Hellraiser (1987)

[Dementeleus]

We have such sights to show you!

[ddddeeee]

I've been on a Clive Barker binge lately and I cannot get over this man's imagination. His work is sick, twisted, erotic, perverted and yet oddly beautiful, and with Hellraiser that's all on full display. The images of torture, of chains tearing through flesh, of flesh regenerating are all strangely seductive. It's surreal to watch.

 

Clare Higgins is chilling, scarily believable and weirdly sexy as Julia. Christopher Young's score is masterful. The setting is eerie and the scenes in hell have an atmosphere unlike anything I've ever seen. Barker's depiction of hell remains unparalleled, while the design of the cenobites are wonderfully original.

 

It does have a few misgivings. The special effects at the end are quite dire, Lawrence gets quite poor and OTT as the film progresses and the ending is unnecessarily confusing and obligatory. Regardless, it's a terrible shame Hellraiser is the only film to boast Barker's uncompromised vision. It's a fantastically unique film and one of the best horror films of all time.

[Dementeleus]

It's been awhile since I've seen it, but my impression is that it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, like you said, it's a great and interesting premise and Barker's imagination is truly unique, grotesque, and fascinating. It's also got a nice sense of atmosphere and it strikes out on a very different path than most other horror films of the time (which were mainly content just to be slasher ripoffs of JASON or HALLOWEEN). But on the other hand, Barker was a mediocre director (this was his debut, wasn't it?) and he isn't able to fully achieve what I feel was in his head. 

 

I give it a lot of points for effort, but it's not entirely successful overall.

[ddddeeee]

I think the strength of Barker's imagination overcompensates for the budgetary restraints or his perhaps underachieving (underdeveloped?) direction. Despite being a huge mess, Nightbreed features some very effective direction, including a very kinetic and memorable opening dream sequence.

[Dementeleus]

I've actually never seen NIGHTBREED; I should dig it up. And I should probably watch HELLRAISER again -- I forget, is there a director's cut? I thought I remember hearing something about it awhile ago... or am I confusing it with another movie?

[K1stpierre]

I've only seen Hellraiser once, a while back ago. I remember it being extremely creepy (that guy in the attic being all bloody...and well....bloody looking lol and his gf or whatever bringing people up just so he could kill them or something like that). I remember liking it, and the one scene that really got me were the cenobites and how creepy they looked, and also the end with the chains coming out from no where and ripping the guy to shreds. I've seen the other Hellraisers, but none of the sequels were that great (which is usually the case for horror films I've noticed). Though I think I remember one with a police officer or detective and I thought that I liked that one, can't remember which one it is....

Edited July 31, 2013 by k1stpierre

[ddddeeee]

Nightbreed's a failure but it's an interesting failure. Barker disowned the theatrical cut but there's a new cut with 40+ minutes of extra footage being released next year. There's only the one cut of Hellraiser as far as I know.

 

The sequels are mostly terrible. Hellbound is good though, it has an enormous scope but again it suffers from the fact that Barker's imagination is compressed due to the budget. It's still really original and the score is one of the best ever. Hellraiser III is a mess, a generic slasher film. IV is laughably bad. Though Inferno is, IMO, very clever for a DTV sequel. None of the others are worth mentioning.

[acab]

I've only seen Hellraiser once, a while back ago. I remember it being extremely creepy (that guy in the attic being all bloody...and well....bloody looking lol and his gf or whatever bringing people up just so he could kill them or something like that). I remember liking it, and the one scene that really got me were the cenobites and how creepy they looked, and also the end with the chains coming out from no where and ripping the guy to shreds. I've seen the other Hellraisers, but none of the sequels were that great (which is usually the case for horror films I've noticed). Though I think I remember one with a police officer or detective and I thought that I liked that one, can't remember which one it is....

Inferno. It's the fifth one. It actually doesn't have almost anything to do with the Hellraiser mythology. Pinhead is just pushed there for name recognition.

But it's a really atmospheric and creepy film. It always reminded me of the nightmares in Max Payne the video game. I find it underrated. It went straight to dvd but the director made The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister after that.

[fishstick]

I like this. As far as horror goes, it was quite different and designs were fantastic. I caught first 2 sequels as well. Third one is a guilty pleasure. They used to play it after midnight on Space quite often so if I couldn't sleep I'd watch.

