No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering.

@r.s.9861

8 ай бұрын

:D

Sandkings by George RR Martin - sci-fi horror, extremely short and very unsettling

Pet Semetary is one of the greatest horror novels ever written. Most people think it’s just about reanimated pets, buts it’s really about death. Stephen King has written that when his daughters cat died he told her a comforting story of how God wanted a pet. He found her upset the next day, yelling that God should give her back her cat, and get his own cat. He then thought how a parent would react to the loss of a child. It’s a meditation on the strange and absurd horror of death, and the ways people react to it. It’s very Lovecraftian in its horror.

@jekw23

Ай бұрын

Yes I thought it was about grief and the lengths people will go to to try and bring back those they’ve lost (and ultimately they can’t). Fantastic novel. One of his best, I need to read it again.

Ghost Story - Peter Straub // Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons // The Ceremonies - T.E.D. Klein // The Damnation Game - Clive Barker // Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon

@BL-mf3jp

2 ай бұрын

Great picks. Add in Skeleton crew by Stephen king

Barker prolific, I enjoyed Weaveworld , you should try it. More hallucinogenic than horrific.

You should read Books of Blood. Not all the stories are winners, but Barker is seriously underrated as a writer.

@aggonzalez8096

8 ай бұрын

I agree. They’re incredibly imaginative and I don’t think I’ve read anything in the genre that’s close to that

@pencilquest9409

8 ай бұрын

Second. Midnight Meat Train is great, or that one about the rich guy building a torture palace?

@thomaskittock2866

8 ай бұрын

Most of his works are incredibly underrated, especially the Books of the Art, despite the fact the series is eternally unfinished.

@dallasfawson5332

8 ай бұрын

I came here to say this. The first Book of Blood in particular is absolutely insane and pretty damn consistent. “The Midnight Meat Train,” “Pig Blood Blues,” and “In the Hills, the Cities” are all stellar and off-the-rails nuts.

@Billiethekid8

8 ай бұрын

​@@pencilquest9409or little hellspown using some tricks to to taunt some guy but he always ignores him That story was funny as fuck

No no no, you have to start with "Books of Blood", the best of Clive.

Hey by the way I noticed it’s been two years since you’ve updated your all videos in order playlist! I’d love to see it get up to date when you find some time, long playlists such as that are some of my favorite things to play while I fall asleep

Hello, your regular off-topicker here. I bashed one of your shirts a while ago. Have to compliment this time - you have totally upped the game. Top notch! Shirt was fun to watch, although it was clear from the beginning that this book wouldn't be for me. As a softy I can't read (or watch) horror. But I will check the Barker interview.

Borges brought me to your channel and since then I have been exploring the content. I consider everything I've seen so far excellent and I hope you continue creating stuff that is as enjoyable as it is informative...congratulations! I'm taking advantage of this video to ask you if you've uploaded anything about Joe Hill (I searched the playlist and couldn't find anything). Well, that's all. Apologies for my English and a big hug from Buenos Aires.

Glad you’re reviewing some Barker. Also well played on waiting till Story of the Eye becomes public domain next year.

Really loved this video. Clive Barker is my favorite author personally. And you nailed both the synopsis and just the whole vibe of the story. My top three Clive books are, The damnation game, weaveworld, imajica.

Can I just say I'm used to book channels having a nice library, but you sir have a great shirt and a great moustache. Oh, the book looks cool too. Almost forgot to mention the book. :3

Pain and pleasure, indivisible.

@barrymoore4470

8 ай бұрын

The central concept of the story, beings who renounce their humanity in quest of ultimate sensation, pain and pleasure blurring into one, is brilliant.

Still patiently awaiting a review of Satantango. I think you’re really going to love it.

@barrymoore4470

8 ай бұрын

Krasznahorkai is very possibly the greatest living Hungarian writer.

ive just subscribed. You have interesting books reviewed in your uploads.

Happy spooky season Cliff!! 👻

I absolutely love this book, the film, and the entire concept.

Perfect Halloween book? The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Eerie, unsettling, disturbing - superb 😁.

@timkjazz

8 ай бұрын

Ghost Story - Peter Straub

@Billiethekid8

8 ай бұрын

One of the scariest,bone chilling horor book is The Exorcist

Uh, anyone notice how the book is moving in the first minute of the video?! Spooky

"We, will tear, your soul, apart!" Great movie.

@Margie75

8 ай бұрын

Christine by Stephen King

Ive read it every year for about 3 years now. Sometimes I re-read one of those insane John Dies at the End book, too.

I love this book and I agree that the first Hellraiser film seems to be the best! I also only watched the first two, but plan to watch two more just for the *laughs* 😂 I like that you mentioned Cronenberg, De Sade and also The history of the eye as I'm interested in all 3! I'll listen to your review about History of the eye once I read the book. I'm saving it for summer because it's a short book. I love your reviews!

Great take as always. So glad to see someone picked up on the nuance and intricacies within Barker's writing and not just the fact it's soaked in blood and the overtly sexual. Very redolent of Bataille in its own unique way! Favourite horror/gothic book pick isn't conventionally either by definition, but I've gotta go with Les Chants de Maldoror.

