{"id":1309,"date":"2024-07-25T03:30:17","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T03:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:56:19","slug":"hellraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/25\/hellraiser\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hellraiser<\/strong>\u00a0(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language,\u00a0 extremely graphic violence and gore, nudity, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Clive Barker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Clive Barker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christopher Young\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robin Vidgeon \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: September 18, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Andrew Robinson, Claire Higgins, Sean Chapman, Ashley Laurence, Robert Hines, Frank Baker, Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, Simon Bamford, Grace Kirby, Oliver Smith.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $14.5 million (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think we can all agree that Hellraiser<\/strong> is a full-blooded (in both senses of the term) horror movie. Although its boogeyman Pinhead tends to get lumped with Jason and Freddy, he\u2019s NOT a mad slasher that hunts and kills horny teens. He\u2019s a Cenobite. What\u2019s that? It\u2019s an evil being from Hell that shows up when somebody uses the Lament Configuration. What\u2019s that? It\u2019s a puzzle box that when solved, opens a gateway through which the Cenobites enter into our world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I didn\u2019t know the puzzle box had an actual name until I did some research for my review of Hellraiser<\/strong>, the first installment of the popular horror franchise starring Pinhead (Doug Bradley). It\u2019s based on the novella \u201cThe Hellbound Heart\u201d by writer-director Clive Barker. I knew from when I first saw the trailer that it was going to be cool. It opens with the following blurb by popular horror author Stephen King: \u201cI have seen the future of horror fiction and his name is Clive Barker.\u201d Talk about high praise from Caesar, right? Plus, it looked genuinely scary. It didn\u2019t hurt that its distributor was none other than New World Pictures. That sealed the deal right then and there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I went to see Hellraiser <\/strong>on an overcast Saturday afternoon at the City Line Theater. I couldn\u2019t ask for better weather conditions. I couldn\u2019t wait to find out what Barker had in store for me. Well, not only was it chilling, it was also extremely gory. In my eyes, it was a total win!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hellraiser<\/strong> opens with a man named Frank Cotton (Chapman, The Fourth Protocol) purchasing the puzzle box from a dealer in Morocco who ominously asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s your pleasure, sir?\u201d Frank is a hedonist forever in search of new sensory experiences. The puzzle box is supposed to open a passageway to a whole new realm of pleasure. Sitting in a bare room, he solves it. Hooked chains emerge, tear into his flesh and tear him apart.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sometime later, Frank\u2019s mild-mannered brother Larry (Robinson, Dirty Harry) moves into the house with his icy-mannered wife Julia (Higgins, The Golden Compass). They can tell right away that Frank had been there recently, but must have run off to somewhere in the world on the spur of the moment. This is when we learn Julia had an affair with Frank right before marrying Larry. She\u2019s still obsessed with the guy. As it turns out, Frank has been under their noses (and feet) all along. His remains are concealed beneath the attic floor. Blood from a cut sustained by Larry resurrects him, but he\u2019ll need more to be fully restored, much more. It\u2019s to this end that he convinces Julia to bring home strange men and kill them for their blood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unfortunately, Larry\u2019s daughter Kirsty (Laurence, Warlock III) spots her stepmother bringing a man to the house. She immediately suspects that she\u2019s having an affair. She soon finds out she\u2019s way off. She escapes with the puzzle box which she later solves. Pinhead and three other Cenobites appear and try to drag her back to Hell with them. She informs the leader that Frank has escaped and she\u2019s willing to lead them to him. They agree to leave her alone in exchange for Frank. She returns to the house to find \u2026.. nope, not going there!<\/p>\n

\u00a0While I\u2019m certain that anybody reading this review has already seen Hellraiser<\/strong>, there\u2019s always a chance that somebody new to the series might be skimming through it so let\u2019s turn our attention to other matters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While Hellraiser<\/strong> most definitely isn\u2019t a slasher flick, it most definitely is a splatter flick. We\u2019re talking free-flowing blood and mounds of bloodied flesh. Frank spends a great deal of screen times sans skin which means viewers get a good look at how we all presumably look beneath the surface. There\u2019s a scene where a man is literally pulled to pieces by the hooked chains. Let me put it this way, the guy who mopped up the set at the end of each day\u2019s shoot should have been listed in the end credits.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition to copious amounts of gore, Hellraiser<\/strong> is also heavy on atmosphere. A sense of doom hangs over the proceedings like pre-storm dark clouds on an August afternoon. Certain scenes are simply incredible like when Frank solves the puzzle box at the beginning of the movie. Light shines through the spaces between the wall boards and smoke hangs in the air. It\u2019s a real mood-setter, one that\u2019s enhanced by Christopher Young\u2019s eerie score.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The whole cast does a very good job. It\u2019s surprising to see Robinson not play a villainous character for a change. Higgins makes a great ice queen. Laurence looks suitably frightened and freaked out by all the weird stuff that\u2019s going on around her. There\u2019s this derelict that keeps popping up. God only knows what he\u2019s after.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Then there\u2019s Bradley as Pinhead. I\u2019ll say it now, he\u2019s the only one that should ever play this character. Just like there\u2019s no Freddy Krueger other than Robert Englund, there\u2019s no Pinhead other than Doug Bradley. He gets off the film\u2019s immortal line, \u201cWe\u2019ll tear your soul apart!\u201d This boogeyman is pure evil! And Hellraiser<\/strong> is easily one of the most unsettling horror movies of the 80s. It\u2019s legitimately frightening, something I can\u2019t say about too many so-called scary movies.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hellraiser\u00a0(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language,\u00a0 extremely graphic violence and gore, nudity, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Clive Barker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Clive Barker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christopher Young\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robin Vidgeon \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: September 18, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Andrew Robinson, Claire Higgins, Sean Chapman, Ashley Laurence, Robert Hines, Frank Baker, Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, Simon Bamford, Grace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Hellraiser-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1915,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions\/1915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}