Hellraiser (Clive Barker, 1987): UK

Reviewed by Richard Feilden.  Viewed on Netflix streaming.

Clive Barker is a good author.  Actually he is a really good author. From his early short story compilations The Books of Blood to The Thief of Always and The Great and Secret Show, Barker has presented intelligent, terrifying tales set in twisted worlds of sex and horror.  He also paints, draws and writes plays and screenplays.  Having been disappointed with two previous adaptations of his work, in 1987 Barker also tried turning his hand to directing.

Based on a short story called The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser starts with a simple puzzle box, the Lament Configuration.  Purchased by warped thrill seeker Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman), the box is solved. This opens a gateway to another dimension (“Doors to the pleasures of Heaven or Hell”, Frank recounts, “I didn’t care which”), allowing passage to earth for a group of sadomasochistic demons called the Cenobites.   The demons, led by Pinhead (Doug Bradley), watch as Frank is torn apart by hooked chains.  Then they close the box and everything vanishes.  Months later Frank’s brother, Larry (Andrew Robinson) moves into the same house with his wife (who had an affair with Frank just before she married his brother).  An accident leads to Larry cutting his hand and his blood drips onto the floor where Franks vanished and Frank comes back…or at least some of him does.

One element of Barker’s writing that translates onto the big screen is his style.  For a first time director with a limited budget and only the special effects technologies available in the eighties, this film is stunning.  Moodily shot with haunting lighting and unsettling angles, this is a darkly beautiful film.  The special effects, especially Frank’s resurrection, are still unsettling.  They are wet, organic and disturbing.

Doug Bradley is on screen for very little of the film, but he has effectively made a career out of playing Pinhead.  He delivers his lines with aplomb (We’ll tear your soul… apart!) and, being a demon, even gets away with a little camp.  However, the overly melodramatic delivery of some of the other actors, especially Clare Higgins as Larry’s wife, Julia, does detract from the film at times.  The only things in the film in danger of upstaging her are her hair and shoulder pads; you have to love the 80s!

There are also some holes in the plot.  The puzzle box turns up in the oddest of places, apparently following Frank into hell and back, and the mechanisms of the box are never really explained.  The film is also a little anti-climactic.  It seems to deserve a better finale and as viewers we definitely earn some sort of explanation for the penultimate scene.  However, I’m willing to forgive much; the style and audacity of Barker’s work buys him that.  It is a great introduction to his work and I recommend viewing it, although his films will never be the equal of his books.  Oddly enough for a film review, it is to those books that I most enthusiastically direct you.  Be warned though, they are not for the easily offended or the faint of heart.