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Clive Barker vs. Godzilla: Can he make Godzilla scary again?

Chris Well

Looking at how the horror author once pitched how to make the iconic monster more of a terror again.

Giant monster movies can make a big impression (in more ways than one)—but are often dismissed as simple noise over substance. For example, the Godzilla movies are sometimes driven by pretty serious ideas, but often veer off into simpler territory of noise and crashes.

But there are options to make them more serious. More deep. More dark.

Such as having somebody like horror novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker write a Godzilla script. Which almost happened.

According to Looper, Barker was once in conversation with the makers of one of the Godzilla movies.

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When Godzilla started out as an actual monster

Let’s back up a second here: The character of Godzilla has been around since the 1950s, and has gone through lots of changes in the years since. Toho Studios has always been loose with the green goliath’s continuity, with many of the movies created as standalone tales with little or no connection to previous movies.

Over that time, they have ended up focusing on fun over despair. Which is kind of odd, when you consider how powerful the original movie was in its day.

Toho’s original Godzilla movie—actual title Gojira—was a deeply thoughtful horror movie that explored the trauma felt by the Japanese audience following their recent experiences in the real world. The movie was made only nine years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—which led to the deaths of so many civilians—so some of the scares in the film were tapping into real-life experiences of members of the audience.

Granted, follow-up movies sort of wavered whether to continue the scares or not. And once Hollywood got involved, they certainly brought a more plastic mindset.

But someone like Clive Barker understands the horrifying power of Godzilla.

The American Godzilla movie that everyone knocks

Most Godzilla fans consider the 1998 American movie to be terrible. Turns out that director Roland Emmerich didn’t even want to make the movie.

Before he was asked to direct Godzilla, the studio talked to other filmmakers—including Tim Burton and Clive Barker—about making the movie. Apparently, the studio considered Barker’s concept too horrifying—which is hardly surprising when you remember that Barker made Hellraiser.

Whatever you think of the 1988 Godzilla movie—and to be honest, I like it on its own terms (but not as a “Godzilla” movie)—the great thing is that there have been lots of follow-up movies made on both sides of the ocean.

And, in fact, there are movies being made in Japan and Hollywood right now. Which of course means there’s still a chance floating out that Barker’s ideas might still connect with some studio or director.

How about that? What would you think?

Related: Godzilla vs American version ‘Zilla’ (2004)

Which movies showed Godzilla as scary?

Here are at least three examples of current Godzilla movies that present him as a full-on monster…

  • The movie Gojira (1954)—the original Japanese version—drew from the trauma created by the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this movie, the victims kept noting the similarities of this disaster to what they dealt with during wartime just a few years earlier.

  • Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)—AKA GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack—made Godzilla a supernatural creature inhabited by the souls of those killed in the Pacific theater during World War 2. In this movie, the other monsters were the good guys…

  • Shin Godzilla (2016) drew inspiration from both the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

About author Clive Barker

Clive Barker is a man of astonishing creativity—author, artist and film-maker—who has taken the worlds of the fantastique and horror and made them his own. Born in Liverpool in 1952, Barker studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University before moving to London.

Some years ago, he was a struggling artist and playwright, mounting his own fringe plays. But he was also writing short stories. These stories were collected in six volumes, THE BOOKS OF BLOOD. The initial publication was low key, but THE BOOKS OF BLOOD built up a huge readership through word-of-mouth.

Running parallel with his publishing successes is a flourishing career as a film-maker. Barker’s directorial debut, HELLRAISER, touched new heights of horror and earned him world-wide recognition. Clive moved to Los Angeles in 1991 to pursue his two careers more effectively. In true Hollywood style he lives in Beverley Hills in a house with a history that dates back to the early 1920s.

More about Clive Barker online

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