“What is your pleasure, sir?”
Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” is a purely body horror tale about hedonism in its purest and most raw essence. Even today it’s a very erotic, but gruesome tale about the pursuit of pleasures of the flesh and how it links to a breed of entities that may or may not be pure evil. “Demons to some, Angels to others” Pinhead (technically named “Hellpriest”) proclaims is a representation of the how the cenobites reach deep down in to the pits of sexuality and kink. And no human can ever really be prepared to see what the practices of this otherworld army has in store for them.
Sexual deviant Frank inadvertently opens a portal to hell when he tinkers with an ancient puzzle box that he bought while abroad. The act unleashes gruesome beings called Cenobites, who tear Frank’s body apart. When Frank’s brother and his wife, Julia, move into Frank’s old house, they accidentally bring what is left of Frank back to life. Frank then convinces Julia, his one-time lover, to lure men back to the house so he can use their blood to reconstruct himself. Meanwhile Kirsty begins to catch on to the plot, all the while learning the mystery of the mysterious puzzle box.
A lot of “Hellraiser” is an uncomfortable tale about a twisted romance that involves a lot of manipulation, deceit, and inherent sadism that eventually devolves in to vicious violence that transcends reality. Frank seeks to reclaim his body to regain his pleasures of the flesh, Julia wants the pleasure she acquired with her affair with her husband Larry’s brother Frank. All the while Kirsty is venturing in to the Lament Configuration Puzzle Box and is on the verge of learning what the Cenobites represent much to her peril. Concurrently she’s also on the edge of a physical relationship with her boyfriend that elicits desires that she’s not quite sure she’s willing to admit to.
Barker’s debut film explores a lot about hedonism and how it connects to the inherent horror that villains Julia and Frank walk in to. Bondage, BDSM, Sadism, Leather, infidelity, it’s all here. There’s even the implication of Frank willing to cross all lines as he even comes on to his niece. He does so while in the flesh of his brother, her father, Frank. There’s a whole other can of worms, right there. While “Hellraiser” does get a bit too bogged down in the twisted romance of Frank and Julia, Clive Barker’s horror film is still a worthwhile gem dripping in Gothic horror. It also is helped by the strong collective of performances by Ashley Laurence, Claire Higgins, and Sean Chapman respectively.
Most notably, there’s Doug Bradley who is effective in his limited screen time as the mysterious leader of the Cenobites and is absolutely a monster not to be defied. “Hellraiser” is a fascinating horror gem that’s grotesque, erotic, and introduces us to a whole new, perverse breed of monster that preys and feeds off of our base sexual desires.
Playing at the LA&M Film Fetish Forum, Saturday, October 21st at 7pm; it will be co-Presented by Brian Kirst of Big Gay Horror Fan.