Brrr...

Have a highly-defined Christmas, everybody!

While I imagine the expiry date on being allowed to pimp my seasonal animated short "The Naughty List" will be up by this time next year, I'm giving it one last gasp. From now on (either until the new year or possibly forever, depending on how well it goes down) the complete, unedited version of the film is available to watch in full 1080p HD. "Ooh" and, I'll hasten to add, "Aah".
Rather apt as the HD thing kind of plays a part in the story, also in consideration of my peers you can now see all the inconsistencies in the line work that SD went some way toward covering up.

Please watch it/share it/'like' it etc as you all see fit. Plus if you're a Vimeo member you can download the full-res file and keep it forever and ever! It's a not-entirely-selfless act of holiday benevolence on my part.
Goodwill to all!

"Hello again, Terminal 5..."

As the hectic holiday season has officially engulfed us, I am falling behind in certain areas, like keeping this blog up to date, for one. Rest easy, readers of this newfangled internet, for come the new year I may well be back on form and taking forever to say absolutely nothing of value like I usually do. While I have some time waiting on a flight that'll propel me away from this island for the holidays, I’ll quickly knock out some Christmassy chunks of good news: Firstly, Canal+ have added another handful of broadcast slots for “The Naughty List” over the holiday season, you can head on over to the channel website for full listings.Secondly, said tale of seasonal disenchantment will be screening in Italy alongside “Ground Running” as part of the Skepto International Film Festival’s pre-fest event tomorrow at Cagliari's Hostel Marina (7:30pm for pantsless Santa, 9:30pm for pantsless baby…I’m starting to pick up on a recurring theme in my work).Lastly, “The Naughty List” will also be getting its first – and possibly only – screening of 2012 next month at the Short Soup International Short Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. As part of Movies By The Boulevard, a series of outdoor film screenings at Sydney Olympic Park that runs through January, my film's in Short Soup’s ‘Dessert’ section which begins at 10:25pm on Sunday 22nd. So, if you find yourselves feeling any post-holiday melancholia, head on over there and cheer yourselves up. Granted, for those of you who don’t actually live in Australia, the incurred travel expense may depress you further, in which case you may just want to pick up a batch of reduced-price mince pies instead.

Seasonal Spaniards

Some very nice Christmassy news regarding "The Naughty List" - despite its somewhat sardonic take on the holiday season, I'm really happy to say that it'll be getting a bunch of TV broadcasts in Spain over the Canal+ network during December. Here are the dates/times/channels:

•Friday 9th December - 12:36pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Monday 12th December - 6:10am - Canal+2
•Friday 16th December - 4:50pm - Canal+2
•Sunday 18th December - 1:41pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Friday 23rd December - 4:35pm - Canal+1
•Friday 23rd December - 5:05pm - Canal+1 ...30
•Saturday 24th December - 5:36pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Thursday 29th December - 12:06pm - Canal+ Xtra

More info including a rather flattering description and the declaration "No recomendada para menores de siete años" (so that's the cutoff point - good to know) can be found on its Canal+ page.

"I guess they let any old crap on TV these days..."

Cartoons Are Fun

Best souvenir ever...

My massive Encounters-athon has just come to a close and I'm shakily writing this in the interim between the final screening and a personal trainer session that's sure to finish me off. The festival's been great, if for no other reason that I drank until my eyes melted and got to meet some much-admired filmmaker types. Knock wood I didn't manage to completely alienate the greater percentage of them. "Ground Running"'s Saturday screening played to a slightly smaller crowd but the overall response to it seemed even better than on Thursday. Shame on all of you for laughing at that little naked baby's pain.
My own self-celebration aside, there were loads of amazing and inspiring shorts including some previous favourites "Damned", "The External World", "Bertie Crisp", "A Morning Stroll", "Greetings" and "The Eagleman Stag" along with a few seen for the first time:









All in all it was a great week and I'm especially grateful to Pete, Justine, Jo, Matt, Hans, Mel, Chris and Rachel for their support. Also I want to express my appreciation for the volunteers for all their help, including the frumpy one (who couldn't have been in a shittier mood if her knickers were lined with fibreglass) for not spitting directly in my face.
Well, it took three films and ninety festivals but I finally have this one crossed off the list. I finally feel at home in Bristol now.

