Hellraiser

Don't touch it...it opens doors.

            Every drop of blood you spill puts more flesh on my bones.

When I think of Hellraiser, the first thing that comes to mind is the word passion. If you are willing to lure countless horny males into an apartment just to either bludgeon them with a weapon or feed their bloody carcasses to a former lover (the heathen brother to your husband no less..), there has to be a passion in order do so. Sure, it is just plain lust ultimately motivating Julia to perform such ghoulish deeds to humans in order to service Frank with the flesh he needs, the sustenance of sexually charged men, their blood “healing” him.

 This movie could be the first I’ve seen where wood plankboards on a floor actually “drink” blood (spilled from the nail cut wound of Larry) and a body take form (organs and skin underneath the floor left over from Frank after he opened the puzzle box and took the hooks that tore apart his face and body thanks to the cenobites in hell) as a response. Human desire can inflict its will on the weak and Julia is weak in the knees and in her very loins for Frank. Larry stands in Julia and his brother’s way. Frank needs a new disguise, so why not Larry? It isn’t like he cares for his brother. Ashley Laurence would become an icon in her own right, following the screen queen final girl heroine path paved by others, the daughter of Andrew Robinson’s Larry, who catches Julie and Frank in the middle of one of their murder-feed sessions. Those poor boobs think Julie is willing to give them a little nookie, only to suffer the wrath of the hammer and then be subjected to Frank’s draining them for own needs as to produce a body he can hide in.

When you see an opening that has one of the cenobites putting the pieces of a face together like a puzzle (cool prosthetic if you dig that sort of thing) you kind of know what you’re in for. Those spinning pillars with chains, hooks, and pieces of flesh (an ear ripped from a head is hanging from a hook, as an example) also kind of indicate to the viewer that this is a bit of a warped experience ahead for us. Seeing Frank form is incredible considering the budget at Barker’s disposal. The way we see the absence of his outer layer of skin, how vulnerable his body is, and the blood that has yet to receive shelter: it’s an incredible, if more than a bit morbid, sight to see. Quite an accomplishment. 

Oh, no tears please. It’s a waste of good suffering.

While David Bradley would become a star as Pinhead, the cenobite whose head looks like a white pin cushion, in this film, he’s more of a supporting character along with his hellish colleagues. They leave an impression: their body piercings and leather, the obvious pain their clothing attire would cause (and not cease), faces modified by various items sticking in and out, how hooks pull back opening wounds, etc. Their appearance is important in what lies in wait for those who open the box, unknowingly inviting a lot of pain, and must face, there needs to be a “uh oh” that arises when we first see them. You open the box and the flesh will be ripped and you will have a brand new home, regardless if you want to go there or not. 

Frank is a rarity in that he escapes from them thanks to Larry’s blood loss (that open wound is ghastly; his injury really made me wince and squirm). When Larry’s daughter, Kirstie (Laurence), opens the box, her only possible escape is returning Frank to their fold. Because the film is so relegated to primarily the singular location of Larry’s apartment, we aren’t able to see what’s necessarily inside the puzzle box itself (that would come in the next film, Hellbound). There are two great instances where light pokes out of cracks in the walls of Frank’s “abode” and through tiles in a hospital room holding Kirstie (a monster right out of Lovecraft speeds down a corridor towards Kirstie, who doesn’t realize where this leads until she sees it). The entrance of the cenobites and when they are introduced to Kirstie, the film certainly establishes why Frank wants to stay as far away from them as possible.

Kirstie is that rare bird that goes toe to toe with Pinhead and the cenobites multiple times, using her ingenuity and quick (on the spot) thinking to escape their clutches while so many others weren’t so lucky. As the Hellraiser series continued, what started with an inventive concept (a puzzle box which, when opened, unleashes hell, literally, along with chains that extend towards the screen, with intense close-ups of hooks penetrating skin, those that live within its environs seeking new recruits when they are “summoned”) and introduced to us nightmarish figures from a hell envisioned as only Clive Barker could,  each installment started to misuse the character of Pinhead (it had gotten so bad, he seemed to be the only one who showed up) and stories written for characters having little to do with Barker’s film (and the sequel which ties with the first film better that any of the other sequels).   

Several of the later films showed Pinhead like once or twice, condemning a lead character to damnation (or some sweet, sweet suffering if you asked Pinhead), but I’d be hard-pressed to consider them remotely in sync with the first or second film. I do look forward to watching  the four films of the series in order, but not sure I’ll go further..well, maybe Inferno since it has its share of fans. Still, it is rather a relief to go back to the first and see how it all began, remembering the quality of the storytelling, effects, and how the cenobites were used sparingly but effectively. 

The characters, for the exception of father and daughter, are pure evil, but seeing Ashley Laurence as a young woman trying to adapt to her daddy’s wife (ice queen Claire Higgins), catching this bitch while bringing another lamb to the slaughter (Frank, the wolf, actually seems to slurp while taking what he needs from the deceived men begging for their lives and receiving zero sympathy).

The box. You opened it. We came.

 So Laurence takes on not only the cenobites (they seem unwilling to hold up their end of the bargain, trying to catch her as she retreats from the apartment), but both Julia and Frank, as well. Quite the heroine. She has puppy love with a family friend, also (her googly-eyes and “you just might get lucky” smile to him speak volumes without saying a word); the film gives her plenty to do before it’s over. I especially liked how she doesn’t back down from Frank, taking the puzzle box from him, and her scene, bowing before the skinned-alive (and it even gives off this cold steam; it’s really a chilling image) carcass of her father, is rather gut-wrenching. There’s a moment of realization in her eyes, too, when it clicks that the person standing before her is Frank wearing her father’s skin and it does a lot to say how warped everything has become, unimaginable and unspeakable. 

Jesus wept.

And, Andrew Robinson really goes from a supportive and considerate husband, Larry (he treats Julia really well), to the dark-eyed, black-hearted Frank, just oozing sleaze, without a hint of humanity. With all the bizarre and grotesque imagery and make-up effects, there’s this really alluring scene where Laurence is dreaming she enters a room, feathers all about, covering the figure of a body that slowly bleeds through the white; this is recognized as a possible omen to her father’s fate. 

                           We have such sights to show you.

Top it all off with Frank, trapped by the cenobites thanks to Kirstie, about to have his stretched face pulled apart in a great head explosion that only lasts a second. Hellraiser certainly has an audience that can stomach what it offers, but I think it’s easy for us fans of the film to tell those with less-than-reliable nerves to beware.

 I'd be remiss if I failed to mention Christopher Young's score for the movie. It can really do wonders as a tone setter, immediately emphasizing a soaring, rousing quality that provides Hellraiser with quite a jumpstart. Sometimes a low budget horror film can benefit from the right kind of score. This movie certainly does.

We’ll tear your soul apart!