Down, Satan!

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July 3, 2008


Best-selling horror novelist and Hellraiser mastermind Clive Barker is currently in the very early stages of development on a big-screen adaptation of his short-story Down, Satan!.

The script was penned by IGN DVD Editor Christopher Monfette for Barker's production company, Seraphim.

"For the past several months, I've been in the unique and incredibly humbling position of working alongside Clive on this adaptation," says Monfette. "He's proven such a supportive and open collaborator that it's been both a challenge and an honor to play around in this decidedly horrific sandbox."

Originally published in Barker's early series of short fiction The Books of Blood – a number of which, including Midnight Meat Train and the collection's namesake story, will be hitting theatres throughout the coming months – Down, Satan will be expanded from its original length of only four pages. The parable-style tale tells the story of a wealthy businessman named Gregorious who wakes one day to find God absent from his life. Driven to madness by depression and loss, Gregorious tempts the Lord by constructing a Hell on Earth – or, New Hell – in service to the Devil, hoping that the Lord would intervene. But as the torture chambers fill and the Devil refuses to show himself, Greogrious must confront his idea of faith.

"It's a story that's always spoken to me," says Monfette. "Not simply as a piece of horrific fiction, or even on a deeper religious level – though it works masterfully on both – but as a story that speaks to our human desire to be loved and accepted and acknowledged. And how, in the absence of that, we'll accept the opposite – condemnation or anger – any sign of honest emotion."

But how do you flesh out a four-page story into a feature film?

"It's not easy," admits Monfette. "But we found a way into the narrative that expands upon the ideas without stretching or distorting them. There's drama and horror and suspense and scale and if we've done our jobs, we should have something intensely original." To which Monfette laughingly adds, "Oh, and it'll also scare the $#!+ out of you."

[The_Return]

I'll have to track down this story...been meaning to read more of Barker's stuff anyway, and this sounds really, really cool.