Yes Sir, I like it

Between work and making a point of being more of a regular attendee at this year's Encounters, I'm operating on approximately four hours of sleep a night, floating from event to event on Arnolfini gingerbread lattes (which I assume are about 950 calories a pop). As I have a brief sliver of downtime, I'll take this opportunity to document the latest addition to the hall of Greatest Things That Have Ever Happened To Me:There really are no words. Except for 'happy' and, upon further consideration, 'joy'.
I'll give a proper overview of the festival on Skwigly soon, but in the meantime I'm happy to say "Ground Running" got a far better response yesterday than I'd expected from a 10am audience. In fact it played to pretty much a full house, which was also unexpected and a great start to the day. There's another showing tomorrow at noon (so it has a second opportunity to bomb) which can be booked online at the Arnolfini website:Note their good taste in still selection...

Fifty is the new...uh...eh, who cares...

Another groovy little milestone for "The Naughty List" has been reached with its fiftieth festival taking place later this month. This will be in Gdańsk, Poland for Euroshorts 2011, screening alongside some smashing films such as Iain Gardner's "The Tannery" and Grant Orchard's "A Morning Stroll". This will be on November 23rd at 6pm, more info on their site.Also, if you're around for Bristol Encounters (which starts today), don't forget that "Ground Running", the runt of the litter as far as my films go, will be playing twice during the Animated Encounters screening "The Human Condition", firstly at 10am tomorrow (17th) and then at noon on Saturday (19th). There's loads of other events and screenings worth checking out, including the great John K's signings and Q&A discussion that I'm mildly losing my shit over in anticipation. So if that grim scenario is something you're okay with witnessing firsthand, pop along.

Reprazentin'! (...sorry)

It's that time of year when I take stock of where I am and where I'm going with this cartoon malarkey. This year was pretty strong, work-wise as well as for personal projects, but my hopes that this may have been indicative of an industry upswing have been dashed for their childlike foolishness by an increasingly bleak forecast. Work out there in 2012 seems sparse and if it weren't for "Bullies" keeping me occupied for the next couple months I'm not sure what I'd be doing with my time. Come January I could be up the proverbial creek, scrabbling about for the proverbial paddle.
So, in true 'keep calm and carry on' tradition of head-in-sand denial this nation is so famous for, I'll plod along and do all I can do. To that end I've revised my showreel:

There isn't a whole bunch of replacement footage as I want to keep what "Bullies" animation I've done under wraps until I start promoting it. I've also brought my animation CV up to date with various work commissions since the summer, as well as developments with my films and an additional screening history section.

Ben Mitchell - Animation CV (.pdf, 3.3mb)

To supplement all this is a mini-portfolio I'd put together not that long ago to showcase my graphic design, character design and illustration work in brief:

Ben Mitchell - Design/Illustration Portfolio (.pdf, 5.3mb)

So there you go. That's me and the brass tacks of what I've been up to. Help a fella out, folks.

Shady

Here's another round-up of some recent life drawing I've been persisting with. Some strides have been made as far as shading is concerned, though as you can see I'm still hesitant when it comes to faces. I think if I'm going to make any progress at all I may have to spend a couple of future sessions just focusing on heads alone and try to identify what it is precisely that's putting me off. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves some spookily faceless naked folks:

Corking

The Irish debut of "The Naughty List" will take place this November at the Corona Cork Film Festival, a fantastic looking event which goes from the 6th to the 13th. I don't quite get the connection between Corona and Irish filmmaking, especially as, to the best of my knowledge, it's a Mexican beer. But I'm not complaining, in fact in appreciation of their kindness in throwing my film in I have laid out my lucky Corona boxers for the 'morrow. You probably don't need photographic proof of that, but here you go anyway:A special edit of the film is presently viewable online as part of ShortsNonstop, an initiative of the CFC in the form of a web-based film contest. If you have the time and inclination please give it a watch and a vote once it's done (li'l voting balls will appear on the right after the vid plays to the end). You don't need to register and there are a bunch of other nice short films up too, including some nifty and well-made animation like this one.I probably shouldn't have waited this long to mention it as I think the voting ends in the next couple days, but it's great the have some Canuck exposure all the same. It'll hopefully be in my corner when I finally up sticks and get my ass back over there.

