Coldheart Canyon: A Hollywood Ghost Story

Only in a movie... it’s unworldly but believable.

"Coldheart Canyon", along with "Mister B. Gone" and a few of his other works, are probably considered Clive Barker's weakest works among his fans. For instance, the scathing 1-star review on the main page of this book appears to be written by a Barker fan. I however, care to disagree. "Coldheart Canyon" is simply a masterpiece. I loved every second of this book - and to testify to this, I finished the mammoth 700 page volume in a solid four days. It is fun, it is entertaining, it is thought-provoking - but most of all, and also ironically (if you know the plot of the book) - this book is addicting. Yes, addicting - much like the Devil's Country, and just like Todd Pickett and Katya Lupi's addiction to fame and beauty. This book is addicting. The characters are believable. Some of them are intriguing, arousing and astonishing (Katya and her accomplice, Zeffer), some of them are very human and very real (our hero, Todd Pickett, Maxine, Tammy, Arnie, etc), some of them are sheer comic riot (Eppstadt, Brahms), and some are downright terrifying (Duke Goga, Lillith, Qwaftzefoni). This book is a versatile, read as well. Versatily is perhaps a strange adjective to use for a novel, but this novel truly is. In the chapter about Todd's dog, Dempsey - I shed tears, as I did during the last segment with Todd and the Angel. In the bits about the ghosts, and the chases throughout the Devil's Country - I was terrified. I laughed, I cried, I threw the book at the wall in sheer anger (*SPOILER ALERT* - I was pissed because I wanted Todd to stay with Katya.) This book is fantastic. It invents it's own mythology; it is a myth unto itself. Clive Barker is genius, but he really out-does himself here. More semi-spoilers: I could find no gripes with the book. Some people, like a review here, don't understand why the people were "addicted" to Devil's Country - but it was spelled out pretty plainly: it either terrified you, or you fell in love with it - and never wanted to break away from it's gorgeous hold on your soul, or it's rejuvinating effects. In fact, I remember Barker clearly devoting a few pages to explaining that once you had stepped inside the Devil's Country, nothing was the same in reality after. This clearly explains the addictions. This is a work of genius. If you are looking for an epic book that will entertain you on every page, this is the book to get.

I didn't go into this book thinking I'd like it as much as I did. I DO enjoy twisted books - this one didn't disappoint. If you don't like any sappy stuff - this isn't your book. It does get a bit sappy at the end. That was OK. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff....but I hope he continues.

Clive Barker is a writer who never takes the subtle way out. It's a cliche that sometimes the scariest things are those things which are only hinted it or suggested (shower scene in PSYCHO is often trotted out as an example). Barker seems to believe that he can induce fear by pounding us with graphic details...not for the faint of heart. And he's such an adept writer, that he often succeeds, mostly because his imagination dares to go where no one has gone before.COLDHEART CANYON deals with the movie business. A '20s era silent-movie siren has a room installed in her house made entirely of tile taken from a monestery in Romania. This tile, some 30,000 pieces, may actually have been built by Lilith, the wife of Satan, and it seems to have...shall we say...remarkable qualities. The '20s era movie star and all her friends and fellow stars are transfixed and transformed by the power of this room, known as "The Devil's Country." Nothing subtle here. Then we skip forward to present day Hollywood, where star Todd Pickett makes the mistake of getting plastic surgery and suffers severe damage. He takes refuge from the press at the long abandoned "pleasure palace" of the '20s era star, Katya, that he has never heard of. No one seems to live in the house, but we soon find out otherwise. I've only scratched the surface of this wildy imaginative, almost bloated, novel. It's grand to read a book that takes on, with great humor, the foibles of the movie industry, and turns that satire into a horror novel of massive proportions. The house has one mystery after another, and the fates of the people who cross paths with the house, its grounds, its "residents" and especially The Devil's Country are drawn out in exquisite detail.Many have criticised the book for being too long, but I find Barker to be a writer of such power that you get swept along with long passages that don't seem important, but compel you anyway. Some have criticized an early passage, for example, in which Todd deals with taking his very sick dog to the vet's and the aftermath of this rather mundane situation. But he's a huge movie star, so we're interested in seeing how those around him react to him. And it helps to establish Todd as a real person...not just a generic star. We sympathize with him then, which is good, because it's hard to hold that sympathy later on. And just when the dog seems forgotten...Like Barker's other novels, such as Weaveworld and the startlingly beautiful Imajica, he mixes intense, believable feelings like those we might have in a love story (Barker conveys how love can grow in unlikely places VERY well) with some of the most graphic horror anywhere. We are thus given characters who seem very real and palbable to us, and they are thrust into the most outlandish situations anywhere. Whereas Stephen King makes horror "believable" by sticking with mundane, everyday details (I like King very, very much...his approach is different but great as well), Barker hamm

