I’ve only seen Hellraiser 2-3 times. I have never really been very impressed by it. I know, I know. I’m a horror fan and I’m supposed to love these films. Well, that is why I am back to give Hellraiser a focused viewing. There are 10 of these mother fucking movies, and I intend on watching at least 9 of them. I’m still trying to get a copy of the 9th film.
I know that Clive Barker wrote and directed this and I really love Candyman, which is another Clive Barker project. There are a lot of cool elements in these films. The concept is cool and I love the puzzle. I love some of the ideas presented. I am hoping to find something in this first film that makes me excited to trudge through this incredibly long franchise. Either way, I’m doing it, but I would prefer to have fun while doing it, and doing it well.
A quick look over the cast tells me that all of the main people’s career highlights was this film. Oh boy. Well, the guy who plays Larry was also in Child’s Play 3. Fucking A, that just made me feel worse. I have a few small pieces of chocolate chip cookie dough at my side. I will say that I love Motorhead’s song called Hellraiser. I guess it is time to raise some Hell, right? Let’s start Hellraiser.
Start Film
I like this opening music. That’s a plus. How long do I have to wait before I meet Frank? I never remember shit about this film, but I remember Frank. Go figure. Frank is in the first scene. Awesome, and he has some dirty ass fingernails. He buys the puzzle box and the Moroccan man who sells it to him says that the box was always Frank’s. Frank solves the puzzle. What was his reward, you ask? His body gets torn to small pieces by hooked chains. Some times later, a man in a black robe comes to reset the puzzle box and the room goes back to normal. That seems fair.
Larry, Frank’s brother, now owns the house along with his wife, Julia. I already dislike Julia. She has resting bitch face syndrome. He wants to show the house to Kristy before they do much to it. He thinks that she will love it. The phone rings and Larry says “What the hell was that?” Sir, are you unfamiliar with telephones? Kirsty calls and says that she found a room and he seems disappointed that she won’t come to live there. Frank has some kinky pictures. Frank was the man.
Why are the moves looking at Julia like she’s a fine piece of ass? Am I missing something here? Okay Kent, just try to enjoy the film. Kirsty is there. I hate that spelling. I may just call her Kristy. It’s a better spelling. Julia still misses Frank and clearly misses him. She has flashbacks of her time with Frank and him kissing her and then getting freaky before the wedding. Her hair was nicer when it was long. She wanted Frank so badly. While she is having flashbacks, Larry cuts the bak of his hand badly on a nail while trying to move a bed upstairs. He is bleeding so much and the floor is just drinking it all in. While they all go to get him stitches, some crazy shit happens in the one room and this shit is pretty awesome. Franks is being reformed as a skinless corpse.
At dinner, Julia is the wet blanket and kisses all the men except Larry. Haha, I admit that I found that funny. Julia finds the corpse, it’s Frank. Larry’s blood helped resurrect him that much. So naturally, he needs Julia to get him more bodies for Frank to drain or whatever the hell the deal is to get him back. Apparently Frank fucked her so good that he is worth the potential murders despite being married to Frank’s brother. Frank may want Kirsty.
Julia hits up a bar and lures this guy back to the house. He asks about the bedroom and she prefers to do it on the floor. He’s wearing tighty whiteys. She hammers him a few times and Frank tells her not to look at him so she leaves the room to clean up and change out of the bloody clothes. Hey, Frank is improving already. He wants to touch her. Larry is now home. How is Julia strong enough to carry a corpse, even if it has been drained? Like, she had no issues picking it up.
Frank needs one or two more because his nerves are starting to hurt them. It needs to be fast because he is trying to avoid the Cenobites. The creepy dude in the animal store was fascinating. Julia gets another guy and Frank gets to feed again. Frank is now smoking and wearing a shirt. He can finally taste again. Frank explains the situation with the box. Basically, the Cenobites did some sadomasochistic torture and pleasure. Frank escaped and now needs his body back.