High Society

The first of what I hope will be several preview chapters from my forthcoming graphic novel "Throat" is now available to download. This is entirely gratis for not very selfless reasons, and sharing with everyone you know who likes this kind of thing is actively encouraged.It doesn't give away too much of the story, it more serves as a visual introduction to the style and tone of the book and the world it takes place in. You can download it by clicking the link below:

Launchy

I was at the launch party for this year's Encounters programme last night and it has to be said that it's looking to be a very strong year. The small handful of animated films they showed were pretty sophisticated and to be honest I'm not sure how well my li'l auteur venture will measure up, but it's great to know it's amongst some good company. The two that grabbed me in particular were "Hurdy-Gurdy" (D. Seideneder), an elaborate and intricate time-lapse style stop motion piece, and "Luminaris" (Juan Pablo Zaramella), one of very few films I've seen to use pixilation comedically (as opposed to, y'know, creepily).
There's some great events lined up including a Studio AKA showcase which I caught at ITFS and is definitely worth checking out, as well as Cartoon Saloon and special programs for Irish and Brazilian animation. The truly SPECTACULAR news is that John Kricfalusi will be doing an in-person Q&A which I booked the nanosecond I found out about it. To put it in perspective - without John K there'd be no "Ren & Stimpy", without "Ren & Stimpy" there'd be no preadolescent impulse for li'l Ben to fuck around drawing cartoons and without that I'd probably be working in telesales about now.My film "Ground Running" will be shown as part of the Arnolfini animation screening "The Human Condition" which will be at 10am on Thursday November 17th and then repeated at noon on the 19th. Other animators featured as part of the festival include Grant Orchard, Julia Pott, Richard Phelan, Francesca Adams, Sam Morrison, David O'Reilly, Louis Hudson and Mikey Please.

Jammin'...in a couple of respects...

It's been just over a year since Bill Plympton put out the call for animators all over the world to contribute to "Guard Dog Global Jam", and so in honour of the film's successful completion and subsequent glowing reception at a whole heap of international fests (recent inclusions being OIAF and LIAF) I did a feature on the project from the perspectives of Bill, Plymptoons producer Desiree Stavracos and a bunch of the film's very talented contributors. You can read it over at Skwigly now:

Guard Dog Global Jam - A look at Bill Plympton’s worldwide collaboration endeavour

One of the highlights of being personally involved with the film was learning about so many other great animation enthusiasts, professionals and independents out there. So a great deal of thanks go out to Fatima Yasrebi, John T. Quinn, James Sugrue, Ansar Sattar, Amy Sutton, Mike Schneider, Filip Grudziel, Rebecca Wallace, Jeremy Galante and Julius Liubertas for their feedback for the article, as well as Desiree and Mr. Plympton himself for putting the whole thing together in the first place.Occupying a completely separate position on the spectrum of my extracurricular activities, I have recently been going through a bunch of old music recordings of mine in anticipation of re-releasing all my CDs. This came from hearing the news that Lulu is rescinding their produce-to-demand service for music, alongside the realisation that Cafepress (my main alternative) had rather shittily done so already without mentioning it to anyone.
So, while I weigh up the remaining options, I'm remastering all my production work from 2003-2008 to bring it up to par with my most recent album, 2010's "The Book of Women". Some of the tracks I've been uploading to SoundCloud as they're done to serve as a free online sampler. Here are the first batch from this past week:

On A Limb by Struwwelpeter

Rabbit Hole by Struwwelpeter

Laughing At A Wall (Live) by Struwwelpeter

What I Predict (Amneurotic) by Struwwelpeter

Cold Turkey (Remix) by Struwwelpeter

More to come in the following weeks. In the meantime I may as well use the opportunity to remind y'all that the completely free EP "Digital Stimulation" is still available to stream or download in its entirety.So there ya go, free reading material and free music to distract you when you should be working. I spoil you all.