Coldheart Canyon is the first Clive Barker I have read in years, since Great and Secret Show. Barker's last few novels have garnered so-so reviews, and quite honestly have kept me at bay as far as reading his works.However, Coldheart Canyon proved too tempting to pass up. The novel delivers on all the levels that Barker is famous for...crossing the genres of horror and fantasy...graphic sexual indulgence, meticulous gore....detail after horrific detail is woven into a good old fashioned ghost story, set in Hollywood.Todd Pickett, Hollywood 'A-list' action hero, knows his star is fading, and his box office draw is showing it's age, as well as his looks. On the advice of the head of Paramount Studios, he sees a plastic surgeon for a face lift, which throws him into seculsion while the healing process takes place. Enter the home of Katya Lupi, a Hollywood mansion built in the first half of the 20th century for a movie star of the 20's. This 'Dream Palace' was once the site of Hollywood's most notorious orgies, where Men and Women, Men and Men, Women and Women, gathered together to indulge in their wildest fantasies, in a Hollywood that has all but been forgotten. Now, in the present day, not only does the house still contain elegant fixtures, furniture, and trimmings...it also contains Katya Lupi, still as young, vibrant, and luminescent as she was 80 years before.The secret of her 'Fountain of Youth?' A tiled room, transported from Romania in the 20's, piece by piece, by Katya's lover Willem Zeffer, that depicts a fabled hunt, in which a warrior Duke dared to slaughter the Devil's son, incurring the wrath of Lilith, the Queen of Hell. But upon entering this room, you are drawn in to the power it holds, and face the realization that it is more than just tiles and paint...it is a whole other universe...where anything is possible.Todd, along with his agent, the head of his fan club, and a few other Hollywood notables, are drawn into Katya's world, Coldheart Canyon, which is not only inhabited by her, but by the ghosts of several other Hollywood luminaries of yesteryear; Valentino, Barrymore, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford....to name a few. Each of whom were guests of her infamous 'parties', visitors to the tiled room, and whose spirit forms want nothing more than to cross the religious icons in the door thresholds keeping them outside in the canyon and gain access to the room, to feel its power once more.With as many twists and turns as the Pacific Coast Highway, Coldheart Canyon is entertaining from start to finish. Just when you think the story has reached a conclusion, Barker takes it a notch further. A classic ghost story, a capable thriller, and a good old fashioned Hollywood history lesson, Coldheart Canyon will haunt a reader for a long time after the last page is read.

Barker seems to know every word in the English language and exactly how to use them for maximum impact. His word-smithing abilities rivals his story telling, and both never fail to astonish me. I feel that is was understatement when Stephen King said, in a blurb for Weave-World (1987), "I have seen the future of horror and it is named Clive Barker. He is so good that I am almost literally tongue-tied. He makes the rest of us look like we've been asleep for the past ten years," and Peter Straub called it "...pure dazzle, pure storytelling...." In Barker's tales, where the middle of the book seems like it has to be the climax of the story, Clive is just getting started. I am in awe of his abilities and often re-read passages for the sheer enjoyment of his craftmanship. There are only three more words that need to be offered here: Read Clive Barker!