MasterChugs Theater: "Hellraiser"
Frank Cotton is a jaded individual. Having perused the world over, he visits a Middle Eastern cafe to meet his contact who agrees to sell him a very particular kind of box. Returning to his family home, he sets up a makeshift camp in one upstairs room and sets about solving the riddle of the box, which eventually opens to let him experience the very limits of pain through supernatural means. Not long after, Frank's brother Larry arrives to stay at the house with his second wife Julia, but she's not keen until she finds evidence of Frank's presence - she previously had an affair with him, and her marriage is leaving her feeling claustrophobic. What she doesn't know is that Frank will soon be returning to her life in a big way...and the end results of that will be messy, to say the least.
Written by the director Clive Barker, and based on his novella, Hellraiser felt as if something fresh had arrived on the tired horror scene of the eighties with its deadly serious approach and elaborate special effects which served the story rather than the other way around. But seeing it now, it's clear it was still part of the horror cycle it once appeared to have broken away from: its effects represent a showcase for talented makeup personnel with a flair for gore, it features a young, female heroine who could have easily walked off the set of any Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th installment, and it has a cunning villain - or in this case, set of villains - who started a franchise.
Having said that, Hellraiser still works well and is all the better for taking its terror with a grim state of mind. The best character for evil is the wicked stepmother, with the excellent Clare Higgins as an icy presence whose remarkably compliant entry into the world of corruption and depravity is more chilling than the actors heaving under the weight of their rubber appliances and leather costumes. When Larry cuts his hand on a nail while helping the removal men, he goes upstairs to find Julia in Frank's room, spilling blood as he does so. When they leave to get to a hospital, the blood causes what's left of Frank to be reborn in a superb sequence, and the trouble resumes. Desperate to reform himself bodily (if not morally) with more blood, the skeletal Frank enlists the help of Julia, with whom he had once had a passionate affair, and she is soon enticing strangers into the house for him to suck dry. Yet when Frank's attention is attracted by Larry's pretty daughter Kirsty, she is forced to cut a dangerous deal with the infernal Cenobites, once-human guardians who want their escaped ward back and will raise hell to get him.
A major aspect which springs to mind with Hellraiser is the paradoxes throughout the flick, the complete opposites presented side by side in artistic fashion. For instance, when Kirsty is in the hospital take note of the blooming rose on the TV. All the peace, harmony and safety is abolished in the blink of an eye. The visuals are so extremely seperate in every way, but placed together to reinforce and affect Such a beautiful image, impressive, spectacular, it really caught my eye. Then the sudden jump to the awful surroundings of hell, the immediate danger, the big beast in pursuit of Kirsty and the Cenobites themselves: abominations of everything being.the viewer. As said, the flower was there for the drastic change of imagery; from blooming, beautiful flower to the depths of hell and immediate danger. That image, even presented in text form, is something to behold, let alone on the screen with color and visuals in all their glory.
Full of images that instantly entered the nightmares of the collective unconscious - the puzzle box that opens a path to eternally exquisite torment, Frank's body rebuilding itself sinew by bloody sinew, and the Cenobites themselves with their radically pierced and surgically altered bodies (including their iconic and eloquent leader, who would be dubbed 'Pinhead' in the film's many sequels) - Hellraiser is a horror film not to be missed, even if some may find the exotic pleasures which it offers to be cruel torture.
Written by the director Clive Barker, and based on his novella, Hellraiser felt as if something fresh had arrived on the tired horror scene of the eighties with its deadly serious approach and elaborate special effects which served the story rather than the other way around. But seeing it now, it's clear it was still part of the horror cycle it once appeared to have broken away from: its effects represent a showcase for talented makeup personnel with a flair for gore, it features a young, female heroine who could have easily walked off the set of any Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th installment, and it has a cunning villain - or in this case, set of villains - who started a franchise.
Having said that, Hellraiser still works well and is all the better for taking its terror with a grim state of mind. The best character for evil is the wicked stepmother, with the excellent Clare Higgins as an icy presence whose remarkably compliant entry into the world of corruption and depravity is more chilling than the actors heaving under the weight of their rubber appliances and leather costumes. When Larry cuts his hand on a nail while helping the removal men, he goes upstairs to find Julia in Frank's room, spilling blood as he does so. When they leave to get to a hospital, the blood causes what's left of Frank to be reborn in a superb sequence, and the trouble resumes. Desperate to reform himself bodily (if not morally) with more blood, the skeletal Frank enlists the help of Julia, with whom he had once had a passionate affair, and she is soon enticing strangers into the house for him to suck dry. Yet when Frank's attention is attracted by Larry's pretty daughter Kirsty, she is forced to cut a dangerous deal with the infernal Cenobites, once-human guardians who want their escaped ward back and will raise hell to get him.
A major aspect which springs to mind with Hellraiser is the paradoxes throughout the flick, the complete opposites presented side by side in artistic fashion. For instance, when Kirsty is in the hospital take note of the blooming rose on the TV. All the peace, harmony and safety is abolished in the blink of an eye. The visuals are so extremely seperate in every way, but placed together to reinforce and affect Such a beautiful image, impressive, spectacular, it really caught my eye. Then the sudden jump to the awful surroundings of hell, the immediate danger, the big beast in pursuit of Kirsty and the Cenobites themselves: abominations of everything being.the viewer. As said, the flower was there for the drastic change of imagery; from blooming, beautiful flower to the depths of hell and immediate danger. That image, even presented in text form, is something to behold, let alone on the screen with color and visuals in all their glory.
Full of images that instantly entered the nightmares of the collective unconscious - the puzzle box that opens a path to eternally exquisite torment, Frank's body rebuilding itself sinew by bloody sinew, and the Cenobites themselves with their radically pierced and surgically altered bodies (including their iconic and eloquent leader, who would be dubbed 'Pinhead' in the film's many sequels) - Hellraiser is a horror film not to be missed, even if some may find the exotic pleasures which it offers to be cruel torture.
Labels: MasterChugs Theater
posted by Chris 'Chugs' Taylor at
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