Hellraiser (1987)
Director: Clive Barker
Cast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman,
Doug Bradley
As I write this, it’s been almost thirty years since Clive
Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) first opened the gates of hell, giving us a new
horror icon to rival that of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Weird part is
that Clive Barker wasn’t aiming to create a horror icon for a new generation, he
was simply adapting his novella ‘The Hellbound Heart’ into film, his intent
wasn’t creating a horror icon that horror fans would embrace vehemently and
ultimately christen “Pinhead”. And Pinhead it has stayed, even though Clive
Barker himself says this name is not dignified enough for the character that
Barker called ‘Priest’ in the first versions of the script. Still, the
character caught the public’s imagination, and there it has stayed. As I write
this, there have been 9 films inspired on Barker’s Hellraiser universe, with a
tenth one in production hell. Sadly, none of these numerous sequels have been
as good as the original Clive Barker directed film which still remains the best
film in the lengthy franchise.
Honestly, I don’t think anything done today will be as good,
horrifying or gory as the images that Barker conjured up in his directorial
debut. Very rarely do extremely gory or overly sexual films make it to theaters
today, which is why I say that Hellraiser is a rare film that we should relish
and thank the movie gods for. To use a tired phrase “they just don’t make them
like this anymore”, but it’s not for lack of trying. Modern horror filmmakers are
constantly trying to make films like these, but they always end up straight to
video, where most gore fests end up nowadays. I know Barker is currently trying
to get Hellraiser properly remade, but if you ask me, the way Hollywood works today,
this remake will never go theatrical. Barker would have to tone down the blood
and gore and if he does that, then it won’t be Hellraiser anymore. Sad but
true. That’s why I see films like Hellraiser as a rare jewel from one of the
goriest decades in horror, the 80’s! A decade in which films like Hellraiser
could end up in theater screens and get a sequel every year! Seeing it now, it’s
such a shock to the system when compared to the light horror films seen today,
which speaks volumes about the soft core crap that passes for horror today. I
feel special for having grown up with these twisted/cool horror movies that titillated
my young mind!
Hellraiser was another one of those horror movies that as a
12 year old kid, I wasn’t supposed to see, yet found a way to see anyway. My
morbid curiosity peaked with these films. The themes explored in Hellraiser were
deadly serious and adult, yet there I was, sucking it all in, absorbing the
darkness that the world had to offer.Like the dark delights the Cenobytes brought
to those who opened the Lament Configuration, so where these movies for me.
Dark, hellish delights that presented my young mind with a side of the human
psyche I knew nothing about, but was eager to discover. These films were all
about uncontrolled passions and the lengths to which a person can go to in
order to get ultimate pleasure. How far will a man or woman go for the ultimate
‘good fuck’? Pretty damn far that’s how far! The film has a thing or two to say
about the banality of a boring marriage versus the intensity of amazing
forbidden sex. It also plays with the idea that pain and pleasure are close bed
partners concepts maybe a bit too profound or dark for my innocent little mind,
but hey, there’s a first time for everything right? In Hellraiser, the Lament Configuration is a
puzzle box that opens the doors to a dimension where pain and pleasure are
indivisible and whoever is dumb enough to solve the puzzle instantly regrets
having done so, hence the ‘lament’ in its name. This idea that a supernatural
artifact can open the gates to hell isn’t in a new one, other films have played
with this premise: The Beyond (1981), City of the Living Dead (1980), The Gate
(1987) and The Ninth Gate (1999) come to mind, but only Hellraiser mixes the
whole thing with these themes of lust and desire.
This was Clive Barker’s first film so he was a rookie when
he made it, he’s admitted to not knowning much about the intricacies of
filmmaking at the time of making this picture, still, what he did have was the
view point of an artist, a necessary quality to pull off a film like this one.
Plus, he wrote the story the film is based on, and while it’s not always a
great idea to put writers behind the camara, in this case it worked with
hellish charm, because Barker is a painter and he treats the images he captures
with 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 first
Hellraiser film is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than any of the
sequels in the franchise. The special make up effects are amazing on this one.
The resurrection sequence, in which the character of Frank comes back to life
is one of the high points of the film. I recently screened this film for an
audience and that scene still makes hearts stop. It’s a show stealer. Where the
film does have a few faults is in the visual effects department and Barker
admits that these were done in a hurry to meet the schedule, and it’s a damn
shame because when those cheesy visual effects show up, it brings the film down
a few notches for me. Still, as a whole the film is solid, if it wasn’t for
those cheesy visual effects I’d give the film a perfect score. But whatever, I
love the film, warts and all as they say.
The success of Hellraiser spawned a sequel that started
rolling mere weeks after Hellraiser proved a success in cinemas and so we got
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), a decent sequel that sadly wasn’t directed by
Barker himself. Hellbound: Hellraiser II was messy in terms of story (last
minute rewrites galore) and it had flaws in the visual effects department as
well, but it gives us some of the best and bloodiest moments in the entire
franchise and let’s not forget it also gave us Pinheads origin. For me this
franchise was good up to Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), after that one, things
started to really go downhill for the franchise, with each sequel being worse
than the last. If you’re really bored, then the last one that’s “watchable” is
Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), the fourth film in the series. You know the franchise
was on its last legs because on that one they sent Pinhead to space! If that isn’t
the sign of a franchise running out of juice, I don’t know what is. After Hellraiser
Bloodline, the franchise consists of extremely low budget films that were made
from scripts that weren’t even Hellraiser scripts, they were horror scripts
that the producers had laying around and converted into Hellraiser films. What’s
one got to do to get a decent Hellraiser film nowadays? Go to hell to get one? Here’s
hoping Barker successfully reboots this franchise and gives us a new dose of
decent (or maybe even better?) Hellraiser films.
Rating: 4 out of 5
