Clive Barker hosts AMC's "Monsterfest"

Gay novelist Clive Barker, whose new book is Coldheart Canyon, will host American Movie Classics' annual "Monsterfest," highlighting classic horror films. Barker told the Los Angeles Times that he would take the gig only if the films--which include gay director James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein--were treated respectfully. "Modern audiences, particularly young audiences, feel to some measure superior to horror movies, in part because they have been taught to be," says Barker. "The postmodern tradition of horror movies is, you sort of take them apart limb by limb and make mock of their cliches. It has made people very disrespectful of the genre, which didn't get much respect to start with." "Monsterfest 2001" kicks off Friday, October 26, and continues through Halloween; for more information visit monsterfest.amctv.com.