Oktoberfests

This month is turning out to be a positively cray-cray one for film screenings, starting today at the aforementioned Goden Kuker-Sofia festival where “The Naughty List” is screening at the Arena West Cinema as part of the 1pm Films For Kids competition program “Through The Eyes of a Child”. It’s also part of the Ukrainian touring festival KROK which wraps up on Monday and the German touring festival Film Sharing, which has its final stop on the 21st in Mainz at the Capitol & Palatin, starting at 8:30pm.I can also confirm that, as well as Berne, it will be part of the Cologne, Cape Town and Vienna editions of the Shnit International Shortfilmfestival as part of "Shnit Animates 1", showing at the following times/places/venues:
•Cologne, Germany
Friday 7th, 9pm Alte Feuerwache 1
Sunday 9th, 2pm Kölner Filmhaus 1
•Cape Town, South Africa
Friday 7th, 4pm Labia 2 (I’ve never been to that particular venue but it sure sounds like a lovely place)
•Vienna, Austria
Thursday 6th, 6pm Burg Kino 2At the 6th Vilnius Film Shorts, it goes under the mildly scary title “Nepaklusniųjų Sąrašas” in the "International Competition V" at 3:30pm on Friday 14th at the “Skalvijos” Kino Centras and 4pm on Saturday 15th at the Kino Pasaka.Also on the 15th it’ll be the closing film of the “Männer” section of Emmentaler Filmtage in Switzerland, showing at 2pm, 4:30pm and 9:30pm and the following day (16th, to condescendingly imply that you don’t know what fifteen plus one equals) at 12:30pm, 4pm and 6:45pm – full programme here.Then on Monday 17th it’s on in Romania at the Comedy Cluj International Film Festival during their 3:30pm Animation screening at the Cinema Florin Piersic, repeated 11am Friday 21st at the Cinema Arta.Following in the footsteps of “House Guest” back in ’09, it’s up for the Delta Film Award at Manchester’s Festival of Fantastic Films on Saturday 22nd.A particularly nice bit of news to round off the month is that it will screen alongside my previous film “Ground Running” at FLIP International Animation Festival in Wolverhampton on the morning of the 28th, which just happens to be my birthday. I know, you don’t have to say it: I’m adorable. FLIP was also the first festival (of, I’ll be honest, a lot) to turn down my work and help steel me against the concept of film rejection, so to have two shorts in at this point is quite validating in a cyclical sort of way.
Phew. Okay, that’s enough deplorable self-love for one post. All that’s left is for me to apologise for using the term ‘cray-cray’ in the first sentence: I’m sincerely, profusely sorry. It won’t happen again.

Baby Love

Some more film news, starting with the latest outing for "The Naughty List" which will be at the 3D Wire International Animation Market in Segovia, Spain this October 13th-16th. I don't know if it's incorporated into any particular screening events but will update when I get info as my childlike grasp of Spanish isn't doing me any favours at the moment.I'm very happy to say that later on in November my previous film “Ground Running” will be playing at Animated Encounters, the animation strand of Bristol’s own Encounters International Film Festival. This is a fest I’ve been going to since I moved here back in 2006, and handily my apartment’s pretty much just around the corner from the venue. It’s the first time any of my work has been included though, so it’s nice to be able to cross another high-tier fest off the list (between this, ITFS Stuttgart and Clermont-Ferrand I just have Annecy and Ottawa as my main ‘get’s left). Hurrah!

Sour grapes. It's sad, really...

A Very Special Episode

Sometimes I look at my blog posts or Twitter feed and wonder if I come off like a methodical, joyless ass motivated by self-promotion and cynicism. I rather hope I don't, because I'm actually a pretty easygoing, lovable scamp. As long as I'm getting enough sleep.
So today, apropos of pretty much nothing at all, I've decided to list ten random things off the top of my head I take tremendous joy in. I can't not be in a good mood as long as I have these in my life.

•This bit in "The Simpsons"


•"Ghostbusters 2" on the original GameBoyBecause it rules. You spend the whole game wandering around catching a shitload of ghosts; one button shoots them, the other traps them. It's literally the perfect GameBoy game.

•Sofia Vergara making chocolate milk on "Modern Family"

•The parts of "Over The Falls" by Primus where Les goes 'byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp...' with the upright bass.

From around 8 seconds in. And throughout. Darn good plucker, that Mr. Claypool.

•Roti Canai at the HK Diner on Park St.It's ricockulously delicious.

•My sister's roommate's adorable yet idiotic Boston Terrier/Gremlin thingJust look at her. She's the greatest creature in existence. She's also a fucking dunce and eats everything that'll stay down. For both those reasons I consider her a kindred spirit.

•That old episode of "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" with Cathy Dennis

For reasons not entirely dissimilar to the Sofia Vergara clip. Also because she's an adorable goddamn goofball and can write a catchy tune.

•The way you get the CD out of the packaging for Mike Patton's "Peeping Tom"
You pull the tab on the right and the CD slides out on the left. It's BRILLIANT. This album came out nearly six years ago and I'm still entertained by it. How can you not be?

•Any moment of any episode of that online show Maria Bamford did where she plays all the characters

•Any time they talk about Kubrick movies on "The Opie & Anthony Show"

I really don't think there's any explanation needed.

That's enough positivity for one day. Don't worry, I'll be whining about something I made up soon enough.
N'night!

