Hellraiser (1987)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Clive Barker Reviewer :
Writers Clive Barker
Starring Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman, Oliver Smith, Robert Hines
Genre Demonic
Tagline Demon to some. Angel to others.
15 second cap The evil Frank solves a puzzle box and summons demons, Kirsty needs to unsolve that problem right about now!
Country

A ScaryMinds Event Movie

Review

"No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering." - Lead Cenobite

Larry Cotton and wife Julia have for various reasons decided to move into the abandoned house Larry grew up in. They find the house isn't as empty as once thought, with any number of strange relics being tossed into disused rooms and corners. Larry quickly surmises his brother Frank has been dosing in the mess the house had become, but doesn't let this deter the move. On moving day Larry gashes his hand badly, it needs stitches, and while being treated by Julia we note Larry's blood pooling on the floor of an upstairs room and then being sucked under the floorboards. This is always a good sign in a horror flick of course.

Seems Frank, an explorer of all things perverse, stumbled upon a puzzle box that when solved summons demons from hell who are gainfully employed in tearing people apart in the most painful fashion possible. Larry's blood revives an element of Frank, who only needs some more flesh and skin to become whole again. Julia, who used to have a thing for Frank, happily obliges by luring men back to the house for a quick demise and consumption by Frank. While Larry remains blissfully unaware of the domestic shenanigans his daughter by a previous marriage, Kristy, discovers the plot and gains possession of the puzzle box. Naturally Kristy, who's a bit of a sticky beak, solves the puzzle, summons the demons, and is about to enjoy the dubious pleasures of hell, but offers to lead the demons, named Cenobites, to the errant Frank in exchange for clemency. You don't make deals with the demon hordes Kristy unless you have a Winchester Bro close by. Can Kristy offer up the evil Frank to the Cenobites, will they be appeased by the offering, and can she escape with her soul intact?

Clive Barker opened his directing scorecard with one of the most iconic of all horror flicks to those of us who have spent a decent amount of time in Country. I'm not talking the sometime fan, or the teen who wants to pretend to be scared, or even the gorehounds, I'm talking the core horror audience who know the dark genre operates at a higher level than simply going boo. With horror having by and largely been submerged into the swamp of indifferent slasher flicks by the late 1980s it was a breath of fresh air to experience a dark flick that rips it up and goes back to solid serious scare mongering. At the time Clive Barker was the future of horror, not sure what has happened since then, but at this time Barker was rocking it out and turning himself into a superstar in the process. That having been said, Hellraiser while being a very solid movie does have a multitude of issues and weak points, that chain the Cenobites down to ghetto status rather than allowing them to break out into the stratosphere.

Primarily the character of Kristy is problematic at stages, yet surprisingly a strong female role model at other stages. Welcome to schizophrenia 101 kids, the character is not written overwhelmingly well outside the action parts requirement. While Kristy can take on the Cenobites and Frank, your call on which is the more evil, she breaks down as a character when called upon to do the dramatic moments. This has nothing to do with Ashley Laurence as an actress, it's more the result of a badly written role. Similarly I found Larry almost too unassuming, there's no backbone there, and to be honest I was left with the feeling he got what he deserved.

Besides Kristy being either on or not the movie works pretty well as one of those small intimate productions that keep the action to a few locations and a few characters. Not a lot of extras in use, and the vast majority of the flick occurs in Larry's house. The approach allows Barker total control over lighting, even in the daytime the house remains in permanent semi darkness, individual frames, and provide an all pervasive morbid atmosphere. Barker translates his vision onto the screen and makes it work, if you aren't ready for hell's minions making a house call then you'll be in a lot of trouble here.

Clive Barker delivers a classic that has a few problems and is showing its age. Fingers crossed no remake however

Speaking of which, Barker goes grunge before Seattle made it a fashion statement. Things are dark, dingy, and you figure a good spring cleaning might be worth while in the house. Regardless of Julia's housekeeping ability, the dingy old house looks in need of a good spring cleaning and some airing at the very least. Things are only helped really when the Cenobites make the scene with their own aesthetics when it comes to interior decoration.

Gorehounds are going to be in their element here as Barker paints the screen red with more gore than you can poke a Voorhees family member at. We're talking people being literally torn apart on nasty look hooks and all manner of mayhem. If you don't like gore them give this one a miss, though I'm pretty much not a fan of gore myself but didn't mind it in the flick due to the necessity of it being shown.

One of the things that struck me with the movie, besides the individualistic Cenobites that rock the house down, was the use of blue filters rather than red. There's a real neon feel going down in some scenes that conveys the cold cruelty of the Cenobite idea of ultimate pleasure. Barker is able to summon an entirely different feel to what is ostensibly a gothic piece with his use of filters, giving the Cenobites a gothic look while still being freaky deaky in a sort of new romantic nightmare fashion. It's showing its age, but by hell I still rock out to the visual styling and I got to say the costume designs. Well if you excuse that plaid shirt Kristy's boyfriend sports towards the end, fashion suicide kids, or so I'm told.

Okay I'm done and dusted, rocked out to the movie, loved the stylings, had a way better time than you would normally expect to have in a 1980s low budget slay ride. If you haven't caught the movie yet then I'm going to be real disappointed in you, go catch a screening immediately, invest in the DVD or BluRay, do yourself a favour, we have such sights to show you.

For this review, second for the movie on site, I went with the R2 box set from Anchor Bay that also promises the delights of the second and third movie. Check out eBay and make an investment, one of the most underrated franchises ever to be made, or I hope so at least.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Clive Barker delivers a memorable start to what should be a solid franchise.