In recent years, except for David Bruckner’s 2022 Hellraiser reboot and Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, there has been little to no mainstream interest in adapting the work of Clive Barker. News of Nightbreed to be adapted for SyFy and a rumored Hellraiser TV show that would back Clive Barker has died out in recent year.

The last substantial book to tackle the Hellraiser mythos was Barker's The Scarlet Gospels and Boom! Studios' output, chronicling an infernal war between old adversaries Kirsty Cotton and Pinhead. Either property could make an interesting transition to the big or small screen. In the meantime, below are some of the bad, good, and great adaptations of his writing. Be warned, there will be spoilers.

10 Rawhead Rex (1986)

Rawhead Rex is an Irish production of a lesser-known Barker story with poor production values, bad acting, and a plot that leaves a lot to be desired. Made on location in County Wicklow, Ireland, the film featured a pagan hell beast feasting on livestock and locals alike. George Pavlou’s adaptation of Barker’s Books of Blood short story is laughably bad, the plot is absurd and the monster design, is, err, not very good.

9 Gods and Monsters

A surreally speculative reimagining of filmmaker and gay icon James Whales' life, Gods and Monsters adopts a non-linear narrative trajectory that is not straight-up horror but a tightly-constructed and sympathetic homage to a doomed artist wherein one man’s memory, dreams, and timeline overlap to mind-bending nightmarish effect. The Clive Barker-produced film examines the later stages of the filmmaker’s life, his struggle with a degenerative mental illness, and the relationship that develops with the troubled and stubbornly heterosexual Clayton Boone, played by Brendan Fraser.

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Whale as depicted here is something of an eccentric and cranky recluse, occasionally granting interviews to pompous queens and subsequently shredding them with his sharp-tongued vulturine wit and sporadic lapses, induced by illness into terror and confusion. A sliver of light arrives in Whale’s darkness and comes in the buff form of Clayton Boone, a sulky dimwit with a godly physique and a short fuse. Whale’s attempts at flirtation are met with blunt homophobia from the initially reluctant Boone, but when he decides to pose for a series of paintings, the pair form an unlikely friendship despite their differences.

The reason it ranks so low is that it isn’t really a Clive Barker film, as he didn't write or direct it, and it's based on someone else's book; he only produced it. It also isn't technically a horror movie, but it is a good one.

8 Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh

Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh is the universally maligned sequel to Bernard Rose’s minor masterpiece. This time the action is relocated to New Orleans and revolves around school teacher Annie Tarrant (Kelly Rowan), whose family has a dark connection to The Candyman (Tony Todd).

The plot is near-identical to its predecessor, with The Hook-Handed Demon butchering various members of Annie’s family and pursuing her as a result of a shared bloodline. Veronica Cartwright shows up as an embittered alcoholic who knows far more than she claims and suffers the consequences in this retread of the original plot with only minor alterations.

7 Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth

The villainous douche in Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth is JP Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt) in an action-heavy installment with Pinhead (Doug Bradley) emulating snarky killers like Freddy and Chucky. Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell) is an ambitious reporter who begins investigating the supernatural death of a young man, via Lament Configuration Puzzle Box and those pesky chains.

Her investigation leads her to The Boiler Room, JP’s domain, where he has hidden The Pillar of Souls, which contains The Hell Priest. Joey teams up with JP’s scorned ex-girlfriend Terri (Paula Marshall) and they delve deeper into the mystery of the box. Little do they know, JP has been feeding young women to Pinhead, so he can enter our world and cause havoc.

6 Candyman (2021)

Nia DaCosta’s iteration of Candyman in 2021 was dubbed a ‘spiritual sequel’ to Bernard Rose’s 1992 original, although there exist both thematic and narrative overlaps between both movies. DaCosta’s is entirely her own movie, and Anthony McCoy’s (Yahya Abdul Mateen II) return is both endearing and devastatingly tragic. Tony Todd briefly reprises his role from Candyman as an Angel of Deliverance, not the indiscriminate killer we all remember, and Abdul Mateen is a revelation as Anthony in a legitimately heartbreaking role.

5 Hellraiser (2022)

Love or loathe it, you cannot deny the recent reboot of Hellraiser had some moments of brilliance. Jamie Clayton’s casting as Pinhead was ingenious and the glimpses (flesh windmill?) of Hell were tantalizingly grotesque. Thinly-drawn characters, a convoluted plot, and unimaginative violence were major let-downs, though; it was all promises and no pay-off. The only reason it ranks so high is for Jamie Clayton and its innovative art direction.

4 Hellbound: Hellraiser 2

In Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) has been institutionalized at The Channard Institute following the horrifying events of the previous movie. Doctor Cranham (Kenneth Branagh) is a collector, sadist, and obsessive and has been searching for years to find someone who can unlock the secrets of The Lament Configuration.

Related: Hellraiser Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date

A bloodstained mattress resurrects Julia (Claire Higgins), now skinless and with an ulterior motive for coming back to the land of the living. A mute girl, Tiffany (Imogen Boorman), at the behest of Channard and Julia opens the gates of hell. They are all drawn into the realm of The Cenobites and Leviathan’s Labyrinth for an epic battle.

3 Candyman

Bernard Rose’s violent Candyman followed post-grad Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), a woman writing a thesis on Urban Legends. Not content with regurgitating academic material for her paper, she visits the notorious Cabrini Green in Chicago, or ‘Candyman Country,’ and is drawn into the surreal world of the hook-handed killer when she is framed for multiple murders and kidnapping. It boasts an exquisite score by Philip Glass, genuinely shocking violence, and two excellent central performances from Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd.

2 Nightbreed (1990)

Clive Barker’s most ambitious movie, Nightbreed was based on his novella Cabal and features an underground lair of fantastical monstrosities who were largely misunderstood by naturals. Naturals are human in Nightbreed, and they serve as the primary antagonists in Barker’s tale.

Boone (Craig Scheffer) is having nightmares and visions of mass murders he falsely believes he carried out. It doesn’t help that his psychiatrist, Decker (played by director David Cronenberg) has an alter-ego called Buttonhead, and a penchant for carving up families. Pursued by his girlfriend, Lori (Anne Bobby), and the psychotic Decker, Boone’s journey leads him to Midian, where the monsters live, but his very presence puts all the Nightbreed in danger.

1 Hellraiser

In 1987, Clive Barker had such sights to show you. Stephen King dubbed him ‘The Future of Horror,’ and Hellraiser is one of the most unique horror movies of the 1980s. Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) is a sleazy guy chasing his next fix – which is the ultimate pleasure. He doesn’t reckon on The Order of the Gash and that their definition of pleasure might be somewhat different.

His brother Larry (Andrew Robinson), and his frustrated wife Julia (Claire Higgins), move into the house where Frank was flayed by The Cenobites. A drop of blood revives him as a walking corpse and his former lover, Julia, agrees to bring him people to kill. Both Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) and The Cenobites threaten to derail their murderous plans and thwart their escape.