Hellraiser is an 80s horror movie written and directed by Clive Barker and starring Ashley Laurence, Clare Higgins, Andrew Robinson, Sean Chapman, Oliver Smith, and Doug Bradley.
Jaded sensualist and all-around creep Frank Cotton (Chapman) buys a puzzle box in Morocco, solves it in his decaying family home in...um...America somewhere, definitely not England...and winds up getting torn apart by fishhooks. Some time later, his brother Larry (Robinson) and Larry's wife Julia (Higgins) take possession of the house. The marriage seems strained, and we quickly learn that's because Julia and Frank were having enthusiastic sex sometime in the past, and Julia is still pretty obsessed. Larry, for his part, seems a decent guy and is just trying to get on with their life.
Through a series of wacky, bloody, mishaps, Frank is summoned back from hell as a monster (now played by Smith), and Julia goes about procuring more blood for him by seducing guys and murdering them in the attic. Larry's daughter Kirsty (Laurence) witnesses this, winds up stealing the puzzle box and fleeing, and solving it, summoning the Cenobites (led by Pinhead, played by Doug Bradley here and for the next seven movies) and eventually sending Frank back to hell.
Watching Hellraiser again, I can totally see the telltale marks of a movie directed by someone who knows storytelling but not filmmaking. What's on screen is important and explicit, but I do come away thinking that I'm not entirely sure what's going on (felt the same way after Nightbreed, as I think about it). I do enjoy that it's not really the Cenobites who are the antagonists, here. Sure, they're monsters from Hell, but they only show up when you invite them, and they were at least willing to consider not taking Kirsty to Hell even after she solved the box, so that was polite of them, even if they later decided she had to go, too.
But it's things like the mysterious bug-eating vagrant (Frank Baker) stalking Kirsty and then grabbing the box and turning into a big old skeletal demon...like, what? What are we supposed to take away from that? I'm sure if you've read the novella it makes more sense, but books are for nerds, and knowing what to cut and what to simplify is a big part of changing a story's format from page to screen.
With all of that said, it's a fun horror movie. Small cast, tight focus, obviously a labor of love for Barker. 80s as hell, especially the Gozer-like hairdo that Julia's rocking.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Sabrina
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