Clive Barker in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, recorded at Dark Carnival Bookstore in Berkeley October 21, 1988 while promoting the film “Hellbound: Hellraiser II.” Digitized, remastered and lightly edited October 25-26, 2025 and not heard for over thirty-five years.

Clive Barker burst on the horror scene in 1985 with his collection of short stories, Books of Blood. He cemented his reputation in the years that followed with horror and fantasy novels, and with the films Hellraiser and Candyman and their sequels. His career stopped dead in its tracks in 2012 after a visit to his dentist’s office resulted in a coma. While he recovered and is still alive, no new books have seen the light of day since a novella, Chiliad, a Meditation was published in a limited edition in 2014.

The Probabilities crew, Richard A. Lupoff, Lawrence Davidson and Richard Wolinsky interviewed Clive three times. The first interview, conducted in the KPFA studios in September 1987 was digitized and uploaded to Radio Wolinsky in October 2022. This, the second interview, was recorded on October 21, 1988 in front of a small audience at Dark Carnival Bookstore in Berkeley. Clive was in town to promote his film Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and the interview, which feels more like a modern day podcast, focuses on his troubles avoiding an X rating for his film, along with discussing his most recent book, Cabal, which featured a novella of the same name plus a handful of short stories. No complete version of this interview has ever aired. The third interview with Clive Barker, from 1992, has yet to be digitized.

1987 interview with Clive Barker

NOTES:
Clive Barker’s film Hellbound: Hellraiser II was followed by Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, several video games and eventually a remake in 2022, in which he is listed as producer. Several of his other stories were later adapted. His book The Art was eventually published as the two volume Books of the Art, The Great and Secret Show, often considered his finest work, and Everville. The film Nightbreed came out in 1989 and flopped, so no sequels were made. While no books have been published since 2014, he was interviewed in 2024 saying that he was working on several projects that are still forthcoming. IMDb says that a Nightbreed television series is in the works.

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