Things that will happen (AKA “It’s the end of the week and I don’t have the energy for a clever title”)

Just in time to hopefully not be too late for Christmas, December 5th is now marked as the official joint release date for my next two books. “My Pretties” is a non-narrative illustration book in the vein of last year’s “Brain Spillage”, this time a full-colour showcase of my character design work over recent years. Its focus is naturally on the projects I’ve taken on since starting out on my animation career, with some early toothcutting endeavours thrown in. “Throat”, which I’ve talked about previously, is my first graphic novel to not be an adaptation or anthology. It’s been a not-so-smooth ride, going on intuition and very little by way of guidance, but after a last minute rewrite I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. There’s the usual dark elements and weird, goofy shit I guess I’m associated with at this point, but it also goes to some places a little more personal and introspective. “Maus” it definitely ain’t, but I’m proud of it all the same.Film news, another upcoming October screening for “The Naughty List” will be at the “Golden Kuker – Sofia” International Animation Film Festival in Bulgaria, alongside some pretty fine films by the likes of Joost Lieuwma, Dmitry Geller, David O’Reilly, Brothers Quay, Grant Orchard, Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg. There are lots more, of course, but those fellas in particular I’m a bit of a fan of, so worth a shout-out. The film’ll be shown as part of the Made For Kids competition screening on Saturday October 1st at the Arena West cinema, full programme here.Other confirmed “Naughty List” festival screening times: A week tomorrow (the 24th) it’s being played in the Pyrenees International Short Film Festival Sintetitza’s Animation section from 5pm at the Catalunya Cinema in Berga.
At the multi-regional Shnit International Shortfilmfestival it is in the “Shnit Animates 1” screening, showing at 9pm Friday October 7th and 5pm the following Sunday (9th). I’m not sure if this is the same schedule for all the countries but those are the official times for the Berne edition (Venue for both screenings is the Kino City II).Finally, my Animation MA coursemate Kate has put together an animation showcase that will be part of SAW’s Art Weeks ’11 visual arts festival in Somerset. My first film “House Guest” will be included as part of the daily programme (around 12:25pm) as well as work by such fellow UWE-ites as Laura Ratta, Lucia Morgan, Mark Simon Hewis, Dominique Bongers, and Mel Peck, along with some classic shorts from established directors. The Art Weeks make for a pretty giant event with lots of stuff on for the artistically inclined and goes from tomorrow up to October 2nd, so if you’re trotting about those parts drop in to The Old School and watch yourself some fine toonage. More info at the event website.

Lamentation

This entry’s a little outside of the usual subject matter for this blog as it has pretty much nothing to do with animation. It is, however, something that has been on my mind from the perspective of storytelling and the ways in which intellectual properties, once out of their creator’s hands, can develop for better or worse.

I saw a rather disconcerting tweet the other week from my hero and good pal (in my head) Clive Barker – author/artist/creator of “Hellraiser” – which read thusly:

I was kinda surprised, as I’d figured they’d finally hung up the “Hellraiser” socks in 2005 with the unsurprisingly lacklustre eighth entry “Hellworld”. A ninth Hellraiser, or remake of the original perhaps, would at this point only be of value if from the mind of – or at least endorsed by – Clive Barker himself. The only straight-to-DVD sequel he allegedly had anything positive to say about was part 6, “Hellseeker” (2002), which is certainly not without its flaws. So the above Twitter condemnation, along with the whimper the series had supposedly died out on, did not see my expectations raised for this new entry. In truth, I expected it to be hacky trash. How would it be possible, then, to be disappointed by the trailer when, in my head, the bar was already so low? Well, kids, here’s how:

This. Is. Fucking. GARBAGE.
If the above footage somehow managed to make use of untapped computer technology and have YouTube literally urinate directly into my mouth, ears and eyes I’d be less affronted. I’m not even sure who to direct my anger at as there are too many reasons why it’s awful to even begin to count. The recycled dialogue, the dreadful acting, the disorientingly lazy sound mix or the fact that it appears to have been filmed on a flip-cam are all vying for the crown of this film’s shittiness.
Some YouTube comments, along with the film’s Wikipedia entry, have theorised that this is a move by the studio to retain the franchise rights as cheaply (an estimated $300,000) and, in turn, disrespectfully as possible. That explanation makes sense and the silver lining would be that maybe their long game is to put together a more considered reboot of the franchise. If that is indeed the case, then my impulse should be to ignore it completely and let it be the proverbial soundless tree falling in an unpopulated forest.
I guess that’s the real issue – I can’t. I’m genuinely bothered by it. On an intellectual level I can strip the process down and acknowledge it’s an economical solution to a long-term, intellectual property ownership issue. But on a deeper level, one that rationalising has no control over, it’s disrespectful and irresponsible and artistically barren.
“Sure, Ben. Now you’re gonna tell me that a low-budget 80s horror flick constitutes ‘art’?”
How about this - yes, it fucking does. Get them apples down ya.
Clive Barker is an artist, in absolutely no uncertain terms, and the value of art is just as crucially measured by its reception as by its intent. Sure, I’ll admit that a lot of the film adaptations of his books and short stories have been patchy, but the first “Hellraiser”, made in 1987, is a legitimate cultural achievement: An independent British horror film that became a mainstream, international success, while bearing none of the hallmarks or clichés of the genre, then or today.

