Hellraiser (1987)

n

nHellraiser (1987)

n

nDirector: Clive Barker

n

nCast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman,nDoug Bradley

n

nAs I write this, it’s been almost thirty years since ClivenBarker’s Hellraiser (1987) first opened the gates of hell, giving us a newnhorror icon to rival that of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Weird part isnthat Clive Barker wasn’t aiming to create a horror icon for a new generation, henwas simply adapting his novella ‘The Hellbound Heart’ into film, his intentnwasn’t creating a horror icon that horror fans would embrace vehemently andnultimately christen “Pinhead”. And Pinhead it has stayed, even though ClivenBarker himself says this name is not dignified enough for the character thatnBarker called ‘Priest’ in the first versions of the script. Still, thencharacter caught the public’s imagination, and there it has stayed. As I writenthis, there have been 9 films inspired on Barker’s Hellraiser universe, with antenth one in production hell. Sadly, none of these numerous sequels have beennas good as the original Clive Barker directed film which still remains the bestnfilm in the lengthy franchise.

n

n

nHonestly, I don’t think anything done today will be as good,nhorrifying or gory as the images that Barker conjured up in his directorialndebut. Very rarely do extremely gory or overly sexual films make it to theatersntoday, which is why I say that Hellraiser is a rare film that we should relishnand thank the movie gods for. To use a tired phrase “they just don’t make themnlike this anymore”, but it’s not for lack of trying. Modern horror filmmakers arenconstantly trying to make films like these, but they always end up straight tonvideo, where most gore fests end up nowadays. I know Barker is currently tryingnto get Hellraiser properly remade, but if you ask me, the way Hollywood works today,nthis remake will never go theatrical. Barker would have to tone down the bloodnand gore and if he does that, then it won’t be Hellraiser anymore. Sad butntrue. That’s why I see films like Hellraiser as a rare jewel from one of thengoriest decades in horror, the 80’s! A decade in which films like Hellraiserncould end up in theater screens and get a sequel every year! Seeing it now, it’snsuch a shock to the system when compared to the light horror films seen today,nwhich speaks volumes about the soft core crap that passes for horror today. Infeel special for having grown up with these twisted/cool horror movies that titillatednmy young mind!

n

n

nHellraiser was another one of those horror movies that as an12 year old kid, I wasn’t supposed to see, yet found a way to see anyway. Mynmorbid curiosity peaked with these films. The themes explored in Hellraiser werendeadly serious and adult, yet there I was, sucking it all in, absorbing thendarkness that the world had to offer.Like the dark delights the Cenobytes broughtnto those who opened the Lament Configuration, so where these movies for me.nDark, hellish delights that presented my young mind with a side of the humannpsyche I knew nothing about, but was eager to discover. These films were allnabout uncontrolled passions and the lengths to which a person can go to innorder to get ultimate pleasure. How far will a man or woman go for the ultimaten‘good fuck’? Pretty damn far that’s how far! The film has a thing or two to saynabout the banality of a boring marriage versus the intensity of amazingnforbidden sex. It also plays with the idea that pain and pleasure are close bednpartners concepts maybe a bit too profound or dark for my innocent little mind,nbut hey, there’s a first time for everything right?  In Hellraiser, the Lament Configuration is anpuzzle box that opens the doors to a dimension where pain and pleasure arenindivisible and whoever is dumb enough to solve the puzzle instantly regretsnhaving done so, hence the ‘lament’ in its name. This idea that a supernaturalnartifact can open the gates to hell isn’t in a new one, other films have playednwith this premise: The Beyond (1981), City of the Living Dead (1980), The Gaten(1987) and The Ninth Gate (1999) come to mind, but only Hellraiser mixes thenwhole thing with these themes of lust and desire.

n

n

nThis was Clive Barker’s first film so he was a rookie whennhe made it, he’s admitted to not knowning much about the intricacies ofnfilmmaking at the time of making this picture, still, what he did have was thenview point of an artist, a necessary quality to pull off a film like this one.nPlus, he wrote the story the film is based on, and while it’s not always angreat idea to put writers behind the camara, in this case it worked withnhellish charm, because Barker is a painter and he treats the images he capturesnwith his cameras as if he was layering one of his paintings. He showed promise with what he did with this film, and went on to show growth as a filmmaker in films like Nightbreed (1990) and Lord of Illussions (1995), my favorite Barker film. This firstnHellraiser film is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than any of thensequels in the franchise. The special make up effects are amazing on this one.nThe resurrection sequence, in which the character of Frank comes back to lifenis one of the high points of the film. I recently screened this film for annaudience and that scene still makes hearts stop. It’s a show stealer. Where thenfilm does have a few faults is in the visual effects department and Barkernadmits that these were done in a hurry to meet the schedule, and it’s a damnnshame because when those cheesy visual effects show up, it brings the film downna few notches for me. Still, as a whole the film is solid, if it wasn’t fornthose cheesy visual effects I’d give the film a perfect score. But whatever, Inlove the film, warts and all as they say.

n

n

nThe success of Hellraiser spawned a sequel that startednrolling mere weeks after Hellraiser proved a success in cinemas and so we gotnHellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), a decent sequel that sadly wasn’t directed bynBarker himself. Hellbound: Hellraiser II was messy in terms of story (lastnminute rewrites galore) and it had flaws in the visual effects department asnwell, but it gives us some of the best and bloodiest moments in the entirenfranchise and let’s not forget it also gave us Pinheads origin. For me thisnfranchise was good up to Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), after that one, thingsnstarted to really go downhill for the franchise, with each sequel being worsenthan the last. If you’re really bored, then the last one that’s “watchable” isnHellraiser: Bloodline (1996), the fourth film in the series. You know the franchisenwas on its last legs because on that one they sent Pinhead to space! If that isn’tnthe sign of a franchise running out of juice, I don’t know what is. After HellraisernBloodline, the franchise consists of extremely low budget films that were madenfrom scripts that weren’t even Hellraiser scripts, they were horror scriptsnthat the producers had laying around and converted into Hellraiser films. What’snone got to do to get a decent Hellraiser film nowadays? Go to hell to get one? Here’snhoping Barker successfully reboots this franchise and gives us a new dose ofndecent (or maybe even better?) Hellraiser films.

n

nRating: 4 out of 5  

n