Hellraiser (DVD)

The horror/fantasy genre has been a notoriously difficult one in which to be genuinely original in for some time so it’s an event when something comes along that stands out as unusual. Most work is derivative for the most part, often exploitational to find an audience without the backing of a decent story. “Hellraiser” is a seminal movie from 1987 that finally gave the horror genre something fresh and new and became a franchise, catapulting the author Clive Barker into the long overdue limelight. Frank Cotton is a man who lives life on the edge. With blurred boundaries of decency and a warped version of right and wrong, he purchases an ancient puzzle box that ...  Read the complete review

In Hellraiser (1987) Clive Barker positions the grotesque next to the beautiful and pleasure indivisible from pain. This image of the grotesque, where the body is open, abject or deformed, stands in opposition to the 'perfect' body: the aesthetically beautiful body. Barker foregrounds the carnivalesque; he focuses on the body as flesh and on the changing, mutating body. He believes that we, as humans, should not be disgusted by or afraid of our own bodies or of change. Transformation is natural and a part of daily life, it should be embraced not hidden and avoided. Hellraiser graphically shows the body of Frank being re-built from blood and flesh, ...  Read the complete review

WE WILL TEAR YOUR SOUL APART!!!! Generally speaking, the Eighties were not good to the horror film. Films made in this decade were either comedy horror's like evil dead, or films that were designed to make you jump, like nightmare on Elm Street. Most times, films like this were not truly scary. More often than not, it was the orchestral soundtrack that made you jump, rather than a particularly scary plot or effect. There were, however, occasional exceptions to the rule. If you choose carefully, it is possible to pull the proverbial needle from the Eighties haystack. One such needle, is Clive Barker's directorial debut, Hellraiser. Barker was not ...  Read the complete review

When thinking of Clive Barker, the word raconteur springs to mind. Never limited to one medium to express his wild imagination, Barker has dabbled in pretty much everything from short stories to novels to films to comic books to visual art to painting and so on. After a slew of books, plays and the like early in his career, Barker made his directorial debut whilst still at the relatively tender age of thirty four. The result was 'Hellraiser', an adaptation of his novella; 'The Hellbound Heart' and the antithesis to previous, underwhelming Barker film adaptations managed by other people. When thrill-seeker Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) purchases a strange puzzle ...  Read the complete review

Hellraiser is an excellent horror film which deserves to be in a genre all on its own. The creation of the sick and twisted Clive Barker, this film is based on his short novel the Hellbound Heart. Released in 1987 the film was made on a shoe string budget and became a springboard for Barker to enter the world of cinema. It lasts a standard ninety minutes, an hour and a half of tense, horrific and dreamlike story telling. The plot surrounds Frank Cotton a bit of a dodgy geezer who solves a puzzle box and opens the gateway to hell. Hideous guardians of the torture chambers of hell, called Cenobites, are responsible for all the souls. Consequently when ...  Read the complete review