As I’ve often suggested, the dirty little secret regarding Horror is that, frankly, not a great deal of what get’s produced is authentically scary.
All too often, producers, directors, and screenwriters take the easy way out: they’ll craft an interesting premise, they’ll stock their picture with acceptable (or good-looking) characters, and then they’ll pour on buckets of blood, gore, and brains, enough so that audiences will be easily distracted with the carnage enough so that they don’t get caught up with the particulars. Usually, this does shift the focus away from what works to what’s dripping (or who’s bleeding); and it can make for passable entertainment. Bodies pile up. Protracted endings get proffered out. Jump scares get inserted. And there’s always the hint of a sequel because nothing spells success for a studio suit like a franchise that can keep audiences coming back again and again and again for little more than the same but captured with a slightly different perspective.
Now, in everyone’s defense part of the problem is that true frights don’t always translate well from person-to-person much less from text to screen. What one might read about and get scared silly from gets passed through innumerable filters in going from the page to film, so much so that the original frightening idea gets modestly reshaped in the process. The evil as conceived by a talented writer gets interpreted instead of legitimate exhibition, and this dilution has probably hampered a good many films despite the best efforts of all involved.
Such could be the case with 1987’s Hellraiser.
By all accounts, this was director Clive Barker’s first time behind a big production. (IMDB.com credits him with directorship over a few shorts previous to this project.) While he was undeniably familiar with the source material – considering he adapted his own 1986 novella “The Hellbound Heart” for the screen – I can’t help but wonder if he struggled in rendering what he saw in his own mind – as the writer – into the shape all of it took on the silver screen. None of this matters regarding my critical assessment of the picture (which we’ll get to shortly), but it does make me wonder whether or not he was ultimately thrilled with how it all came together and was bloodily torn apart in the big finish.
[NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …]
All too often, producers, directors, and screenwriters take the easy way out: they’ll craft an interesting premise, they’ll stock their picture with acceptable (or good-looking) characters, and then they’ll pour on buckets of blood, gore, and brains, enough so that audiences will be easily distracted with the carnage enough so that they don’t get caught up with the particulars. Usually, this does shift the focus away from what works to what’s dripping (or who’s bleeding); and it can make for passable entertainment. Bodies pile up. Protracted endings get proffered out. Jump scares get inserted. And there’s always the hint of a sequel because nothing spells success for a studio suit like a franchise that can keep audiences coming back again and again and again for little more than the same but captured with a slightly different perspective.
Now, in everyone’s defense part of the problem is that true frights don’t always translate well from person-to-person much less from text to screen. What one might read about and get scared silly from gets passed through innumerable filters in going from the page to film, so much so that the original frightening idea gets modestly reshaped in the process. The evil as conceived by a talented writer gets interpreted instead of legitimate exhibition, and this dilution has probably hampered a good many films despite the best efforts of all involved.
Such could be the case with 1987’s Hellraiser.
By all accounts, this was director Clive Barker’s first time behind a big production. (IMDB.com credits him with directorship over a few shorts previous to this project.) While he was undeniably familiar with the source material – considering he adapted his own 1986 novella “The Hellbound Heart” for the screen – I can’t help but wonder if he struggled in rendering what he saw in his own mind – as the writer – into the shape all of it took on the silver screen. None of this matters regarding my critical assessment of the picture (which we’ll get to shortly), but it does make me wonder whether or not he was ultimately thrilled with how it all came together and was bloodily torn apart in the big finish.
[NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …]
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.”
Like so many, I appreciate when any storyteller goes to greater-than-average lengths to craft a singular vision; and I think that Barker truly establishes something special with Hellraiser. When any director or screenwriter could certainly come up with some average hell spawn worth a bit of cinema time, Barker sets up an entire world fairly succinctly with the introduction of the Cenobites, these extra-dimensional beings who apparently subsist on the pains and pleasures of the mortal beings their magical cube draws them into contact with. While one could argue that – as a construct – it opens the door to what could’ve been some visual chicanery, the writer/director largely plays everything here with an undercurrent of plausibility; and it’s a touch that stays consistent from start-to-finish.
Where Hellraiser stumbles a bit too frequently, however, is the fact that I was never quite certain whose story it truly was intended to be.
For example, the opening vignette involves Frank Cotton (played by Sean Chapman) purchasing a curious puzzle box from a vendor in Morocco. Back in the quiet of what we believe is his own home, the man quickly solves the enigma, accidentally unleashing the Cenobites from their world into ours; and he winds up being violently dismembered for his troubles. The cube returns to normal, leading me to suspect it’s about to happen all over again.