Samhain books : "Extraordinary Tales" by Edgar Allan Poe / "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin

Not only do we have the same shelves, but I even have a human skull on one of the shelves, too. ( a human evolution shelf)

My friend Sage Hammond (now a chef in Washington) was the first person to die in Hellraiser 3. He was flying across the country and someone he sat next to asked, would you like to be in a movie?

It, 'Salem's Lot and Revival by Stephen King. The Fisherman by John Langan. And Edgar Allan Poe's stories, of course

Do Frankenstein please.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

I haven't read much of "Halloween" literature yet but I fucking love "The Fall of the House of Usher"!

Favorite Halloween Book is House of Leaves by Mark.D, it gives me everything it needs to.

Perfect choice for an Octomber book.

Don’t really have a favorite Halloween book, and in fact, rereading rarely happens oddly enough in my literary existence. However. There is one that I feel may have some potential to be both my favorite Halloween book and will in fact be reread soon. Indefinitely before the month is over; Thomas Ligotti “Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe” And as I am typing this you are speaking of music and scores… so then I highly recommend if you are not familiar with… Current 93 Ligotti and 93 are hand and hand and hand…

I was kinda wishy washy on coil too until musick to play in the dark (i & ii)...

The horror genre peaked with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. I try to read both every Halloween.

Great vid!

Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez, Night Shift - Stephen King, Ghost Story - Peter Straub, The Auctioneer - Joan Samson, In the Mouth of Madness - Sutter Kane.

My favorite is The Pumpkin Tree

While not a Halloween book, I am reading 120 days of Sodom. It sickens and scares me more than any ghost story.

Didn't he also write Candyman??

@Engel1916

8 ай бұрын

He wrote the short story that it was adapted from, ‘The Forbidden’.

What a beautiful shirt ! What brand is it ?

Clive Barker stated in an interview that he'd modeled all Julia after all the old vindictive hags he prostituted himself to when he was hustling. And although there are several horrible people and cenobites in the book and first two movies, Julia is the primary murderer.

Just read 'the haunting of hill house', and 'war of the worlds', to get into the Halloween spirit. They were both brilliant. I've read a few other 'scary' novels (Dracula; Psycho; The shining; The tenant, and a few more King novels) but nothing that has ever had me terrified to read on. Any suggestions?

@JoaoVictor-rg5ix

4 ай бұрын

Maybe some extreme horror novels? Try something like the Playground.

@birdmanstrength

4 ай бұрын

Brilliant! Thank you@@JoaoVictor-rg5ix

For Halloween, M,R. James collected works.

I follow you for years, and it’s always delightful to hear you. But I must be honest, I miss the classics with you, and international literature and not so much contemporary and American.

Ghost story by Peter Straub

Salem's lot. Steven King

This one had your name all over it, Cliff.

I haven’t watched the movies but I have read the book and it’s probably my favorite horror novel.

Weaveworld is my favourite Clive Barker book.

Hi Could you please review the book 'The collection of short stories' written by O. Subramanian. I thought it is a nice one to read. It's is entirely based on the real life experiences of an ordinary man.

I just finished the books of blood.

The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson

Hope tou will read more horror. My fave genre.

The most recent Hellraiser reboot was surprisingly great.

I just want to plug an old horror movie that I rarely hear anything about, Sisters by Brian De Palma. Really cool to see something by a good reviewer about Clive Barker whom I've never read, though I've seen his visual art which I like. I don't like his films.

@barrymoore4470

8 ай бұрын

I definitely think Barker as film director is inferior to Barker as writer (superb descriptive powers that don't translate as fluidly on screen).

For Halloween I go with Robert Aickman!

Throbbing Gristle that's a band I've not heard off for a very long time 😂

I think the book The Consumer by Michael Gira would be up your alley. Just read the lyrics of an album by SWANS for a taste of the depravity and soul-searching darkness.

Lately I tend to read works of Junji Ito and it has been becoming my Hallows Eve tradition.

It's Hell Priest, but some one called him Pinhead in the 3rd movie so they stuck with that as a generic name in the series .💯

🖤

The thing with the blood having to fall on the floor on the attic it has always seem such a weak point of the film to me. I can't help to think that if Rory had went to the bathroom, there would be no story.

Any book by Jack ketchum

Coil did one amazing album called 'Time machines', otherwise I'm not a fan.

Most of the sequels are terrible. Most of the latter were not specifically Hellraiser movies but had the IP crowbarred into them so that the company could keep hold of the license. The 2022 one however is awesome! Apparently, it has a lot of the lore from the Books of Blood and Hellbound Heart. I haven't read them so this is a great explainer of how it ties in with the movies. "Hellraiser II - Hellbound" hints at a lot of lore surrounding the cenobites and their god, Leviathan.

i agree some parts were better in the film, honestly clive barker should have been a director.

...usually i would go with the man who will probably never get the Nobel-prize but would have already gotten it if he only would write about anything else but Horror...

Has anyone read the scarlet gospels? It's a relatively recent sequel novel to the hellbound heart

I have to humbly disagree about the sequel to Hellraiser. Hellbound is like the Empire Strikes Back of horror films. It compellingly expands the original movies themes and ideas while it explores the inexplicable nature of the god that the cenobites serve. In fact Hellbound seems to imply a rather Dualistic framing of the Hellraiser cosmology. The god of darkness and its dominion is of equal scope and magnitude as the God of light “above”. A deeper horror I would think.

Thy are 10 movies 1 remake 2 under way