OK, before I even say anything, LOL at the cast picture that Flixter has for Clare Higgins. For those that can't see it, it's Clare as Julia getting pounded by Frank from the original "Hellraiser." Seriously, she didn't have ANY acting head shots they could've used? Now THAT made me spit up my cereal.Now that that bit of general merryment is out of the way, on to this week's induction. In the early '80s, a writer named Clive Barker rose to prominence writing primarily short stories, and became what Stephen King himself called "the boldest, best new voice in the horror genre." While I wouldn't go QUITE that far with the praise for Mr. Barker, yes, reading his work is an excruciating (in the good way) task. As a writer, Barker is actually far better than King on a technical basis. His situations are described with such clinical precision that one can actually see the buckets of fake blood that would be heaped upon his gruesome situations if they were to be turned into films (and indeed, many of Barker's stories HAVE been turned into films, including this one, but more on that later). While lots of writers have big vocabularies, Barker has the ungodly gift to make his mosaics of death and sexual orgy easy to read, rather than deal with them in a Rob Zombie fashion and beat you over the head. So A+++ for Clive Barker.
One of the first works published by Barker to gain mainstream acceptance was a novella called "The Hellbound Heart," which told the story of an ancient race of not-quite-demons who wear S&m gear called the Cenobites. The surprisingly human story of "The Hellbound Heart" struck a chord with not only the public, but with executives in Hollywood, who took a risk and granted Barker the opportunity to make his feature film debut as a director. The story of "The Hellbound Heart" would turn into the original "Hellraiser."
Released in 1987, "Hellraiser" is a pretty damn good film, although not quite a classic. There's a couple awkward performances that hurt it, but it's nonetheless an extremely well-shot and faithful adaptation of the novella upon which it is based. In "Hellraiser," the primary villains are not the Cenobites themselves, but rather Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman in an extraordinary sleazy performance), a "seeker of pleasures" in search of the Lament Configuration, a.k.a. the Puzzle Box that houses and eventually unleashes the Cenobites in "Hellraiser" and the 17,000 sequels, and Julia (Clare Higgins), a slutbag engaged to Frank's brother who serves as a sort of "wicked stepmother" to the main protagonist, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence). Frank finds the box at the beginning of the film, at which point the Cenobites come and rip the flesh from his body. Thus begins the main theme of the "Hellraiser" series - you play with matches, you get burned. You wanted the ultimate in pleasure and pain, you got it.
The vast majority of "Hellraiser" is spent focusing on the strange love triangle of Julia, Frank and Larry (Julia's husband and Frank's brother), and Julia's efforts to revive the skinless "monster" form of Frank to his former glory. At the end of the film, Kirsty is successful in banishing the Cenobites back to their world, although the door is left open for a sequel, as Julia was killed by the Cenobites and left some form of herself behind in our world in a manner not unlike Frank himself.
"Hellbound: Hellraiser II" is an infinitely stronger film than the original film, and one of the best horror movies of all time. It essentially does away with everything that didn't work in the original (namely, Robinson's performance as Larry, which is nicely solved since he is no longer alive, and its overreliance on focusing on Kirsty's teenage story), and augments the strengths. While the special effects feel a little dated, visually, it's a feast, with the second half of the film being particularly memorable with its Lovecraftian elements and very vivid vision of a maze-like hell.
Even as a story, "Hellbound" blows away the original film. After the events of "Hellraiser," Kirsty has been taken in by Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham). Kirsty warns all who will listen that the bed Julia died on must be destroyed. This being a horror movie, nobody heeds the warning, and in an extreme example of fate being a motherfucker, Channard himself is in reality a man obsessed with the occult, and in search of the ultimate occult artifact in the Lament Configuration. He even has a mute student with a knack for solving puzzles under his care at his psychiatric hospital for the explicit purpose of opening the box the second he is able to get his grubby mitts on it. Cranham is electric in the role of Channard, and the character STILL stands today as perhaps the best villain in the entire series (since the Cenobites themselves are really the anti-heroes in these original films).
Then there's the man himself, Pinhead, as wonderfully played by Doug Bradley. Pinhead would go on to become a horror icon who, while not quite as luminary as Freddy and Jason, he certainly ranks at a respectable level along with Chucky and Leatherface atop horror's Mount Rushmore. While the third movie would give Bradley far more to do, it essentially turned him into a Freddy Krueger clone with countless one-liners; in these first two movies, Bradley enters, briefly captivates us, and devastates. There is one scene in particular that shows Bradley's mastery of the character toward the end of "Hellbound"; the movie has shown us, in succession, what each of the Cenobites who have terrorized Kirsty throughout two films looked like in their human forms. Bradley is shown without his Pinhead makeup, and simply turns and faces the camera. No dialogue, just a facial expression - but one that says a thousand words about the mental voyage that the character has gone through. Awesome, awesome stuff.
The movie also masterfully reverses the roles of the two hellbound hearts of the original film; while Frank was the tempter in the original, it is Julia who is the temptress this time around. After Channard revives Julia in an amazingly gory and excellent scene which I won't spoil, the movie devotes a considerable amount of time to Julia playing Channard to reach her own goals. Higgins is once again game for her "wicked stepmother" role and delivers a character that we love to hate like no other, particularly impressive since she is covered in "circulatory system" makeup for the vast majority of the film's first half.
The final half of "Hellbound" is essentially the original's finale, only longer, better, and much more grand in scale. But since this time around we have better actors who have done a much more capable job of getting us emotionally invested in the carnage, we don't really mind if it's a been there, done that job. Oh, and Frank Cotton shows up again - indeed, the personal hell that Frank is trapped in seems most appropriate to the way that he lived his life.
"Hellraiser" is a franchise that ties itself to a theme that found its root in Barker's original novella - pleasure, pain, and forbidden fruit - and out of all the films in the series, "Hellbound" is the one that does it best. It's flawlessly executed by director Tony Randel, the performances are tight and focused, the characters are memorable, and even the score does an excellent job enveloping the viewer in the action. Everyone and their dog rightfully talks about John Carpenter's classic "Halloween" theme, but the "Hellraiser" theme has to rank right up there with Carpenter's music and John Williams' "Jaws" theme when it comes to classic horror movie themes. Instantly recognizable and quite awesome.
More than anything, "Hellbound" deserves its place in horror history as one of the greatest "Halloween Day" movies of all time. While it is very grand in scale and epic in scope, it nonetheless feels very confined and tight - perfect for dark-room watching on the best day of the year. As the definitive Pinhead flick, you could certainly do a lot worse on any other day of the year, as well.
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