"Books of Blood", "Cabal" ... Discover the universe of Clive Barker

• The

  Books of Blood

  movie

  , inspired

  by Clive Barker's

  Blood Books

  series

  , has been available since Friday on Disney +

• The writer, described as “the future of horror” by Stephen King, is known for his horror stories adapted into films:

  Candyman

  ,

  Hellraiser

  …

• 20 Minutes

  takes the opportunity to put before his less known but no less important works such as

  Terreur

  ,

  Midnight Meat Train

  and his own works

  Cabal

  and

  Le Maître des Illusions

If you've been planning on making a TV set for Halloween night, and maybe followed the advice from our "It's Horror" series, you might be watching

or 

, two movie classics from genre, whose influence is still intact today, with, for the first, a remake currently in theaters, and, for the second, a series project by David Gordon Green, already in charge of the new

. What you might not know is that they come from the same awesome, somewhat deranged brain: writer, also writer and director, Clive Barker.

On the publication of his new

in the 1980s, Stephen King called the writer "the future of horror", and proof that he was right, a film adaptation of

has been available since Friday on Disney +.

The opportunity to come back to the lesser known but no less important films from the universe of Clive Barker.

"Books of Blood"

John Harrison's

2009 film

, aka

, already carried two of Clive Barker's many short stories to the screen, the same ones that Brannon Braga is freely adapting today in

 : A Psychologist Who tries to contact her deceased son with the help of a young medium, a hitman in search of an invaluable book, to which is added the story of a young woman finding refuge with an old couple.

Stories a priori independent but in the end interconnected for the better and, of course, for the worse.

"Terror"

Rawhead Rex, Quicksilver Highway, Midnight Meat Train, Candyman…

Clive Barker have been the source of inspiration and adaptation of several genre films, more or less known.

, available for purchase and rental, belongs to the second category, and that's a shame. Directed by Anthony DiBlasi in 2009,

in its original version, tells how Quaid, a philosophy student, decides with two comrades to make a film to prove his thesis on the buried fears of the human being. The project begins to awaken its own traumas, only to escape it completely. With its theoretical concept, its unhealthy vibe and horror that is both immediate and cerebral,

remains in memory even after the film is finished, as if it had made its way under the skin.

Brrrr ...

"Midnight Meat Train"

An adaptation of a short story from the

,

is also the first film starring Bradley Cooper as well as the first American film by Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura (

).

And the result is an artistic miracle, coupled with a waking nightmare.

Leon Kaufman is a photographer known for his provocative shots.

At the request of a gallery owner and in view of his next exhibition, he plunges into the bowels of the city and discovers that a serial killer is attacking the passengers of the last metro.

He decides to follow him, without suspecting what he will discover.

The spectator, either, is not ready for this journey to the icy staging and brutal violence.

Like Bradley Cooper's character, he quickly becomes fascinated by what he sees, between attraction and repulsion.

"Cabal" and "The Master of Illusions"

You are never better served than by yourself, right?

Three years after

, Clive Barker adapts again one of his works on the big screen, the novel

, or the story of the young and disturbed Aaron Boone, convinced by his shrink that he is a serial killer.

He finds refuge in the cemetery of Midiam, populated by monsters called the Nocturnes.

A real freak show,

was considered an artistic and public failure when it was released in 1990, but would become over the years, and after a

, a cult film for all fans of Clive Barker and, more generally, of quirks.

The film is available, in its two cinema and full versions, at ESC Distribution.

And a serial project is in development on the Syfy channel.

The author-director knows the same fate, and disappointment, with his third and last film,

, where the private detective specialist in the occult Henry d'Amour investigates the accidental death of an illusionist on stage, against the backdrop of a fanatic sect.

Complex or confused, it depends, the film also had a complicated release, and a truncated version, in 1995, before being rehabilitated with its full version, available from Le chat qui fume.

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