In true Clive Barker form, the story at its heart is actually quite domestic and relatable. It’s a film about lust for life, human relationships, experience and the torturous nature of boredom; the most common misconception is that it’s about a guy with pins in his head going around massacring people (they saved that for part 3). In fact, it’s fundamentally a love triangle between an austere, bored housewife, her milquetoast husband and his swarthy, dangerous brother with whom she’d had a pre-marital shagathon. So bowled over by his abilities as a master-cocksman, when she meets him again as a skeletal escapee from hell she doesn’t bat an eyelid.

She’s also more than happy to let loose her repressed murderess side and kill a string of horny barflies that her reanimated lover can feed on to become a whole person again. What gives the film its uniqueness is its focus on realistic, human issues juxtaposed against the darker, surreal visuals and concepts. These two scenes are a nice little glimpse into that overall vibe:

That the ‘horror’ elements are so casually incorporated into the story gives them a lot more weight and even legitimacy. The villainess (or antiheroine) Julia isn’t a one-dimensional hacker-upper, her motives to self-servingly indulge the sociopath within aren’t so far-fetched when you consider the despicable behaviour of real-life nutjobs; next to the Tracey Connellys of the world she actually comes off as fairly tame.

Fleshing out the story further are elements good, bad and ‘meh’ – the reluctant, unlikely stepdaughter heroine (good), her completely ineffectual boyfriend (meh), the cenobites, a kind of underworld, S&M-inspired mafia/clergy, of which the then-unnamed Pinhead is don/high priest (superb) and...well, there’s this bit with a giant scorpion thing being wheeled down a hallway...yeah, I’m not too wild about that.
Another big gripe is that, presumably for reasons relating to marketing the film internationally, a lot of the British actors have their lines overdubbed with American accents. So, as with everything in life, it isn’t perfect, but there’s so much to it that works so well and, frankly, puts it on a higher plane than other genre movies of the era. This virtue is, ironically, what limits its audience somewhat – it’s just easier to sell a brainless slasher flick if you’re going under the horror label.

"For the most part, the reviews have been extremely kind. The audiences seem to have been having a good time with it, which is a major satisfaction. So I would have to say yes, I'm satisfied. I think it would be great if some of the images from the movie become images which recur in people's heads and stick with them. I would really like to see a Hellraiser series get going. I'd like Julia to be the first running character in a horror series who's a woman, like a female Freddy Kreuger.”
- Clive Barker (Fall 1987), justifiably ambitious and hopeful.

Naturally enough, the film’s unprecedented success spawned a more or less immediate sequel “Hellbound” (1988), which Barker was less involved with but was penned by his former theatre troupe co-founder Peter Atkins (who would also write parts 3 and 4).

As the film goes on, Atkins’s grand vision starts to work against it, the budget just not sufficient enough to accommodate the spectacle of hell he’d envisioned. The first act of the film is superb, though (aside from the bizarre presence of cornball US detectives further confusing the geography of the films), echoing Barker’s explorations of human obsession. The scenes that really stand out deal with the relationship between a psychiatric doctor and the reborn villainess Julia:

Another standout moment of all the films takes place toward the end of “Hellbound”, where the cenobites acknowledge their own origins and face-off against the doctor, himself now cenobitised and looking to oust them (just to let you know - MONUMENTAL spoilers in this clip, in case you plan on giving the films a proper watch):

“To catch the momentum and consciously carry on the mythological development was a challenge I found irresistibly exciting. Hellbound illuminates many of the concepts I was happy to leave as mysteries in Hellraiser while continuing on a spiral of weirdness I can develop even more in a third film.”
- Clive Barker (01/1988), excited enough about the sequel to already be aiming for a trilogy.

