Hellraiser

Hellraiser

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Clive Barker

Starring: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Doug Bradley

From: New World Pictures

First off, I’ll like to apologize for railing against a certain movie in the past two reviews. I was just fed up for all the hype that was given to it when I think it looks terrible and stupid, that’s all. But enough about that.

Believe it or not, before last night I had never seen any of the movies in the Hellraiser series. Sure, I knew about Pinhead and the Cenobites and the magical box known as the Lament Configuration, but that was about it. I have seen some short clips of the original movie way back when and it was some of the freakiest stuff that could be shown on regular TV without much problem; after seeing that, I figured that was enough for me, as a movie full of that sort of thing wasn’t something I needed to see.

Last night I discovered that for the weekend the Showtime network of stations was being offered for free on my cable system. That made me happy. I looked around and besides watching some MMA on there, I also decided to finally watch the movie and it wasn’t quite what I expected but I did manage to enjoy it quite a bit and I discovered why this series (or at least the first movie) had a lot of fans.

Despite what you may think, the focus of this isn’t really on Pinhead or the rest of the Cenobites but rather it’s about a character escaping them… but let me start from the beginning. Frank is a lousy dude who is given a magical puzzle box (known as The Lament Configuration) by a mysterious person while in a foreign country with the promise that it’ll fulfill all of his desires. Back home (it isn’t clear where the movie is even set; some characters have a British accent and others American; it’s not something you’re supposed to think about) he gets the box open and he discovers that it’s the ultimate way to get both pleasure and pain; he vanishes. The abandoned house then gets occupied by a husband and wife duo of Larry and Julia (Robinson, Higgins) and also step-daughter Kirsty (the very attractive Laurence) who lives close by. I don’t mean to spoil too much here, but Frank ends up escaping from the clutches of the Cenobites via accident and comes back to this world via some nasty and visceral-yet great for the time-special effects, only he’s not quite like what he was before. Thing is, the usually frigid Julia had a torrid love affair with Frank. She discovers that Frank has returned in the state he’s in, and he needs her help with something… that’s all I’ll say about it. If you haven’t seen it before you’ll have to discover for yourself the macabre turn that Julia has to take in order to do this.

This movie certainly had some very grotesque and freaky images and visuals, not to mention that the story has a total sadomasochistic tone to it. It’s totally macabre too. But, it isn’t a total gorefest or blood everywhere the entire time. Rather, it tells a twisted yet entertaining story and it didn’t throw viscera at the screen the entire time to try and keep you entertained. The Cenobites don’t appear that often either, but their threat is present throughout the entire film and you can certainly understand why Frank wants to get far the F away from them.

Overall, this is definitely different (and better) than much of the horror films to come out of the 80’s which-while enjoyable at times-are pretty dopey and are filled with dumb teenagers who are there as cannon fodder and are for the most part pretty bad. It’s a dark and mature tale filled with some freaky stuff you’ll never forget. For the most part the special effects still are fine-enough for this day and age, although you can tell they ran out of money on the low budget they had by the end of the movie. If you haven’t seen this yet and you think this sounds interesting to you, you definitely should. I’m sure it’ll be better than the remake that’s been planned for years that now is supposed to come out in 2 years time. Of course, a damn remake. I’m sure it’ll look prettier but the spirit of the original will be totally screwed up. After all, Barker wrote the books on which this movie was based on, so I think he did the definitive job on writing and directing a movie based on his own work. The movie is certainly dated in some ways (Lord, some of the big hair and ugly clothing...); it's really minor, though, and doesn't make you not enjoy the film. So, I don’t have high hopes for the remake… although at least Platinum Dunes isn’t involved with this, thank goodness.

The sequels seem to be in general pretty bad compared to the first movie so that is probably what you should stick with, as is what I’m planning on doing.

I’ll be back Wednesday night with a new review.