Hellraiser

 

Date Of Release: September 11th 1987 (UK) and September 18th 1987 (US).

Director: Clive Barker

Producer: Christopher Figg

Starring: Doug Bradley, Andrew Robinson, Ashley Laurence, Claire Higgins, Sean Chapman.

Running Time: 93 minutes

Distributor: New World Pictures



Review

I like to call myself a life long fan of this movie (considering that it was released the year I was born!). Through your life, you will have many films that you remember, but there will always be a few that really stick with you. This is how I feel about this movie. I watched it (too) young and it has always stuck with me. I dare say that I had nightmares about it, I watched it with my father one night (as we always watched horror movies together, despite my age!) and I remember thinking about it for weeks after. I was scared of it at first but them became curious about the story. I believe that was what started my long life love for horror.

This film is the epitome of 80's horror. The effects aren't the most amazing ones you will ever see but for what it lacks in that, it makes up with gore. If there was ever a line in the horror world, Clive Barker was not afraid to over step it! The film has a very dark, industrial feel to it (and I do not mean the music genre), full of dark colours, metal effects and chains....lots of chains. This leads to one of my favourite parts of the film, where one of the characters gets ripped apart by chains. Gruesome, I know, but something I had not seen done before. Like I said before, it sticks with you. An example of this would be from my darling boyfriend. He watched the film while eating a bowl of Cinnamon Grahams. The film freaked him out and now every time he smells cinnamon, he associates it with the movie....got to love a scaredy pants!



 

The film also dealt briefly with the subject of sadomasochism. Obviously, I did not know what that was when I was younger, but as I got older I learned and in doing that, I realised how clever the film actually was. We all know what a brilliant writer Barker is, and true to his talent, he managed to portray his vision of this world perfectly in this movie. I haven't read the book that the movie was based on yet, and no doubt when I do I will be envisioning these characters. Usually that would annoy me but I love Barkers imagination so much that I won't let it bother me.

Considering how popular the movie is and how much of a cult status it has accumulated over the years, it is hard to believe that when it was first released, it received mixed reviews. I bet those reviewers are kicking themselves a bit now. It has one of the most popular horror characters, one of the most famous quotes and one of the most famous authors as a director.....safe to say that it is a famous film...

Rating: 9/10 - Lets watch this, drink some beers then raise some hell!!!