Special

By: Maniac E
Date: April 3, 2011

Hellraiser special

Struck by madness, a man tears apart an enigmatic painting. This act throws him into a strange universe of sex and mutilation …

Begin

This is a piece of an early 80s book anthology called “Books of Blood” by an then unknown writer called: Clive Barker. He made a name for himself writing horror story after horror story. In November 1986 he released “The Hellbound Heart” the book that started his inspiration for what eventually would be called “Hellraiser”. It retains the gory, visceral style that Barker introduced in his series of collected short stories. Barker started getting bigger and bigger and started winning awards for his books. In 1987 the movie “Clive Barkers: Hellraiser” was released and stunned a lot people with its graphic nature and gore. But he not only stunned people for writing the script, but also with his debut as being a director.

Starting off

Barker did some major background stories before actually beginning with Hellraiser. The whole idea was to mix up certain old rituals he found out about and actually do some of these rituals himself. Searching for a doorway to ultimate pleasure of pain. He wanted to create something that could pretty much be a metaphor for our own existence. He wanted to show you a journey of how we as society pretty much want more and more. Beginning as pleasure and ending in your own ultimate sacrifice… your life. Pinhead being ended up being an collection of rituals with spikes in his head and scars in between them to show the people in front of him what real pain can do to somebody.

Hellraiser gore

Gore

Hellraiser became very popular thanks to the style that the movie had. The atmosphere and not to mention the orchestral music make this a creepy and very gory movie for its time. It showed in a completely new light what higher production value can do to an horror movie. The writing is just remarkable. Clive Barker has given us people, humans, planted in their own desires, and determinations, and he tears them apart with fear, pain, death, destruction, and total degradation. The Cotton family are the perfect example of purity, torn to shreds by hate, lust, and anguish, and he takes great glee in showing us all the gory details.

Such a shame

Now many of you know the Hellraiser series so there is no point in getting into the rest of the story. What does concern me is that after three good editions they totally ruined this horror franchise and shamed it in every way possible. People probably think of Hellraiser as a good movie but with shitty sequels. And they are truly right. The movies lost their magic and the gore was sometimes there but the reasons behind the gore were gone. There was no point what so ever in most killings except greed of the people opening the box. In the end after disappointment followed by disappointment it became very quiet around the series until all of a sudden “Hellraiser: Revelations” was announced; a new chapter in a series that really didn’t have much left.

Hellraiser help me

Put it to rest

This new movie is no exception since it will be a straight to dvd release… Yes indeed you are all thinking the same as me WTF! The movie isn’t released yet but the date for it is stated for a September release in 2011. No trailer has been made available yet which to me indicates on a poor quality movie only made to keep the rights with the film company. The myth Hellraiser has been gone and shall stay gone, not giving it the right treatment. And you probably think is that all there is to say? Well no, in 2012 there shall be a remake of the original movie in glorious 3D!! I guess people just don’t know what they want with a real story driven movie like Hellraiser.

hellraiser chatterbox

Remember

Hellraiser was one of the most important horror movies of the 80s and will be remembered like that by fans. Keep in mind that the true Hellraiser spirit is: disturbing, unsettling, and taking the attitude of less is more when it comes to violence and death. Bringing out a story driven horror movie as it was supposed to be from the start. Forget all those other sequels just make sure you never forget the real roots of this franchise.

'Jesus wept.'

Highlight

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