Hellraiser (1987)

Film: Hellraiser (1987)

Stars: Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Andrew Robinson, Sean Chapman, Doug Bradley

Director: Clive Barker

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

I'll be totally honest, I don't know that I actually knew of Clive Barker as a film director until I watched this movie, which is a weird pop culture gap to own up to on a film blog.  But I did read Clive Barker as a teenager.  My cousin Briana, who was something of a hero to me growing up (she was four years older, and the coolest person I knew)-her favorite book was The Thief of Always (by Barker).  Since I wanted to be just like her, I read The Thief of Always, a very good (though kind of melancholy) supernatural fable.  But Barker is better known for the work he has done in horror films, as the inspiration for the Candyman series (it is based off of one of his short stories) and for today's film, also based on a story by Barker, but in this case he directed it: Hellraiser.  The film was a small hit in 1987, but would grow on to have a long shelf life, including sequels, huge success on VHS, and giving us one of the more iconic horror villains of the 1980's, Pinhead.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place when a couple Julia (Higgins) and Frank Cotton (Chapman) move into a house that had previously been owned by Frank's brother Larry (Robinson).  What Frank does not know is that Larry had an affair with his wife before their marriage, and Julia is still smitten with his much-hotter brother.  We come to realize that Larry...has been up to some things he shouldn't be, mainly selling his soul to a group of demons to have kinky S&M sex after solving a magical puzzle box.  We find as the film progresses that Larry can come back to his human form...if he is given enough blood sacrifices.  This means that Julia has to seduce a series of men, and kill them in order for Larry to return to his human form.  Her stepdaughter Kirsty (Laurence) realizes that this is happening, but it's too late when she also accidentally opens the puzzle box, putting her immortal soul in danger, unless she can deliver to the demons, led by Pinhead (Bradley...and I know that's not the character's name but you know it's what everyone calls him), her uncle Frank.  In the end, she destroys the demons (or at least traps them in the box), but not before Julia, Larry, & Frank all meet pretty grizzly ends.

Hellraiser is a big deal for proper horror aficionados, given that it helped spawn one of the more prolific franchises in the genre (if you can believe it, there are 11 Hellraiser films), many of which star Bradley as the popular Pinhead character.  I will not be watching any more of them, as I was more intrigued than pleased by Hellraiser.  I think the best part of the movie is how unflinchingly horny it is.  Clare Higgins' Julia gets the best sex of her life, and promptly sells her soul afterward in hopes she'll get another orgasm.  Every inch of the movie is dripping with sex, with Higgins in a state of ecstasy virtually every time that Larry (in literally any state of decay) is flirting with her, and abject disgust that anyone else might try to keep them apart, even if it means their lives.  This is not good acting, and in fact no one in this film is giving a good performance, but it is something to watch.

The film's best attributes are the makeup & visual effects, which are totally of another level.  The Pinhead character looks remarkable (Bradley become iconic for a small part for a reason), as do all of the Cenobites (and a regenerating Larry).  The visual effects are also impressive.  The CGI is prosaic (though still not bad for 1987), but it's really the makeup effects, especially during some of the torture scenes at the end, that make you shocked at how well the movie comes together.  I've talked about this a lot over the past couple of seasons, but if any film has a grievance with the Academy for letting their prejudice for good makeup & VFX get in the way of a nomination just because of genre bias, it's Hellraiser.

Past Horror Month Reviews

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Thing

1990's-Present: The Blair Witch Project, Scream