Hellraiser

Adapted by Clive Barker from his own story "The Hellbound Heart" this has long been a favorite among horror-film devotees. Clive Barker is an outstanding writer. In terms of literary style light years ahead of Stephen King. His awesomely unhinged imagination is given free rein in this tale of the darker side of the human psyche.

Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) is as immoral and perverted a scumbag as you could hope to find in the English speaking world. Ever alert to the potential for some new thrill (sexual or otherwise) Frank comes by a small carved wooden cube that just happens to be (in the right hands) a gateway to Hell. Not your normal run of the mill pit of hot sulphur fumes presided over by a horned Lucifer wielding his time-honored pitchfork, but a most unpleasant parallel dimension, home of the wickedly inventive Pinhead and his cenobite cohorts. As the series worked its way onwards, Pinhead (Bradley) became a retro cult hero much like Freddy Kreuger and was given increased screen-time!

Frank ends up paying the ultimate price in his search for new pleasures and to his everlasting discomfort, inevitably discovers the real meaning of the film's tag-line "He'll tear your soul apart." This leaves Frank's ex well and truly home-alone and she takes up with his wimpy brother Larry, crawlingly played by Andrew Robinson.

Things might have worked out for Julia (Higgins) and daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) had not Larry cut his hand badly and the blood run beneath the floorboards where Frank's decimated but undead corpse responds dramatically well to the corpuscled cocktail! Frank's gory resurrection is actually one of the film's highlights, aided and abetted as it is by a superb musical score from Christopher Young!

Frank of course is a little miffed over Julia's dalliance with his brother and persuades her to bring him an assembly line of fresh meat to ensure his complexion is brought up to scratch. The demise of the first victim especially is quite shocking horror and on its own would have earned the film its "R" certificate.

Without giving anything else away, it is left to daughter Kirsty to combat both Frank, her socially distasteful step-mother and Pinhead. It is the ultimate learning curve you might say. One hell of a lot goes wrong before it starts getting any better. Frank's second whirl on the block is distinctly gruesome. Kirsty who under normal circumstances would be left a gibbering idiot, survives to take on the sequel and a further appearance by her awesomely repulsive stepmother!

You want horror? you want originality? you like blood on tap? you need HELLRAISER!

For all the above though, Barker's CANDYMAN was still better!

This is certainly Clive Barker's Masterpiece. His 1987 film, "Hellraiser" is a really good example of how a late 80's horror film can work.

Nearing the 90's, horror films started to go down hill. In 1991 and 1996, we got two really good thriller horrors, being "SCREAM" and "Silence of the Lambs". This film however, was the last of it's kind to give us some good late 80's slasher craze which was still born and still very fresh with horror freaks.

I won't go into the plot because I believe everyone should have seen Hellraiser by now, if not, well GO SEE IT! All I can say is that the concepts of the box is terrific. A new way to kill a slashing demon is always a terrific and creative concept and it works really well in this one. I also love the soundtrack suite which is haunting beautiful and dramatic in parts. The actors are superb and their characters are believable.

Doug Bradley as Pinhead is the best and he knows how to give us a creepy killer which cannot be stopped. I dunno why in "Revelations" they got a different actor to play him. Doug is Pinhead, end of story.

I also like the way the death scenes and plot are shown. The director takes it a little step at a time while as most directors just go full on with the violence and exploit everything. Clive actually took his time to tell the story and that's what made most of the ending sequences and starting deaths so intense. It all left us to the core suspense.

Also, the 1987 film is the only Hellraiser film I have really liked. I've also seen part 3, 4 and 6. 3 was OK, 4 was dodgy and 6 sucked. The thing about the first film was that it had a dramatic fantasy to it, while being realistic, people were dying for real. The other Hellraiser films I have seen since then haven't really had the same impact but instead really try to rehash and be as shocking, doesn't work at all!?

My verdict on this 87 classic is a 7.5/10.

P.S: I just hope they can get this right in the remake next year.

Julia is forced to kill for her brother in law Larry, who's dabbled with powerful, but malign forces and been turned into a decayed, monstrous like creature. Larry is trying to regain his physical being in order to escape the creatures, The Cenobites.

