Director: Clive Barker
An ancient Chinese puzzle box, demons in S+M outfits, a skinless man, a bum that eats grasshoppers, and enough sexual and religious imagery to send your aunt Ethel into a massive coronary. What does it all mean, you ask? To tell you the truth I’m not really sure, though I will say it makes for a fairly entertaining film. Married couple Larry and Julia have recently moved into an old home that was previously owned (I think) by Larry’s brother Frank. Frank is a sort of criminal/sexual deviant type searching for the most intense pleasure/pain experience one can find. He found all this and more through an ancient puzzle box which, when solved, opens the doors to either the pleasures of heaven or hell. Of course the only side anyone ever gets in these movies seems to be the hell side, and with that comes the “Cenobites”, four demons in nifty leather outfits that would make Judas Priest green with envy.
Their idea of pleasure is to sink about a million fishhooks attached to chains into your flesh as well as other such niceties. Old Franky boy however, has seemed to escape the Cenobites somehow (it’s never explained) and is currently residing under the floorboards of brother Larry and Julia’s new home. He’s under the floorboards because he’s sort of a fetus that needs fresh blood spilled onto him so he can “grow” again. Makes sense to me. This “rebirth” happens when his brother Larry, after cutting himself gushes the red stuff all over the floor. Now, what’s interesting here is that wife Julia once had an affair with Frank, whom she apparently truly loves, and once she finds Frank (sans skin) up in the abandoned room she’s willing to do anything to get him back. We know Julia is real hot for Frank because she sucks on his skinless finger at one point. So to bring her man back to “life”, she lure’s horny middle aged men back to the home while hubby Larry is away, so Frank can drain their blood and get his skin back just in time to get away before the Cenobites track his ass down. Larry’s cute daughter Kirsty gets caught up in the mess, becomes wise to Julia and Frank’s evil plans and…well, you’ll have to watch it to find out. I’m too lazy to type any more about the “plot” of this thing.
“Hellraiser” is an extremely graphic film, the scene of Frank’s resurrection is extremely gooey and messy, good fun there. Loved the scene where a skinless Frank is sitting and smoking a cigarette, very surreal. The scenes of the Cenobites appearing are also nifty, loved the “light through the walls” deal, and all the chains etc. that accompany them. I know the Cenobites are supposed to be bad, but I found myself cheering them on when they finally got a hold of Frank for the fact that his character is such a bastard. In the common sense department lots of things don’t add up, but that’s ok with me. Some examples would be an ancient puzzle box that everyone can open in under 5 seconds, how does the box bring the Cenobites, etc. None of that really matters, but you may find yourself asking these questions all the same. Overall though, common sense or not, I had fun with this one, and that’s all you can really ask for. One last thing, does anyone else think that Kirsty’s boyfriend looks like a member of Culture Club?