It’s bloody, gritty, wonderfully shot, all with an epic classical-operatic score juxtaposing the violence and cold, claustrophobic urban setting. Another reason I prefer the film is that it is a feast for the eyes and ears. The reality is, the story was going to have to be fleshed out some anyway what is good to know is that Barker had a hand in the expansion and serves as Executive Director on the movie. The Forbidden is quite short, as I mentioned earlier, clocking in at around just 100 pages. Candyman just feels like the true, more complete version of the tale. That is not to say that The Forbidden is a bad story, because it isn’t. This is strange for me to say, because I am usually a very nitpicky bitch when it comes to filmmakers screwing with the source material, but I can honestly say that this is one of the rare occurances where I prefer the film over the original book. There are differences between the story and the movie (I will discuss them below), but in this case, it matters little, if at all. The Forbidden is very esoteric and ethereal and Rose did a hell of a job bringing that atmosphere to the screen. Eroticism abides in his writing, though it is often simmering just beneath the surface and of a darker variety.Ĭandyman is a terrific film because the director (Bernard Rose, who also wrote the screenplay) understood the importance of preserving all that.
It’s a form of hypnosis he employs with his sensual prose, a seamless blending of the surreal with reality. To read Barker is to know you are being manipulated and led somewhere you wouldn’t ordinarily want to go, but all the while some dark curiosity is piqued at the back of your mind most horror writers keep the earth beneath the reader’s feet, but Barker will jerk it away without a moment’s notice.
I know quite a few people who find Barker to be a difficult read, but I think it’s because he makes people uncomfortable. That’s part of his allure and his success as a horror writer. In execution and style, he seems to be a student of Lovecraft in many ways it isn’t so much the story itself that is important, but the way he tells it. Candyman and Hellraiser are the two franchises based on Barker’s stories that seem to have enjoyed the most longevity with the horror community, and the first entries of those respective series were well known for their over-the-top blood and gore.īarker’s writing is heavily reliant on poetry to describe his horrific monsters and the landscapes they slither across. The late 80’s and early 90’s were a great time for Barker fans, with many of his tales being made into Hollywood movies.
The 1992 movie Candyman was based on a novella-length story by Clive Barker, entitled The Forbidden, which can be found in his anthology Books of Blood Vols.
0 kommentar(er)