At this point the films had developed a pretty sizable audience who’d embraced Pinhead more than the human villains of the film (this essentially put the kibosh on Barker’s aforementioned vision of Julia, the housewife-turned-Queen-of-Hell from the first two movies, becoming the series’ main antagonist). An ambitious comic series was spawned (separate entry for that coming soon) and, after several variants on a storyline were developed, a third film was pushed out in 1992.

“Hell On Earth” takes a pretty gigantic turn as an unashamed slasher movie, wherein the former cenobite leader (he with the nails in the ol’ noggin) goes into the freelance business of pretty much slaughtering everyone in his path. As a viewer, it’s fun in the vein of shamefully wolfing down an entire box of chocolates, yet despite going against the M.O. of the first film by retreating to a more conventional type of horror flick, it’s still peppered by wonderfully incongruous moments of Atkins-scripted dialogue that are so well-written they almost seem as though they’re from a different film altogether. These mainly center on a series of ‘seduction’ monologues Pinhead (Doug Bradley) delivers, the clip below being, in all seriousness, probably one of my favourite scenes in a movie ever:

Also to Atkins’ credit is that the contradictory character Pinhead has in this movie does make perfect sense, story-wise. Having been stripped of his humanity in the previous film, he now exists purely as impulsive evil, hence a somewhat Krueger-ised persona. This concept I will happily admit to being my main inspiration for Erica, the villainess of “Mitchells In England” (in fact a whole heap of the story elements were more or less lifted directly from “Hell On Earth” in, y’know, loving homage). At this point in the series, though, Barker himself had been elbowed out, only really being brought on for reshoots to fix the somewhat anticlimactic ending.

"From the start it was clear the production company [Trans Atlantic Entertainment] wanted their stamp on it more than mine. While they had to pay me because the original ideas and characters were my creation, they already had the pivotal elements in place, so they didn't need me. As it didn't reflect my vision of the Hellraiser mythos, I had no desire to be associated with it in any way.”
-Clive Barker (03/1993) on the reality of the third movie.

The film is a cringefest, full of one-liners, gratuitous tit shots and questionable VFX – and I do indeed love it. While the first “Hellraiser” nourishes my craving for well-crafted, story-driven cinema, the third equally satisfies my guilty penchant for brainless cheese (with the second pretty much bang in the middle). As a trilogy these films are solid, thoughtful at times and joyfully macabre.
Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered that a fourth was coming out, pretty much exactly when I was getting into Barker and the “Hellraiser” series. Thus began the descent of the franchise into a succession of production nightmares. My fascination shifted from the stories of the films themselves to the real-life, behind-the-scenes woes that were being reported.

The heartbreaking thing is that “Hellraiser: Bloodline” (1996), in screenplay form, had the makings of being the best one of the lot, irrefutably concluding the largely unexplored mythology of the films by bringing it full circle to its origins in the 18th century. The evidence of Atkins’s work as a quality writer previously glimpsed in moments of parts 2 and 3 was this time laid on thick. Fortunately some of these scenes made it to the final version, albeit framed in a misrepresented context – the film as released is a confusing, detached patchwork with gaping continuity issues and inconsistencies. This one surviving exposition scene from an entirely excised subplot just about works in its own right, and more importantly shows the potential the film could have had:

It has to be said that, for the most part, only after reading the original screenplay do certain scenes or lines of dialogue make any sense whatsoever. This film was also my introduction to the concept of the Alan Smithee pseudonym, put to use after director Kevin Yagher had the film he was trying to realise wrenched away from him to be bombarded with script revisions and reshoots.

“When a filmmaker wants to make a movie based on my work, I can't say, "Well, I'm not going to become involved." Instead I keep my finger in the pie and try to create a better movie. However, as the series goes on, it becomes harder and harder to scare audiences with images that they've seen in the three previous films…Hollywood is built on pure profit and, provided there's a profit, the concept will continue - even if there isn't a brand spanking new story to tell."
- Clive Barker (02/1995), wearied industry veteran.

I have absolutely no qualms with admitting that, as far as I can tell, in the hall of fame of shitty horror movie sequels there have been far worse than “Bloodline”. Its main problem is simple – it isn’t finished. There are still a lot of strong moments and cool concepts buried beneath the mishmash plot.

The ending is irredeemable though, inexplicably sudden with no epilogue or explanation, the consequence I assume of a rushed rewrite so that the hero survives. Workprints of earlier versions of the film exist, some containing scenes from the screenplay that were filmed but left out of the released movie. One of these is an earlier version of the ending (in which the hero makes the far more poetic and justified move of sacrificing himself), which is not only better, it honestly gave me chills – no mean feat given how much harder an onscreen timecode and the absence of VFX, music and sound make suspension of disbelief. When I finally watched it a couple years ago I actually felt like I was at peace with the film; it’s how things should have ended.