 

Julia (the evil stepmom) was the only compelling character in the first. Step daughter and her bumbling idiot dad got on my nerves.

[K1stpierre]

Inferno. It's the fifth one. It actually doesn't have almost anything to do with the Hellraiser mythology. Pinhead is just pushed there for name recognition.

But it's a really atmospheric and creepy film. It always reminded me of the nightmares in Max Payne the video game. I find it underrated. It went straight to dvd but the director made The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister after that.

Thanks! Yeah, that film was really creepy, and not just because of Pinhead and his cenobites (though the wire twins were creepy as hell). I was just creeped out at just how everyone around him slowly but surely were being killed off (though from what I remember it was because he went insane and was in his own hell, right?). Something about that film that I liked, it had a good concept.

[Maxmoser3]

A very disturbing and creepy 80's horror flick based upon the book The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker who also wrote direct this film as well, I know when some people think pinhead they think this but really pinhead isn't in this that much the plot really focuses on a guy named frank cotton who opens a mysterious puzzle box and is tortured and then all bones and the blood inside the house that his brother and his niece kirsty and his girlfriend whom which had an affair with frank and tries to bring him back to life by luring and killing other men. So overall a pretty disturbing but really good horror flick A-. "We"ll tear your soul apart"

[Maxmoser3]

A very disturbing and creepy 80's horror flick based upon the book The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker who also wrote direct this film as well, I know when some people think pinhead they think this but really pinhead isn't in this that much the plot really focuses on a guy named frank cotton who opens a mysterious puzzle box and is tortured and then all bones and the blood inside the house that his brother and his niece kirsty and his girlfriend whom which had an affair with frank and tries to bring him back to life by luring and killing other men. So overall a pretty disturbing but really good horror flick A-. "We"ll tear your soul apart"

[IndustriousAngel]

A fine premise and tight story are the good sides of Hellraiser; sadly they're a bit counterbalanced by the bad acting, low budget and pedestrian direction (in many scenes this looks like a tv production, always going for the most obvious or simple angles. Still one of the more interesting horror films (not my favourite genre).

[dxmatrixdt]

Rewatched.  As a die hard horror fan, I have been missing out with these films.  Cannot wait to watch al the sequels now!

[TheMovieman]

Pretty dang good and this is coming from someone who likes horror but not exactly a horror hound. I had never seen this before so it was surprising that Pinhead was a minor character. Although the gore was great, even more impressive was the make-up and prosthetic work.

 

***¾/*****, (B+, 7.7/10, 3/4)

Edited January 31, 2017 by TheMovieman

[Blankments]

Hellraiser is awful. Lacking any real story structure or even scares, it forgets that in order for a horror film to work, you have to care for at least one character in it. The characters are thinly sketched and it chooses not to identify its protagonist until the last half hour. The effects are really cool; the prosthetic work is always cool to see it, but that's essentially it for items of interest here. Hellraiser is a generic horror movie with great effects, but absolutely terrible elements in everything else. Awful. D

[ddddeeee]

Neglecting the final girl in favour of the villain (Julia is such a fun character) is one of the film's best decisions.

 

Even if you don't like it, it's anything but 'generic'. Barker's imagination is pretty incomparable to anything else, actually - at least as far as films go.

Edited June 4, 2017 by ddddeeee

[The Stingray]

I actually prefer Hellbound over this one. A lot of it has to do with Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth!

[ddddeeee]

23 hours ago, The Stingray said:

I actually prefer Hellbound over this one. A lot of it has to do with Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth!

Hellbound makes no sense but I think that's why I love it. Some really disturbing imagery in that one.

 

Also, Julia.

[Blankments]

On 6/4/2017 at 1:48 PM, ddddeeee said:

Neglecting the final girl in favour of the villain (Julia is such a fun character) is one of the film's best decisions.

 

Even if you don't like it, it's anything but 'generic'. Barker's imagination is pretty incomparable to anything else, actually - at least as far as films go.

perhaps generic isn't the right word for it, but the character work here left so much to be desired that it left a generic feel despite the cool worldbuilding stuff and neat prosthetics