Clive Barker is an English novelist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed, and the Candyman series. He was also an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
"The Black Cat" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. In the story, an unnamed narrator has a strong affection for pets until he perversely turns to abusing them. His favorite, a pet black cat, bites him one night and the narrator punishes it by cutting its eye out and then hanging it from a tree. The home burns down but one remaining wall shows a burned outline of a cat hanging from a noose. He soon finds another black cat, similar to the first except for a white mark on its chest, but he develops a hatred for it as well. He attempts to kill the cat with an axe but his wife stops him; instead, the narrator murders his wife. He conceals the body behind a brick wall in his basement. The police soon come and, after the narrator's tapping on the wall is met with a shrieking sound, they find not only the wife's corpse but also the black cat that had been accidentally walled in with the body and alerted them with its cry.
Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, and produced by Christopher Figg, based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart. The film marked Barker's directorial debut. Its plot involves a mystical puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic beings who cannot differentiate between pain and pleasure. The leader of the Cenobites is portrayed by Doug Bradley, and identified in the sequels as "Pinhead".
The Hellbound Heart is a horror novella by Clive Barker, first published in November 1986 by Dark Harvest in the third volume of its Night Visions anthology series. The story features a hedonist criminal acquiring a mystical puzzle box, the Lemarchand Configuration, which can be used to summon the Cenobites, demonic beings who do not distinguish between pain and pleasure. He escapes the Cenobites and, with help, resorts to murder to restore himself to full life. Later on, the puzzle box is found by another.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short horror novel by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author's lifetime. Set in Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, it was first published in the May and July issues of Weird Tales in 1941; the first complete publication was in Arkham House's Beyond the Wall of Sleep collection (1943). It is included in the Library of America volume of Lovecraft's work.
Tales from the Crypt is a 1972 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis. It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on short stories from the EC Comics series Tales from the Crypt by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, and Bill Gaines. The film was produced by Amicus Productions and filmed at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England.
Lord of Illusions is a 1995 American neo-noir supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his own short story "The Last Illusion" published in 1985 in the anthology Books of Blood Volume 6. The same story introduced Barker's occult detective Harry D'Amour, who later appeared in several prose stories and comic books. Lord of Illusions is D'Amour's first onscreen appearance, with the character portrayed by actor Scott Bakula. Other actors appearing in the film include Kevin J. O'Connor, Famke Janssen and Daniel von Bargen. The story features D'Amour, who has had several experiences with the supernatural, embarking on an investigation involving a stage illusionist named Swann and a cult led by a sorcerer named Nix.
Books of Blood is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a wider audience and fanbase through this anthology series, leading to a successful career as a novelist. Originally presented as six volumes, the anthologies were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four, five or six stories. The Volume 1–3 omnibus contained a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Author Stephen King praised Books of Blood, leading to a quote from him appearing on the first US edition of the book: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."
Nang Nak is a 1999 Thai supernatural horror film based on the Thai legend of Mae Nak Phra Khanong. It was directed by Nonzee Nimibutr and released in 1999 by Buddy Film and Video Production Co. in Thailand. It depicts the life of a devoted ghost wife and her unsuspecting husband.
Hellraiser is a British-American horror media franchise that consists of eleven films, as well as various comic books, and additional merchandise and media. Based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by English author Clive Barker, the franchise centers around the Cenobites which includes the primary antagonist named Pinhead.
"Jenifer" is the fourth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror. It originally aired in North America on November 18, 2005. It was directed by Dario Argento and written by and starring Steven Weber. "Jenifer" is loosely adapted from a 10-page black-and-white comic book story, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, that originally appeared in issue #63 of the horror anthology title Creepy.
Necrophilia has been a topic in popular culture.
Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, known in Japan as Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, is a Japanese anime horror anthology television series produced by Toei Animation.
The Dead Man was a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD by writer John Wagner and artist John Ridgway, published in black and white in 1989–90. Although it was not billed as a Judge Dredd story, it featured Dredd as the amnesiac protagonist known only as the Dead Man. It was part of a series of stories that set the scene for the main Judge Dredd story of 1990, "Necropolis".
"The Pretty Little Calf" is a Chinese fairy tale collected by Wolfram Eberhard in "Folktales of China". It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and to the tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, in that a woman gives birth to children of wondrous aspect, but jealous relatives conspire to separate them. Similar stories are attested in East Asian literature, specially Mongolian and Korean, wherein the boy is murdered, but is later reborn in the shape of a calf.
FantaCo Enterprises is an American comic book store and publishing company founded and created by Thomas Skulan and based in Albany, New York. As a publisher, FantaCo was known for its idiosyncratic line-up of mostly black-and-white titles, including the humorous Hembeck Series and the horror title Gore Shriek. FantaCo also published "The Chronicles Series", which cataloged top-selling Marvel Comics titles. In its later years, FantaCo published mostly horror comics and a small number of "good girl art".
Märchen is the seventh story CD, released by the fantasy symphonic rock band Sound Horizon on December 15, 2010, through King Records. The normal edition debuted No. 3 and peaked No. 2 on the Oricon weekly albums chart. A limited edition sold over 40,000 copies in its first two days, 24,816 copies on the first day and 15,833 copies on the next.
"Smoldering Children" is the tenth episode of the first season of the television series American Horror Story, which premiered on the network FX on December 7, 2011. The episode was written by James Wong and directed by Michael Lehmann. This episode is rated TV-MA (LV).
"Spilt Milk" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the FX anthology television series American Horror Story. The episode, written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, aired on January 9, 2013. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).
The Harvest is a 2013 American horror thriller film released by IFC Films that was directed by John McNaughton. It is the first feature film he has directed in over a decade and his first horror venture since Haeckel's Tale, a 2006 episode of the horror anthology series Masters of Horror. The movie had its world premiere on October 19, 2013, at the Chicago International Film Festival and follows a young girl who befriends a seemingly lonely and confined boy her own age, only to fall afoul of his mother. In a 2017 interview McNaughton said about the film: "It has the bones of a fairy tale. It’s about growing up and having to break free from your parents. Your parents want your heart and you can’t let them take it. You have to break away and make your own life."
