1987 Directed by Clive Barker
Larry and his wife, Julia move into an old house and discover a hideous creature - the man's half-brother, who is also the woman's former lover - hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of S&M demons, the Cenobites, Frank, is brought back into existence by a drop of blood on the floor. He soon forces his former mistress to bring him his necessary human sacrifices to complete his body... but the Cenobites won't be happy about this.
After watching Doug Bradley in Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines I had this immediate need to rewatch Hellraiser....so I did.
The first time I watched Hellraiser I was at an incredibly impressionable age, honestly, I was probably too young to see something of this nature, I couldn't have been any more than 10-years-old. The movie absolutely terrified me but at the same time caused me to have an intense curiosity about the morbid things I was already fascinated with: pain, hell, death, afterlife, etc.
For its time, Hellraiser was above and beyond what most genre-films were exploring. When Clive Barker wrote the novella The Hellbound Heart (a year before the movie was released) it was obvious he was capable of bringing…
Hoop-Tober, Film 10 of 31:
Whoa. This movie is truly insane, and bizarre, and...
Yeah, bizarre.
Seriously really bizarre.
I wasn't expecting Phantasm-level strangeness.
One of the scenes in this film is a definitely contender for the scariest scene of the 1980s, in my opinion:
goo.gl/images/eVBC9N
It's 4AM. I can't sleep (not sure if it's because of the film).
I can't seem to gather my thoughts,
Or think of anything worthy of including in my review.
I want to watch this again.
But no, I don't. I really don't.
G
R
O
S
S
But awesome.
The acting though, is kinda meh. The writing is kinda meh.
But the creatures. The SFX. The music. The atmosphere.
The main character shift.…
Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" is a gloomy, gory horror film full of violence, mystery, and modern-gothic atmosphere all its own. A monster movie with unique and intelligent monsters, the film is heavy with themes of temptation and self-inflicted suffering. It is an engaging, jolting, and memorably nightmarish piece of work.
Its plot revolving around a mystical puzzle box with the power to open interdimensional doorways, "Hellraiser" follows a family dealing with the effects of what comes out of and goes into those doorways. Human-like creatures wrapped in all manner of depravity who blur the lines between pleasure and pain slip back and forth, harassing those who dare open the box.
"Hellraiser" deals more with the family and its attempts to appease…
Oddly enough, I first watched (half watched) Hellraiser through covered eyes and pulled up blankets in a hotel room on a trip to Disney with my parents. They were watching it on the HBO as I pretended to be asleep and was absolutely horrified by what my what I was sneak watching, I must have been 5 or 6 and was in no way ready for that or the hopeless nightmares that would follow.
Fast forward a few more years and I was knee deep in late night vhs viewing sessions with my cooler older cousin, Richard. I’ve often mentioned my cousin in numerous reviews, as he was defiantly the spark plug in showing me horror films that were a…
Halloween Movie Fest 2018
A sexual frustrated woman becomes a serial killer, by luring unsuspecting men to her undead lover in order for him to regain his life force that was ripped away from him by the deadly Cenobites.
"The box, you opened it, we came ... It's just a puzzle box! ... Oh, no, it is a means to summon us."
Watching Writer and Director Clive Barker's Hellraiser has been a long time coming for me. I remember looking at the VHS cover in Blockbuster as a kid, and being so scared but intrigued by it. And what I have come to find with so many of these old school horror movies, is they do weave in enough humor…
“no tears, please. it's a waste of good suffering”
this held up surprisingly well for a special effects heavy horror film from the 80s. the cenobites still look badass, the gore is still gruesome, and the plot is still twisted as hell. i can’t even imagine how shocking it must have been when it was released!
"We have such sights to show you!"
S&M culture filtered through a haunted house film. One of the most traumatic films from my youth. Incredible how well this holds up.
Clive Barker is one of horror and fantasy's best story tellers. I'd love to see him paint cinemas red again.
I love that she was literally luring men to feed to her lover that’s kinda romantic
Spooky as hell, random as hell and an inconsistent cast with some inconsistently dubbed american accents make for a brilliant as hell horror movie.
A sleazy guy tries to join a club of elitists after figuring out how to call them on their weird business card in the form of a puzzle. He doesn't make it through initiation and so they ditch him. The guy's ex girlfriend comes around to help him back on his feet and when the club finds out he's still hanging around town, they come back to try and finish what they started, but the guy's niece who's got beef with him for screwing over her dad, kicks the gang's ass when they go after her to collect the guy's debt.
My favourite horror film. At turns scary, disturbing, suspenseful and bizarre. Stephen King was right when he said he had seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker. The sequels are shit though.
A solid family drama filled with more buckets of red paint than you could imagine. Some of the most creative and creepy looking designs in horror cinema along side brutal practical effects and some great direction makes this one of the best 80s horror has to offer.
Pretty gross though.
I have never seen beyond Hellraiser II, so when I saw that III was finally streaming on Shudder I decided to re watch the first two to get into the third. Still holds up! At the core of the story is a family drama which I think works really well. The cenobites aren't the core of the story, the family is, and that plays incredibly. I love the way that everything looks creepily moist. It really does great at creeping you and making you feel uncomfortable and gross.
Apart from the dated electrical effects (remember its over 30yrs old) this still stands up as a fine horror film even today. And there was nothing like this when it came out. Frank's assembly up from the attic floor still looks cool and Christopher Young's orchestral masterpiece of a theme is the icing on the cake. Pity the franchise got whored out to idiots later..
Simon Ramshaw 255 films
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As it reads on the tin.
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