Hellraiser is definitely one of those wonderful 1980's video nasties, I'm not a hundred percent sure I'd put it in the same category as Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street, but I'm not sure if that's because of this film, or some of the atrocious followups.

Special effects that would have been quite advanced for the time, there's lots of blood and gore, and that scene where Frank initially appears is quite something.

At times it's really quite sadistic and nasty, the kind of film that you'd sneak on as a youngster, and have a few sleepless nights over. At times it's menacing, sickening and just downright twisted, yes it may look a little dated in parts, but I think it holds up well.

Great music throughout, it's so dramatic, it perfectly fits the tone of the film. The makeup is terrific, especially The Cenobites.

Clare Higgins steals it for me, I think she's great, definitely something of the femme fatale.

What is so interesting, is just how little Pin Head actually appears, even if people don't know the film.or the story, he's quite well known, he's hardly in it though.

The story holds up pretty well, I'd say it's perfect for an update, but I'm not sure that the followups have offered much.

7/10.

You can't be a horror fan and not be familiar with Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" movies. And as a horror fan chances are that you will enjoy them - the first few movies at the very least.

The core of the story of the "Hellraiser" franchise revolves around a mysterious artifact - an intricate puzzle box - which is said to be able to grant people what they desire the most. But it comes with a price, a terrible, terrible price. And it is guarded by the vile Cenobites.

The warped mind of Clive Barker really came up with something wonderfully morbid and disturbing when "Hellraiser" was first unleashed upon the world. Especially the Cenobites, they are grotesque but interesting at the same time.

In the first movie Larry and his wife Julia moves into Larry's old family house. The very same house where his brother Frank tried to unlock the puzzle box and was sent to Hell. An accident causes Larry's blood to be spilled on the floor, bringing back Frank from the dead. But in his flayed and fleshless state of being, Frank needs the blood and flesh of the living in order to regenerate his own body. But no one escapes Hell that easily.

For a 1987 movie, I will say that the effects still hold their own today, having withstood the test of time. Especially the rebirth of Frank and his transformation back to fully human. And the Cenobites, lets not forget the Cenobites; they were just amazing.

With this now classic horror movie the World saw the likes of Doug Bradley like never before and he instantly became a horror legend, just as Pinhead became a horror icon.

I grew up with these horror movies along with other horror franchises, and I love them even today and make frequent visits back to them. If you are not familiar with "Hellraiser", shame on you. Then I would strongly recommend that you sit down and watch it, perhaps even do a movie marathon of the series.

This surely is a very refreshing and original horror movie to watch. It doesn't has the usual formulaic ingredients in it, such as monsters or a murderous psychopathic serial killer on the loose. No screaming teenagers and no dark haunted places. All we have this time is a cube, that opens doors to hell and unleashes the bringers of pain; Pinhead and friends, who want to play with you forever.

But even that story is being somewhat pushed to the background and it focuses more on a family, of which the wife falls madly for the the no good brother of her soon to be husband. The brother however messed with the cube and got stuck in Pinhead's hell of pain. He however managed to escape it but only in a skeleton form. He needs blood to slowly regain his body and asks the wife to kill for him. This is were most of the movie its 'horror' comes from.

The movie doesn't get its horror aspects from its normal usual scare- or gross out moments. It's more a movie that works on its atmosphere and story development. Perhaps it's also due to the restrained budget, that simply forced the film-makers to be creative with the things they had at hand. The movie is no big Hollywood production and as a matter of fact it actually is an UK movie, that still got obviously aimed toward the American market as well though, in terms of its overall style.

And even though the movie was low-budget, the movie certainly did not look that way. Also its effects such as its make-up and the effects used for the more gory parts of the movie are really great looking. The make-up of course helped to make Pinhead an horror icon-figure, though in this movie he isn't even called by the name Pinhead, which was only a name that got developed later for marketing purposes.

The movie also features a great musical score by Christopher Young, that fits the movie really well. It's one of his more memorable works.

A real original horror movie, that has grown into being a classic already.

8/10

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