Hellraiser
Cinema is a screen onto which we can project our fears, torments and the monstrosities of the world. The screen protects us from what we see, but cinema has also permanently anchored our nightmares around a few powerful images (empty houses, hostile attics and basements, demonic masks, bloodcurdling grimaces, disturbing postures). Throughout the summer, the Cinémathèque québécoise will be presenting a series of films encompassing more than one hundred and twenty years of horror, reminding us that what scares us most is to make the deepest of our fears tangible and credible.
Seeking extreme pleasures, Frank Cotton falls under the domination of the Cenobites, "angels for some, demons for others", who reign over a sadomasochistic universe. Brought back by chance into the mode of the living, Cotton is ready to do anything to escape them.
Clive Barker
Clive Barker is a British novelist, playwright, comic-book scriptwriter, painter and film-maker (Hellraiser in particular), who began drawing images from his dreams and imagination at an early age. He then turned his attention to the works of Christopher Marlowe**, William Shakespeare**, William Blake** and Edgar Allan Poe**. He spends three years at Liverpool University, studying English literature and philosophy. He then began writing plays: The History of the Devil, Frankenstein in Love, Subtle Bodies, The Secret Life of the Cartoons and Colossus. In 1970, he made his first short film, Salome, followed in 1971 by The Forbidden. In 1985 he published his first novel, The Damnation Game, followed in 1987 by Weaveworld, which continued to establish his reputation. He continued his writing career with best-selling novels such as Sacrifices in 1996, which won the Lambda Literary Award, and Galileo in 1998. Following Christopher Figg's advice, Clive Barker turned to directing, releasing Hellraiser in 1987. The film was a commercial success in the U.S. and the U.K., and became a cult classic a few years later. Building on this success, Hellraiser 2 (Hellraiser: Hellbound) was released the following year, directed by Tony Randel.
