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Released by: MVD Visual
Released on: August 25, 2015
Director: Clive Barker
Cast: Salome: Anne Taylor, Clive Barker, Doug Bradley, Julia Blake, Graham Bickley, Phil Rimmer, Lyn Darnell; The Forbidden: Peter Atkins, Clive Barker, Doug Bradley, Julia Blake, Phil Rimmer, Lyn Darnell
Year: Salome: 1973; The Forbidden: 1978
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The Movie:
Salome (18 min.): Biblical vixen Salome (Anne Taylor), clad in a long, white dress, takes a lit candle from a young man and walks through a shadowy, castle-like interior. She comes upon a second young man seated on the floor. This one rises to his feet, kisses her, and then squeezes her throat. She escapes the attack by scratching his face bloody and fleeing to another room, where she immediately calms down and sits in quiet contemplation. A devilish-looking King Herod (Doug Bradley) appears, inspiring her to dance seductively for several minutes. When she finishes, a nude woman shows up, holding a flaming torch while standing next to a ladder. An equally nude man descends the ladder and, holding a sword, does a seductive dance of his own. He then mounts Salome as she flaps her arms angelically. When the two are finished, an angry King Herod seals her up in a coffin with a peephole through which he flails an arm wildly.
The Forbidden (35 min.): German folktale perennial Dr. Faust (Peter Atkins) works alchemic equations in his study under the evil auspices of an unseen Mephistopheles (Clive Barker). The scholar quickly revs himself into a state of hallucinogenic exhaustion (conveyed vividly by Barker's decision to film the proceedings almost entirely in negative). A series of visions culminates in a physical manifestation of Mephistopheles, dressed like a Kabuki performer. He strips himself naked and garrotes Faust from behind. The unconscious Faust dreams that he's making love to a woman, then awakens to a real naked woman undressing and tattooing him. When the woman finishes her task, Mephistopheles reappears, still nude and now sporting a raging boner. He dances frantically for several minutes, and when he finishes, Faust finds that he's now the naked one, flat on his back on a table. Angel hands, armed with scalpels, slowly and graphically peel the skin from his body. The tale ends with a display of the final result, a shot of him walking slowly through a landscape as visually minimalist as he himself has become.
Clive Barker's student films Salome and The Forbidden don't have much to offer in the narrative department, but they're most definitely an eyeful. The Forbidden, in particular, is proof that the unique vision Barker shared with the mainstream in Hellraiser (1987) was fully formed a decade or so before he shared it. (Also uniting the two is the presence of Doug Bradley, who today occupies the pop-monster pantheon as Pinhead.)
It does need to be stressed that nothing else about these two offerings is remotely as conventional as Hellraiser, Nightbreed (1990), or Lord of Illusions (1995). The short works on offer here are exercises in style, period, and, frankly, something only hardcore Barker fans would be interested in—provided, of course, that one isn't put off by the adult content on display along with the cinematic ingenuity.
A little love should also be sent out to Adrian Carson, who composed the ambient scores for both films. Not surprisingly, he's since found success in British television, contributing soundtrack music for such programmes (they're British, so yes, it's "programmes") as Hale and Pace, London's Burning, Caught on Camera, and—one that even the Yanks have heard of—Survivor.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Given the source material (Salome was shot on 8mm and The Forbidden on 16mm), one really can't bitch about the visual quality. Flaws are plentiful, sure, and some of the post-facto video enhancement in Salome might not have been thought completely through. But none of it detracts from the overall appeal. If anything, the spots, pops, and jumps conjure up a charm that makes the talent on display all the more striking. And there's always the fact that, thanks to their preservation on disk, these works will never deteriorate any further than they already have.
Both films are presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Since neither of them has any dialogue and there's no commentary, it's pretty much all good. The only extra is a 16-minute block of interviews with Barker, Peter Atkins, and Doug Bradley. Barker cites the films of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger as his earliest cinematic inspiration. There are plenty of little tidbits and observations for the Barker fan here and, given the otherwise bare-bones presentation, the one extra is pretty nice to have.
The Final Word:
Clive Barker's earliest cinematic efforts—Salome and The Forbidden—reflect the wild pretentiousness of student films everywhere, but they're at the top of that particular heap, giving Barker fans an entertaining glimpse into the early stages of his evolution as a director. This package will likely appeal almost exclusively to hardcore fans, however, and ones who aren't bothered by graphic violence or near-pornographic levels of sexuality.
Christopher Workman is a freelance writer, film critic, and co-author (with Troy Howarth) of the Tome of Terror horror film review series. Volume 2 of that series (covering the 1930s) is currently available from Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., with volume 1 (covering the 1920s) due out later this year.
