Editorials
Ranking the Clive Barker Adaptations!
Clive Barker should be a household name to anyone even remotely familiar with the horror genre. For the longest time, he was the only storyteller to ever manage to rival Stephen King as the so-called “master of horror”, though they’re both good friends in real life. He’s also one of my favorite authors, consistently producing hauntingly creative tales that both frighten and entertain.
Although he rose to fame with the release of his short story collection “Books of Blood” (which is also the wonderful source of most of these adaptations), Barker has helped shape the face of horror with his terrifying work in film, television, painting and even videogames! So, with all this talk about cinematic universes, why not take a look back at some of the horror genre’s best (loosely) interconnected stories?
That’s why I’ve decided to rank all of the cinematic adaptations of Barker’s writing! I actually enjoy every single one of these movies, but it’s quite clear that some are vastly superior to others. Hell, some of them are even directed by the infamous author himself, and he fares better than King in his attempts at mastering celluloid.
That being said, I’ll be excluding films he wrote specifically for the big screen, and mainstream television adaptations as well. Now, let’s get to it!
10. Rawhead Rex
While I still have lots of fun with this trashy monster movie, it’s quite clear that this is the worst of all the Clive Barker adaptations. Barker’s original story was a somber tale of an ancient phallic-looking evil being unearthed and giving the contemporary British countryside a taste of Old-Testament wrath.
George Pavlou managed to turn that story into a schlocky gore-fest of a film, complete with a heavy-metal-inspired demeanor for the titular creature. While it’s an entertaining romp on its own, it’s obvious that Rawhead Rex completely misses the point of its originally disturbing story.
9. Book of Blood
Inspired by the two-parter tale that frames Barker’s original collection of short stories, John Harrison’s Book of Blood isn’t necessarily a bad movie, it’s just not the most entertaining one on this list.
While it maintains the somber tone and overall plot of the story it’s based on, the movie is bogged down by uninteresting characters and an uneven structure. When the story does pick up, however, be prepared for some amazingly gruesome sequences that will remind you why Barker’s work is so successful.
8. Quicksilver Highway (The Body Politic)
Not a lot of people remember this darkly funny Mick Garris film featuring two incredibly memorable stories from both Stephen King and Clive Barker (not to mention Christopher Lloyd having loads of fun in one of his most entertaining roles to date).
Qucksilver Highway is more of a dark comedy than a straight-up horror film, but it does showcase some of Barker’s fantastical creativity in the segment concerning a man whose own hands turn against him. To say more would spoil the fun.
7. Dread
It may not be in the upper ranks of this list, but Anthony DiBlasi’s Dread might very well be my favorite of these adaptations. Based on one of Barker’s most down-to-earth tales, this film is a disturbing psychological thriller that plays with audience expectations.
Although Dread is weighed down by a few moments of low production value and some questionable changes to the source material, it’s undeniably one of the scariest and most brutal films on this list.
6. Lord of Illusions (Director’s Cut)
Many moviegoers consider Lord of Illusions to be a love it or hate it sort of affair, and while I fall into the former category, I entirely understand why some might not enjoy this peculiar little film like I do (though watching the director’s cut certainly improves the experience).
Directed by Clive Barker himself, this film is the only time we’ve seen the signature protagonist of the “Barker mythos”, Harry D’amour, on the big screen, and it’s a blast! Featuring eldritch conspiracies and noir undertones, you really shouldn’t miss out on this supernatural detective story.
5. Hellbound: Hellraiser II
While it was directed by Tony Randel instead of Barker, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 was the last film in the franchise to feature major involvement from the mastermind behind the cenobites and the cursed puzzle box, and it shows.
The insane plot, a detailed attempt at world-building and disturbing sexual undertones easily make this the best of the Hellraiser sequels so far, and a great film in its own right.
4. The Midnight Meat Train
The brainchild of a partnership between Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura and Barker, The Midnight Meat Train is one of the strangest (and best) slasher movies ever made.
Starring a (mostly) pre-fame Bradley Cooper, this gory yet surprisingly suspenseful thriller chronicles a photographer’s descent into madness as he pursues a horrific subway-based serial killer. The less you know about this one going in the better, so all I’ll say is that it’s a must watch for fans of the genre.
3. Nightbreed (Director’s Cut)
Although we’ve only recently been able to watch Barker’s original vision of this peculiar movie, the wait was definitely worth it! Another one of Barker’s adaptations of his own work, this is also one of the best.
Featuring an epic tale of men and monsters (not to mention legendary director David Cronenberg acting as one of the creepiest killers ever put to film), Nightbreed is one of those rare movies that dares to be its own thing, defying genre and audience expectations with its nightmarishly beautiful effects and bizarre yet compelling plot.
2. Hellraiser
There isn’t much more to be said about this genuine horror classic. Directed by Barker, adapted from his novella The Hellbound Heart, this film cemented the writer as a legend in the world of horror movies, spawning a long-running franchise featuring one of the most memorable horror antagonists of all time.
While some of the effects haven’t aged very well, and the film does drag a bit in the second act, Hellraiser is without a doubt Clive’s best cinematic work to date and an essential part of horror movie history.
1. Candyman
More than a few people will disagree with this choice, but I maintain that no other film has captured the ethereal beauty and intense terror of a Clive Barker story like Bernard Rose’s Candyman.
Based on The Forbidden, another Books of Blood story, Candyman is a dreamlike look at the effects that myths can have on real life, and what happens when the boundaries between legend and reality are shattered. Featuring an amazing performance from Tony Todd as the titular Candyman, a terrifying yet subtle script, memorable visuals and a haunting score by Phillip Glass, this horror movie, along with Barker, will go down in legend like Candyman himself.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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