Jericho creator Clive Barker
In Part II
of our four-part Q&A with writer-director-painter-game creator
Clive Barker, a question about Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 being censored
in the U.K. led to a discussion about Barker's own run-ins with the
British Board of Film Classification and the Motion Picture Association
of America. In today's Part III, a seemingly innocuous question about
which horror games Barker enjoys prompts an extensive, wide-ranging
conversation about the past, present and future of horror movies. Read
on.
Which horror games from other companies do you like, and what do you see as being the future of horror in videogames?
I don't think you can separate the future of horror from horrorful
stuff. And I think something is going to give very soon. I mean, when
Fangoria, which is a magazine I've loved for many years now, on the
cover--maybe in relation to "Hostel 2," and I'm not sure--has the headline, "Has Horror Gone Too Far?" From Fangoria magazine?
I mean this is--hello. This is outrageous, an outrageous thing for
Fangoria to be asking. But I believe it's asking for a legitimate
reason because what I'm gonna call horror porn, which is what I think
some of these torture pictures are, the "Hostels" for instance--
"Saw."
And "Saw." This is stuff which presents--you're there to see one
thing and one thing only, just as you are when you see a porn movie.
Don't tell me you're there for the story, mate, 'cause I ain't
believing you. [Laughs.]
I saw "Hostel 2" and I've seen the first "Hostel" as well. And
there were definitely people in the audience that you could tell from
the sounds they were making--not sexual sounds--but you could tell from
their response that that was what they were--
What they were there for.
--and possibly not even in a way that the filmmaker intended. Am I wrong?
No.
I'm not saying that--clearly that's part of the response that is intended. But for some of these people it was the sole response. Like getting off in a way on how the people are being killed.
Yeah, but--and I don't know ["Hostel 2" director] Eli Roth either.
But back making "Hellraiser" 20 years ago I came in for an incredible
beating in England and then here too had terrible fights with
[then-president of the Motion Picture Association of America Jack]
Valenti to get the material in, because the whole thesis of pain being
pleasure was anathema to him. I mean, it was exactly the reverse of what any message you ever want to have sent out, you know?
