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AudioHead

I have conflicting emotions about the 1987 horror film, "Hellraiser",
based on British writer, Clive Barker's novella, "The Hellbound Heart".
While the basic concept of the movie was fascinating - involving unfortunate people opening puzzle-boxes akin to a Pandora's Box From Hell,
thereby unleashing a motley crew of demonic denizens called Cenobites to
plague them - and the make-up and special effects being highly effective,
if not horrific; the film's incoherent storyline and relentlessly grim
atmosphere made viewing a mixed experience.
Perhaps it was the film's utter lack of humor (recall Freddy Kruger's
wit), pervading cynicism and sense of despair that subliminally disturbed
me the most. "Hellraiser" is not a particularly frightening movie, but it
is a viscerally gut-wrenching, gruesome one. Armed with a better script
and a few deft strokes of well-timed levity, it might have eventually become a horror classic; nevertheless, it has managed to attract a dedicated cult following. It's cult status is due, in no doubt to it's
most outstanding character, Pinhead, the Head Cenobite (played superbly
by Doug Bradley). Pinhead is unspeakably cruel and takes great sadistic
pleasure in tormenting his victims. I even think he might have a dual
sadomasochistic element within him, as he too once was human and suffered
the same torment, seeming to empathize with his victims in a perverse sort
of way, i.e., he enjoys the scenario precisely because he can re-experience
his own previous suffering vicariously, while at the same time, still relish the hellish pain he is currently inflicting upon them! Very twisted
if true! The multiple pins or nails that protrude from his face and head
are stark, grim reminders of the agony he once endured.
"Hellraiser" is not for the squeamish, or those with depressive maladies - if any film ever conveys an unremitting picture of eternal gloom and doom, of suffering and damnation - it is this one. Paradoxically, "Hellraiser" is entertaining to the extent that it appeals
to sadomasochistic, perverse elements lying deep within the bowels of
human nature. Gruesomely repulsive on one level, yet morbidly fascinating
on another.
Perhaps the redeeming value of "Hellraiser" is an educational one,
that is, it presents atheists and other secularists who discount traditional notions of Hellfire and Brimstone, with the distinct, thought-
provoking possibility that a different, far more bizzare kind of Transdimensional Hell might exist.
- AudioHead

Films/DVD Asylum

"Hellraiser" : A Review