"Hellraiser 4 has been released in the States. It's not very good. I think they are making another one. Oh God!"
- Clive Barker (07/1996), candid realist.

1-4: The more profitable, theatrical-run days...

So, in the wake of the clusterfuck that was the fourth “Hellraiser” (which made it into cinemas in the US but was the first straight-to-video entry in the UK), the series’ future on the home video market was pretty much set in stone. I made a point of keeping expectations low for the fifth (2000’s “Inferno”), which proved to be the right move as it was something of a poor man’s “Jacob’s Ladder” and the first to no longer involve Atkins. The aforementioned “Hellseeker” was similar, story-wise, but redeemed by its atmosphere and performances. Its main problem is a jarring and disconnected storytelling style, where events constantly jump forward and backward. The explanation at the end justifies this device well enough, but frankly it gets pretty irritating to sit through. All told, however, it’s the most commendable stab at a “Hellraiser” movie out of the final four.

5-8: Straight-to-DVD hell

The seventh (“Deader”, 2005) and eighth are uniquely fascinating – in their own rights they are inoffensive-yet-mediocre horror flicks. Here’s the thing, though – they aren’t “Hellraiser” movies. Curiously, and rather lazily, the studio made the move of optioning screenplays for films that were never intended to be part of the franchise, and it’s glaringly obvious that any “Hellraiser” story/mythology elements are awkwardly crowbarred in, conflicting with their intended plotlines. But I suppose if you’re an aspiring screenwriter and you’re desperate to get a film made, you’ll happily slap “Hellraiser” on the title and give Pinhead a cameo if not doing so is the deal-breaker. So, for that reason, I have no real issue with them, because they really don’t count. Also, Kari Wührer is in one of them and she’s hot.

“It's painful, because I loved making this movie; I loved making the second movie; I actually had a good time at the third one, and then it started to fall apart. The reason it falls apart is because of certain people who are not creative, who are pencil pushers, the people who went to business school, who went to law school, who have absolutely nothing to do with the creative process who think they know better than creators. And this town is full of them!”
- Clive Barker (08/2000), at this point really kinda bumming me out.

I think what is more aggravating with the new one about to be released is that it was commissioned as a “Hellraiser” movie from the outset, but with none of the time, money or respect such a film deserved. Thankfully Doug Bradley turned it down, but I’m staggered that they would make the horribly misjudged move of including a version of a character as iconic as his played by another actor. The timing is also atrocious, given that in a couple other respects the franchise on the whole is going through something of a resurgence. This year’s series of new “Hellraiser” comics have been flying off the shelves (at least they are here in Bristol) and, being co-written by Barker himself, are going to places far darker and ambitious than the generic fare we've been subjected to of late.Also my hopes are still high for the mythical Barker novel “Scarlet Gospels” which will reportedly close the door on the “Hellraiser” universe in his own way, one that he was unable to do via the films themselves.
What began as a venting session has, as it turns out, become something of an essay so I’ll try and make some kind of point out of my concerns. Nearly three years ago, my thesis film “House Guest” was picked up for development by a Canadian production company, one which has yet to set the world alight. The hope was to rework elements of the film, extending it into a twenty minute pilot that would be the basis for a thirteen-part miniseries, and go from there. What ensued was six months of the most disenchanting back and forth BS I’ve experienced, where every note from them kicked what I was trying to achieve square in the solar plexus of the balls (I appreciate that doesn’t quite pan out anatomically, but work with me here). At the point where they had redesigned the characters to look like an infant’s Chibi doodles I took the first window of opportunity and bailed the fuck out of it. And thankfully the film, untampered with, went on to perform well enough. I had virtually the same exact experience last year while attempting to develop a separate property with a fairly high-profile UK children’s book publisher. That ended on far better terms and with significantly more hope for a future working relationship, but still the issue remained that, over time, it morphed into something I barely had any association with. In all likelihood, this is gonna happen a lot over the next few years. And I’m not entirely sure how to feel about that.
So instead I’m going to ignore it for now, break out a certain DVD boxset, get a shitload of cheap Grigio down me and fall asleep listening to the commentary tracks. G’night.

Props to Phil & Sarah Stokes's official Barker site "Revelations", from which I pilfered the quotes. Also to Paul Kane's thorough and fascinating book "The Hellraiser Films & Their Legacy" which was pretty eye-opening.