Interview with Clive Barker - Part two of three
Interview with Clive Barker - Part two of three
Barker Talks Midnight Meat, and G.I. Joe's dick.
|
Interview with Clive Barker - February 13, 2009
Staci Layne Wilson reporting
PART TWO
On how the story of The Midnight Meat Train compares with the movie:
The story was one of the first I wrote. There were five stories I gave to my theatrical agent Leonard Conway – by the way I not only write plays that are not successful, I also write short stories that haven't been published. There were five of them and one of them was Midnight Meat Train. And Leonard was a man who was towards the end of his career as an agent and was frankly appalled by some of these stories and very appalled by Midnight Meat Train because it was so graphic. And I thought this is good, this is very good and I liked the fact that the story had a visceral punch to it and it's there in the title. Indeed one of the first signs that something might be a little bit awry over at Lionsgate was the message that I got that they were trying to take the word meat out of the title. It was preposterous; the whole point of that movie or point of that title was it was calling the ghosts of movies past. It was a 'look this is our unapologetic horror movie' just as the title the Books of Blood. So immediately it tells you this is not a book of romances, it's either a collection of stories about how people have periods or it's about horror stories.
On how much input he had in terms of the casting of The Midnight Meat Train:
I have an opinion when I disagree more than when I agree. The guy that I first turned in Hellraiser to told me that [the character] couldn't talk. I asked him why and he said because movie monsters don't talk. I have dealt with a lot of producers who are pricks. I can't be that. Ryuhei Kitamura had a strong vision of what this movie was to be. It was my job to help him with that vision. So I tried to be useful in helping when Kitamura had a question. He was very nice about it. He would come to me and we would have a civilized conversation and I would work with him.
On whether there is extra pressure for the film to perform well on DVD:
Yes there is, but it is good pressure. I think people will say that this movie is better than the shit they have seen in theaters over the last year. There is definitely pressure on the picture, but I believe in the movie, so it is good pressure. It was great when people were standing up for their rights and although the movie isn't perfect, [it] is damn better than 6 movies that I can think of right now that got a wide release.
On other directors currently adapting his work:
Well, you know, in both cases they were people who came to me with titles and said, "I want to do this movie." John [Harrison] wanted "The Book of Blood" because he essentially saw it as a ghost story and a love story with horrific elements. But [Dread director] DiBlasi came in essentially as an intern, a glorified intern, and then very quickly rose in the ranks. It became very apparent, very quickly, that this man had huge talent and huge motivation. So he was a natural, because, again, he came to me and said, "I know how to make this movie." All three of them – Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Harrison and Mr. DiBlasi – have completely different styles. You put these movies side by side and… They obviously have the same author writing the material, but other than that there's nothing in common. I like that. It's the way movies should be. I've always thought that horror movies got a bad rap in part because we are characterized as a genre of being repetitive and not vision friendly. We are a genre that's sort of limited, really. We're a "blood and potatoes genre", and we're so much more than that. I think Dread is amazing and completely different from Midnight Meat Train in terms of its style. It has a voyeuristic feel to it. I liken it to the Friedkin pictures, the two French Connection pictures and The Exorcist. You really do feel like you're there watching this stuff. You don't really feel you should be watching it, you're not really supposed to be there. It's a very different style to the very grand and polished and almost operatic style that Kitamura brings to Midnight Meat Train, particularly in the violent sequences. Then again, particularly on the DVD, because they have the right rhythm there. They don't have the rhythm the MPAA thought they should have. I think they're much more powerful.
On the status of Tortured Souls:
I think it'll happen. I think it'll happen probably only when I've got back into the swing of directing. There's a script I like very much. I love the toys. I shouldn't call them "toys." What should I call them…? The figures, the sculptures. I think they're beautiful, detailed things. Do I want to see those things walk onto the screen and speak? Damn right I do. So I would like to make sure that happens at some point. But right now we've got a lot of scripts that are already written, and I want to get those out and have people shooting them. But I'm a tenacious son of a bitch, you know – I'm Italian-Irish – and one of these days if it gets done, it gets done. I think what Todd's company did when they created the Tortured Souls stuff was superb, and I think it will be wonderful to see those things breathe and take on life and step onto the screen.
On toys being basis' for films:
I just think it's a very different world. I mean, toys have always been there as a potential. I think Tortured Souls is a slightly different world than G.I. Joe. But you know I did try and torture my G.I. Joe very badly when I had him, so I strung him up by his hands and threw a dick on him. [laughs]
On how long it'll be until we see another Barker-directed film:
Hopefully not that long. I had sort of put it on the backburner a little bit, I am having an amusing time writing and painting. It's hard to see past it, but I know exactly what I want to make. And I know that I want to bring sex and horror together as I have been able to in my books. I have been in the last seven years taking a lot of photographs; I've taken about sixty thousand photographs of male nudes for a series of books. It's on exhibition in Detroit right now, erotic photography, four pictures in there and pretty strong material I think, I hope. And I've always thought that sex and horror belonged together and I want to bring the lessons I hope we've learned from we've learned Shortbus into the world of Hellraiser.