COLDHEART CANYON

Legendary horror writer Clive Barker reasserts his genius with a haunting new masterwork

By Chris Wyatt     October 29, 2001

As soon as the legendary Clive Barker began writing, he was considered a king of the macabre. The chilling masterpiece COLDHEART CANYON proves this to still be the case. "Coldwater Canyon", a famous Los Angeles street (located near the CINESCAPE offices in fact), has long been the residence of massive amounts of Hollywood's most accomplished, most famous, and richest stars and filmmakers. The fact that Barker twists the real-life street name into the fictional "Coldheart Canyon" is a clear indication of what kind of book it's going to be. Barker uses his chilling imagination to create a fable of yesteryear's Hollywood that is at once a scathing indictment of the way the studio system sucks in talent and spits out product, and also a backhanded homage to the golden age of movie-making.

In the novel, silent film starlet Katya Lupi draws fellow actors like Mary Pickford and George Sanders to parties at her elite home in LA's beautiful Coldheart Canyon. The incredible location and gorgeous estate are stunning, but they're only the beginning of the house's attractions. At the bottom of the mansion rests a very special room. Lupi brought the entire room over, tile by tile, from an ancient Romanian monastery. The room's original mosaic presents an image of a supernatural underworld where mortals may enter in order to beg an audience before the Queen of Hell. Somehow, the very room is alive with a dark force that compels Lupi and her guests. Powerful, but arbitrary in its favor, the room casts spells of extended youth on some (including its owner) but invokes evil on others. The room even binds people's souls to it, so that after death they are to be trapped inside its walls.

In the present day, A-list movie headliner Todd Pickett seeks a place to escape the maddening pressure of his own fame. When he finds the elegant abandoned estate isolated in Coldheart Canyon, he thinks he's found the perfect hiding place. But as soon as he moves in, the bizarre happenings begin, and Todd must discover the truths about his new home.

Something of a departure for Barker, this novel doesn't have the same kind of splatter-punk sensibility that fans may remember from some of the author's more celebrated works but that isn't a bad thing. Barker is still evolving and improving as an artist. This novel is more mature and more literary than anything else he's ever done. Barker is moving beyond his status as a cult horror icon and into a realm that's even more significant. His prose has become more complex, his characters more developed and his style more sensitive. With no disrespect intended to Barker's previous work, some of which has been absolutely stunning, this may very well be the one that future generations remember him for. Barker now no longer belongs to horror fans, he belongs to the world.

COLDHEART CANYON

Grade: A

Author(s): Clive Barker

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: $27.95