"Ah the suffering, the sweet suffering."
Pinhead, Hellraiser II: Hellbound

Finally I've gotten around to starting this. Directed by Clive Barker, the original Hellraiser debuted in 1986. It was based on a novella he wrote: The Hellbound Heart. It marked the reemergence of true horror in the the genre, pushing it into new themes of terror and away from the hack and slash gore of the movies being produced at that time. Stephen King would say, "I have seen the future of horror, and his name is Clive Barker." And so was Hellraiser released.

Larry and Julia cotton had just moved into a new house, lived in once by Larry and his brother Frank. As they are moving in, Julia has visions of her affair with Frank before her wedding with Larry. Kirsty, Larry's daughter, helps them move in, but before they can completely move in, Larry cuts his hand open on a nail. He goes to get Julia to take him to a hospital, and his blood spills on the floor. As they leave, Frank is woken from the other side because of the blood. When Julia comes back, she meets Frank in the damp room. He tells her that to heal his dessicated body he needs more blood. She recalls that she told him she'd do anything for him and keeps her promise. She brings more men, and after the third, Kirsty finds Frank in the damp room. They struggle and Kirsty manages to get a hold of a puzzle box, which opens a gate to Hell and frees the cenobites, mutilated parodies of man. She runs out of the house and collapses on the street. Waking in the hospital, she begins to toy with the box. She frees the cenobites, and in exchange for her life, she offers to lead them to Frank. I'm not going to ruin the ending for everyone though.

The scene in the hospital where Kirsty meets the cenobites is my favorite one. I love the quotes in that particular scene, "I want to hear him confess." "Nobody escapes us." "Because if you don't, we'll tear your soul apart." The lighting in the scene was well done, and the smoke was used to a great benefit, making it appear as if they were in a different world, but the hospital was still there, so you knew that it wasn't. The cenobites were given a certain majestic feel in the lighting.

Hellraiser II: Hellbound comes in where the original left off. Kirsty Cotton wakes up and finds she is in a mental hospital. She tells the psychologists there about the cenobites, Frank, and Julia, and one of them, Dr. Channard, takes particular interest. Kirsty befriends one of the younger psychologists, Kyle, and he tells her about Tiffany, a girl who doesn't speak, but is consumed with the solving of puzzles. Channard finds several referances in texts to Pinhead and the Lament Configuration (the box pictured at the top of the page and in the borders). Kyle begins to snoop around Channard's house one day to see why Channard was so interested in Kirsty's story. Channard enters with one of the mental patients and Kyle hides. Channard then proceeds to place the patient on a bloodied mattress, the place where Julia died in the first movie. He gives the patient a barber's razor and the patient begins to cut himself, thinking that he'll get some hallucinatory maggots off of his body. His blood falls onto the mattress, and Julia rises from it. She kills the patient and leaves Channard in awe. Kyle sneaks out and get back to the hospital to tell Kirsty what he saw. That's where the movie realy begins.

My favorite scene in this movie was the standoff between the cenobites and Dr. Channard. The lighting is well enough, nothing too special, though it isn't harsh at all, so it doesn't destroy anything, it's just there. The scene looks great though, with the chains hanging down from the ceiling and the torture pillars standing erect in this scene (another scene in the first movie shows them spinning, but they're quite shaky) while spinning. The cenobites look incredibly intimidating in this scene, though Channard in his new form inspires quite a bit of fear. And the looks on Tiffany's and Kirsty's faces seem show true fear. It's a great scene.

Well, those are the two Hellraiser movies by Clive Barker, the more respectable ones as it were. I own both of course, and they are my two favorite movies. If I could offer more I would, but once again, I'm limited in my space.