Clive Barker: A to Z of Horror

8.2

1997•45m

Clive Barker's A-Z of Horror was a documentary series first broadcast on BBC2 in 1997. It was written and hosted by Clive Barker and explored the history of horror, from the cinema to art. A tie-in book was released featuring art work by Barker and film reviews by Stephen Jones.

Seasons

6 Episodes • Premiered 1997

1. American Psycho

Clive Barker explores the Wisconsin farmer Ed Gein, who graduated from grave-robbing to murder in the fifties. Gein's story inspired three films: Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. Directors and film stars explain how fiction fed off fact.

2. The Devil You Know

Clive Barker asks what made The Exorcist one of the scariest horror movies ever. He also looks at the work of New England writer Shirley Jackson and the film The Haunting, based on one of her novels. Also a sculptor, who captured the face of madness, and the hyping of horror B movies.

3. The Kingdom of the Dead

A look at the cult classic film Night of the Living Dead, made by George A. Romero and group of friends on a shoestring budget. Plus a visit to the home of film director Roger Corman, the connection between English castles and American novelist Edgar Allan Poe and the enduring imagery of blood.

4. Broken Homes

John Carpenter, director of Halloween, explains how that night can turn the serenity of suburban streets into a scene of fear and carnage. Plus techno-horror movies in Japan and the subversive power of evil children in horror stories.

5. A Fate Worse Than Death

Clive Barker explores the work of Dennis Wheatley, where the supernatural is bound up with an unmistakeable Englishness. Plus the tragedy behind The Crow.

6. Beyond Good and Evil

Clive Barker concludes the series by profiling horror-actress Barbara Steele. He also investigates the world of Ira Levin's 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby and Roman Polanski's 1968 film adaptation, and the links between novelist H. P. Lovecraft and a small town in New England.