Well …
Yes, the cube and its ethereal sadomasochistic inhabitants will eventually come back into play (much later), but – in the meantime – the story resets as Larry (Andrew Robinson) and Julia Cotton (Claire Higgins) settle into the house Frank vacated against his wishes (apparently, this is a family estate of some sort). While moving their furnishings upstairs, the new man of the house accidentally slashes his hand open; and the blood trail eventually re-awakens Frank’s undead spirit that’s been trapped between our world and whatever lies beyond. Needless to say, dear ol’ Frank isn’t quite himself – he’s essentially a bloody amalgam of flesh, blood, and bones – and he’ll need more to reconstitute himself fully, which is to say he’s going to need an accomplice … and he has a willing one with Julia.
“A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.”
Like so many, I appreciate when any storyteller goes to greater-than-average lengths to craft a singular vision; and I think that Barker truly establishes something special with Hellraiser. When any director or screenwriter could certainly come up with some average hell spawn worth a bit of cinema time, Barker sets up an entire world fairly succinctly with the introduction of the Cenobites, these extra-dimensional beings who apparently subsist on the pains and pleasures of the mortal beings their magical cube draws them into contact with. While one could argue that – as a construct – it opens the door to what could’ve been some visual chicanery, the writer/director largely plays everything here with an undercurrent of plausibility; and it’s a touch that stays consistent from start-to-finish.
Where Hellraiser stumbles a bit too frequently, however, is the fact that I was never quite certain whose story it truly was intended to be.
For example, the opening vignette involves Frank Cotton (played by Sean Chapman) purchasing a curious puzzle box from a vendor in Morocco. Back in the quiet of what we believe is his own home, the man quickly solves the enigma, accidentally unleashing the Cenobites from their world into ours; and he winds up being violently dismembered for his troubles. The cube returns to normal, leading me to suspect it’s about to happen all over again.
Well …
Yes, the cube and its ethereal sadomasochistic inhabitants will eventually come back into play (much later), but – in the meantime – the story resets as Larry (Andrew Robinson) and Julia Cotton (Claire Higgins) settle into the house Frank vacated against his wishes (apparently, this is a family estate of some sort). While moving their furnishings upstairs, the new man of the house accidentally slashes his hand open; and the blood trail eventually re-awakens Frank’s undead spirit that’s been trapped between our world and whatever lies beyond. Needless to say, dear ol’ Frank isn’t quite himself – he’s essentially a bloody amalgam of flesh, blood, and bones – and he’ll need more to reconstitute himself fully, which is to say he’s going to need an accomplice … and he has a willing one with Julia.
As fate would have it, Frank and Julia had a ravenous sexual affair – one that hints of the same pain and pleasures that ultimately tore the man from this world – and the lady is definitely interested in starting up again. Her marriage to Larry has fallen on hard times, and her husband seems far more interested in pursuing other hobbies that don’t involved sweating between the sheets. Now all she need do is supply her former paramour with a few more bodies from which he can magically extract what he needs, and she’s well on the road to resuming orgasmic ecstasy.
To complicate matters further, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) – Frank’s teenage daughter – has moved back into the area – there are hints of past family troubles but, sadly, nothing is made expressly clear – and she’s looking to reconcile with her father. Eventually, she discovers that Julia is straying outside the marriage – she witnesses her stepmother bringing home one of the victims intended for Frank’s rebuilding – and this development fuels a good portion of the film’s conflict and resolution, some of which suggest that her uncle may very well have had his way with her previously.
If you haven’t noticed by now that Hellraiser is a bit hard-to-follow and nebulous at the same time, then let me be clear: it’s occasionally hard-to-follow and nebulous at the same time. While a scene or two that clearly spelled out what fractured this family in the past could’ve alleviated some of the confusion, things gets markedly worse when Kirsty inadvertently unleashes the Cenobites all by herself, removing any previously established linkage between Frank’s chosen lifestyle and their existence or purpose. Apparently, these specters treat everyone the same way – no matter how good and pure the victims may’ve been – and they’re even willing to trade another’s mortal soul in exchange for saving one’s own. So much for the curse of opening a magical bauble …
Still, because I had some trouble distinguishing between what the major storyline here was up until the midpoint of the feature – it eventually settles with Julia, arguably the least interesting because the audience is given no narrative justification for her initial fall from marital grace – Hellraiser seemed to be caught up in fits of starting and stopping, changing its shape and size in much the same way Frank’s reanimated corpse does. It really takes a good deal of time for the plot to take full effect; and – once it does – Barker pretty much surrenders the story to some obligatory (and expected) bloody carnage. When Kirsty mucks around with the cube, the film then goes back to the original track laid down with Frank’s opening vignette, and it starts to coalesce around him and his desires again … so, yes, be prepared for some shuffling foci.
To complicate matters further, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) – Frank’s teenage daughter – has moved back into the area – there are hints of past family troubles but, sadly, nothing is made expressly clear – and she’s looking to reconcile with her father. Eventually, she discovers that Julia is straying outside the marriage – she witnesses her stepmother bringing home one of the victims intended for Frank’s rebuilding – and this development fuels a good portion of the film’s conflict and resolution, some of which suggest that her uncle may very well have had his way with her previously.
