Horror: A study on Cliver Barker part 12, New murders in the Rue Morgue.

Welcome to Part 12 of my study on Clive Barker. Today we will be looking at his short story, New murders in the Rue Morgue.

Summary: The story begins when Lewis (the MC) receives a call from his life long friend Catherine and flies to Paris. There he learns that Catherine's brother Philipe has been arrested for murder. We also learn that Lewis is related to C. Auguste Dupin, the man who solved the original murders in Rue Morgue and told his story to Eager Allan Poe about the killer ape. Lewis learns, through some investigating, that Philipe never believed the story about the killer ape and wanted to test the idea. Philipe buys an Ape, and he trains it to be like a man (The ape shaves, dresses, buys hookers etc.) Eventually, the ape commits murder (just like in the original story of the murder in the Rue Morgue) and Philipe is framed for them. The story ends with Lewis tracking down the Ape, and watching him have sex with a hooker (yes, this really happens.) The Ape finds Lewis and offers him a go with the Hooker. Unable to live with what he has learned (that an Ape can learn to be just like a man), Lewis commits suicide by jumping off a bridge.

Notes: I am going to be frank, I've not read the original 'Murders in the Rue Morgue' by Edgar Allen Poe, so there are no doubt comparisons I am missing on in this review. What I do want to touch on today is the long tradition of writers writing spiritual sequels to their hero's works. In essence, Clive Barker wrote a sequel to one of Poe's stories. There is actually a long tradition of this, and here are a few examples.

Virgil's The Aeneid is a sequel to Homer's The Iliad.
Dante's The Divine Comedy is a sequel to Virgil's The Aeneid.
Ridley Scott's Prometheus and his upcoming Alien: Covenant (Originally titled Paradise Lost) is in fact, a spiritual sequel to John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost.

I am not a lawyer, so I do not know the legality of writing spiritual sequels to other's writer's works, but I did want to note that it is a long tradition that has occurred since the dawn of time. I'd like to also note that all these examples still involved the writers coming up with an original story involving their own characters and their quest. If anything can be learned it is that even the best writers in history embrace their influences.

Also, a lot of writers reference and base their stuff off of poetry (The Iliad, The Aeneid, Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Shakespear) and the reason is simple. While these stories are romances, comedies, epics etc, that all explore the horror of human nature. It is important to remember that Horror doesn't need to be about a monster or demon; sometimes, a person can viler than the monster we have nightmares about.

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Thank you for reading part 12. If you have any thoughts or questions, please leave a comment or like!

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