It’s just that certain parts have been developed a lot further.Īs such, the narrative will be immediately familiar to fans of the movie and there won’t be too many unexpected differences here. In fact, much of the dialogue was retained for the film’s screenplay and the (living) characters are all basically the same. In terms of story, Candyman radically expands upon nearly every aspect of The Forbidden (more on that later), but none of the original text is left out. On the contrary, it is still a chilling read in its own right and you can use it to trace the humble beginnings of what would later become a lucrative, four-movie franchise. While Candyman might have overshadowed The Forbidden in the long run, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give Barker’s version a try. Not to mention, it also benefits from an elegiac musical score by Phillip Glass, establishing a haunting mood that you just don’t get from the printed word. Those who delve into the short story afterwards are often surprised to learn just how much the film invented – with it creating its own unique backstory and adding to the complex themes.

However, Candyman is that rare instance of a movie that is commonly hailed as being superior to its source material (entitled The Forbidden ). Much like with Stephen King, certain aspects of Barker’s writing are frankly difficult to visualize, and this can lead to a lot of things getting lost in translation. Whenever the Liverpudlian author has had a direct hand in shaping a film, such as 1990’s Nightbreed, the end result is usually alright too.īut then we also have embarrassments like Rawhead Rex, which missed the mark so spectacularly that one can only assume it was the main reason Barker chose to personally oversee his next cinematic project, Hellraiser. The Midnight Meat Train is a pretty decent stab at representing the first story from his celebrated anthology, The Books of Blood. When it comes to big-screen adaptations of his literary works, Clive Barker has an inconsistent track record to say the least.

The forbidden clive barker book