If you haven’t noticed by now that Hellraiser is a bit hard-to-follow and nebulous at the same time, then let me be clear: it’s occasionally hard-to-follow and nebulous at the same time. While a scene or two that clearly spelled out what fractured this family in the past could’ve alleviated some of the confusion, things gets markedly worse when Kirsty inadvertently unleashes the Cenobites all by herself, removing any previously established linkage between Frank’s chosen lifestyle and their existence or purpose. Apparently, these specters treat everyone the same way – no matter how good and pure the victims may’ve been – and they’re even willing to trade another’s mortal soul in exchange for saving one’s own. So much for the curse of opening a magical bauble …
Still, because I had some trouble distinguishing between what the major storyline here was up until the midpoint of the feature – it eventually settles with Julia, arguably the least interesting because the audience is given no narrative justification for her initial fall from marital grace – Hellraiser seemed to be caught up in fits of starting and stopping, changing its shape and size in much the same way Frank’s reanimated corpse does. It really takes a good deal of time for the plot to take full effect; and – once it does – Barker pretty much surrenders the story to some obligatory (and expected) bloody carnage. When Kirsty mucks around with the cube, the film then goes back to the original track laid down with Frank’s opening vignette, and it starts to coalesce around him and his desires again … so, yes, be prepared for some shuffling foci.
In some ways, I thought that Hellraiser had some attractive similarities to Giallo films. The flick is chocked full of – ahem – psychosexual desires as Frank apparently had been living his sensual life to the fullest even with the loss of his epidermis. Likewise, Julia spends her private moments early in the picture haunted by a lust lost – presumably from her husband but also from Frank – and it becomes clear why she wishes a return to form no matter what deed she might be required to complete as a transaction. One could also argue that Kirsty’s character kinda/sorta loosely fills the bill as a detective because we see her finally trying to solve whatever has gone wrong with her father and stepmother’s relationship; and she even unearths the dark secret behind Frank’s reanimation. The haunted house occasionally has a surreal quality to it, especially once viewers see that it harbors a glimpse into the supernatural given that Frank’s spiritual presence is trapped within its confines. But the associations really stop there, leaving the project with passing resemblances to what Italian filmmakers accomplishes so uniquely with the genre.
Hellraiser (1987) was produced by Film Futures, New World Pictures, and Rivdel Films. Presently, the flick is available for physical purchase (in a variety of edits) as well as digital. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I thought that the provided sights-and-sounds were quite good from start-to-finish. Yes, as a fan of practical special effects, there are plenty of grisly tidbits in here to get excited about; and those work wonderfully, even holding up well after the decades since created. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I viewed this one digitally, there were no special features to consider.
Mildly Recommended.
Though I can give props to writer/director Barker for launching his very own Horror franchise, I’ll still admit to finding this first outing a bit confusing. The story and its elements kept shifting a bit too often early on – whose story is this, whose perspective matters most, what are these Cenobites really up to, etc. – and I couldn’t quite find the human core to the complex relationship between all these Cotton folks. Eventually, it starts to make greater sense – even if I had to fill in some minor holes with my own speculation – and it builds to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I just wish it was constructed with more narrative answers – or maybe ‘clearer ones’ – so that I didn’t have to risk so many guesses along the way. As practical Horror effects go? Hellraiser certainly raised the roof with viewers, and it’s easy to see why.
In the interests of fairness, I’m beholden to no one for this review of Hellraiser (1987) as I viewed it as part of my subscription to a streaming service.
-- EZ
Hellraiser (1987) was produced by Film Futures, New World Pictures, and Rivdel Films. Presently, the flick is available for physical purchase (in a variety of edits) as well as digital. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I thought that the provided sights-and-sounds were quite good from start-to-finish. Yes, as a fan of practical special effects, there are plenty of grisly tidbits in here to get excited about; and those work wonderfully, even holding up well after the decades since created. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I viewed this one digitally, there were no special features to consider.
Mildly Recommended.
Though I can give props to writer/director Barker for launching his very own Horror franchise, I’ll still admit to finding this first outing a bit confusing. The story and its elements kept shifting a bit too often early on – whose story is this, whose perspective matters most, what are these Cenobites really up to, etc. – and I couldn’t quite find the human core to the complex relationship between all these Cotton folks. Eventually, it starts to make greater sense – even if I had to fill in some minor holes with my own speculation – and it builds to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I just wish it was constructed with more narrative answers – or maybe ‘clearer ones’ – so that I didn’t have to risk so many guesses along the way. As practical Horror effects go? Hellraiser certainly raised the roof with viewers, and it’s easy to see why.
In the interests of fairness, I’m beholden to no one for this review of Hellraiser (1987) as I viewed it as part of my subscription to a streaming service.
-- EZ
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