Frank almost kills Larry due to some stupidity but nothing really comes of it. Frank demands another body. This time, Kirsty sees Julia bring the man into the house. Kirsty breaks into the house. Julia sees her. Kirsty sees the man who is struggling to survive. Frank and Kirsty have a showdown. She picks up the puzzle box and throws it through the window and she bails. She grabs the box on the way out. She had a bad time and stumbles away until she faints or passes out.
She awakes in a hospital bed. Kirsty plays with the puzzle box and she just unlocked the puzzle. The wall in the hospital room just opened and then is a long-ass corridor that looks completely safe to navigate. And she hears screams, so keep walking it. I hope that I am not supposed to like this girl because I don’t. Some weird creature or demon thing is chasing her now. It is awesome looking but has small arms. She makes it back to her room to mess with the puzzle. All kinds of crazy shit happening. The walls turn black, the TV is weird, her IV fills with blood. And a Cenobite appears in her room, the Chatterer. Then Pinhead, the Butterball Cenobite, and the female Cenobite also appear. Pinhead is the talker of the group. So she offers to give up Frank to the Cenobites to save her own ass. Good for her. But I’d prefer that she gets tortured, if I am being honest.
Larry has really nice eyes. Kirsty visits and wants to see her father. Frank has killed Larry and is wearing Larry’s skin. She demands to see Frank. Julia brings Kirsty into the room where Larry is a skinless corpse. The Cenobites show up and want the man who did this. She says that they can’t have her father. Kirsty and Julia have a struggle. Frank gives himself away by saying “Come to daddy”. She rips some of the flesh from his face. Julia holds Kirsty and Frank grabs his knife and goes to stab Kirsty but stabs Julia instead, accidentally. So he drains Julia and is stalking Kirsty.
She is trying to hide but makes way too much noise. Haha, ump scare of sorts. This is what happens when you listen through headphones, are typing, and then look up at the worst time. Frank eventually finds her and the Cenobites show up. The chains are coming out. Frank is mad about being set up and goes to attack Kirsty, but the chains stop her. Before Frank is completely torn apart, he still gets one last line in. Kirsty tries to escape but female Cenobite ain’t having that. She gets the box from Julia and does the box and sends the Cenobites away. The house is falling apart. Her boyfriend shows up there to try to help her. Ohhh, Chatterer, and Butterball are still there. She sends Chatterer back. The house falls on Butterball. She needs to send Butterball back. The short-armed creature is there as they open the door to leave. She does more with the box and vanquishes the “Engineer”. But isn’t Butterball still around?
There’s a lot of fire and Kirsty tosses the box into the flames. The crazy homeless dude from the animal shop shows up. He walks into the fire and grabs the box. He then transforms into a winged skeleton and flies away. The fuck? The original seller of the box asks a new man what his pleasure is. That’s how you make some serious money!
End film
Okay, I enjoyed this film significantly more this time around. There were parts where I was still a little bored, but I mostly liked this experience. I have to be honest though, compared to a lot of the horror franchises, I didn’t love this. Still, the positives outweighed the negatives. I remembered why I loved Frank so much.
I wonder if when this came out, if people cared more about Frank, Kirsty, or the Cenobites. The Cenobites were so fascinating but not a lot of screen time. This film truly belonged to Frank and Julie, in my opinion. I am sure later on that the Cenobites become the main attraction, at least to an extent.
You can see how this can be turned into a franchise quite easily, and that was smart. I am curious if they go further down the path of sexuality or not. Horror fans are total pervs, so that would make some sense to me. I think I have seen Parts 2 and 3 a long time ago and remember nothing. So I am curious.
Rating: – 6.4 – That seems about right for me. I could go a little higher but I disliked the 2 main females and I wanted to like Larry, but he was too weak for my liking. It was difficult to really love any of the characters aside from Frank who was a horrible person.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Cinemarque Entertainment BV
Film Futures
Rivdel Films
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