In recent months I’ve managed to have a particularly perverse love affair with the literature of Clive Barker so re-visiting his most famous work was somewhat of an inevitability. Having now read the novella on which its based (The Hellbound Heart), I feel I can enter Barkers twisted and sickening landscape of hell with greater ease, despite how truly vile some of its images are.
One thing lost upon my first viewing was how understated the direction is. Barker has a non-showy hand and, for a film as gruesome as this is, manages to show a surprising amount of restraint, allowing the Grand Guignol spectacle to speak for itself.
The changes from the book are generally for the better. The dynamic between Kirsty and Larry (Rory in the novella) is drastically different: Kirsty’s change from besotted neighbour to plucky daughter adding the extra emotional resonance that was missing in the book.
One more viewing should have me won over completely. In the meantime I can only hope Barker’s debut novel, The Damnation Game, can be successfully translated from page to screen. Maybe a comeback project for Barker himself?
4/5
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