It takes a lot for me to invest in a new “Hellraiser” movie as they’ve all but quit trying to give us anything new or interesting. Thankfully director David Bruckner is up to the task of offering not just a new story but a new take on the Cenobites. Despite the troubling title (This “Hellraiser” is not so much a remake, or sequel, but kind of a reboot…?), David Bruckner’s “Hellraiser” film is really quite good. It’s dripping in suspense and terror, and finally brings some mystique to the Cenobites once again. The Cenobites are pure terror on two legs with “Hellraiser” and Bruckner doles out some twisted machinations of the Lament Configuration.
Tag Archives: Clive Barker
Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)
Allegedly Gary J. Tunnicliffe originally drew up a script for a “Hellraiser” movie which he then retooled in to an indie horror film after it was rejected. Later his concept was reworked in to a “Hellraiser” movie as a means of keeping the series in motion. Without the bits about the Cenobites, “Judgment” feels like a cheap “Seven” knock off about a serial killer that weaponizes the ten commandments instead of the seven deadly sins. It feels like a movie that was made in 2002 with choppy editing and murky directing that made it feel like a music video for Evanescence or System of a Down.
Hellraiser (1987) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]
“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.
Five Dark Fantasies You Can Watch In Place of “New Mutants”
If ever there was an argument to be made about movies being cursed, there is “New Mutants.” This is a movie that even people that don’t like superhero movies will be re-visiting for decades, discussing how it has such a streak of bad luck, it’s become kind of heartbreaking by now. Reshoots, delays, rewrites, shelving, postponing, delaying, and the big Marvel purchase of FOX studios have made “New Mutants” one of the modern Hollywood disaster stories.
It’s a great premise, based on the climax of a great movie like “Logan,” that promised a brand new direction to a beloved Marvel series, that definitively closes the FOX “X-Men” movies and features a great cast of dynamic young stars like Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor Joy and the like. And it almost seems like we’re never going to see it until Disney breaks down and finally decides to put it on their streaming service.
The indefinite postponing on April 3rd to TBD, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic has struck “New Mutants” once again, infuriating fans. But until Disney decides to release the movie finally, if ever, here are five great dark fantasies you can watch to fulfill the appetite.
Lord of Illusions (1995): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
I appreciate what Clive Barker set out to do with “Lord of Illusions” by introducing us to Harry D’Amour, a reluctant private eye who’d be thrown in to horrifying situations that far outstretched mobsters and cheating wives. In “Lord of Illusions,” Scream Factor gives Barker the chance to present audiences with the director’s cut. This new cut is longer, re-edited, and given a heavier emphasis on the neo-noir crime investigation by D’Amour that leads him to the front door of a satanic wizard that intends to destroy the world, and everything in it. I really wish I could have seen what D’Amour would get in to in future cases. Perhaps the cenobites? Something Lovecraftian?
Five More Underrated Horror Heroines
In 2012 we listed ten of our favorite Horror Heroines that we consider underrated. This year we thought we’d list five more very underrated horror heroines that risked life and limb for their family, or for a cause battling against a monster, demon, or some kind of alien. They’re gorgeous, strong, and prove you can be the final girl in a horror movie and not be at the mercy of pure evil. It’s really tough to find female characters in horror that are heroic and not just final girls. There’s a ton of final girls, but not many heroines, however we were able to find five we loved that also were conveniently enough, heroines until the very end.
Nightbreed (1990): The Director’s Cut [Blu-ray/DVD]
Thanks to the advent of home entertainment and a wonderful company like Scream Factory, director Clive Barker is finally able to realize his original vision for the cult horror film “Nightbreed.” While the film itself has gained momentum and respect over the years as a dark and morbid tale of monsters from the underworld facing human cruelty, Barker’s experience making the movie was a bitter one he often recollected with anger and sadness. With his Director’s Cut, he’s not only able to salvage old footage that he was forced to edit out of his narrative, but he re-structures “Nightbreed” in to practically an entirely new movie. One that’s better than the original cut.