Day 10 of Halloween - Hellraiser

Jason: Considered to be one of the modern classics of horror that came out in the 80’s, Hellraiser is a beautiful marriage of sick effects, intriguing plot, and gorgeous cinematography. This first film in the franchise explores the consequences of digging too deeply into forbidden pleasures. The character of Pinhead (who wasn’t originally called Pinhead, but Priest in early drafts) and the rest of the Cenobites in this movie are intriguing to me. More so in this film than in the sequels, they represent a neutral force who are only there to give people what they truly desire. It wasn’t until the sequels started rolling out that they became more bent on… well, raising hell. But in their beginnings here, they represent nothing more than the ultimate conclusion of one’s own choices. I think that is a unique look at the main monster of a movie in this genre at this time. In a market saturated by psycho killers who are out for nothing but blood and chaos, to have the Cenobites be neutral is an interesting dynamic.

Looking at the aesthetic of this film is remarkable. The whole thing was shot for a mere million bucks. Even in the late 80’s a million was a small budget, especially for an effects heavy horror film. They were able to accomplish so much with so little and created a movie that has withstood the test of time. Mostly. The shiny rotoscoped blue light at the end came out looking pretty shabby but considering it was hand animated over the course of one weekend by two guys in an apartment, I can forgive it. Practical effects, make-up, set design and dressing, the whole thing is very well done from a technical standpoint.

Alls I gotta say is I kinda want a Lament Configuration puzzle box. Not to solve, but ya know, just to have.

Joel: The Hellraiser series tends to get lumped in with other slasher series like Friday the 13th and Halloween, pretty much because it has a high number of sequels (there are nine Hellraiser movies) and has an easily identifiable main antagonist that appears in each movie, in this case, Pinhead. Maybe later movies in the series justify that reputation, but this first one really doesn’t for starters it’s not just Pinhead, but Pinhead and Friends (called Cenobites) who torture people in this movie. And It isn’t really a slasher movie as the supernatural characters don’t do any of the killing. It’s clear that there is a basic slasher formula that this movie doesn’t even come close to following. It fits better with The Re-Animator from yesterday, with its bizarre 80s monster designs. Not to say it isn’t good, just not what I expected. It’s not the tale of demonic characters who torture or terrorize people who had the misfortune to find a puzzle box. Instead, the real villain of the story is Frank, the man who called forth the Cenobites for his own personal, selfish reasons, and then would go on to kill and encourage others to kill again for his own selfish gains. It was a bit of a nice surprise to see a movie where there are several different creepy torture themed characters, the real evil character is still a plain old human.

Chris: Cenobits? Wasn’t that something on Burger King’s breakfast menu? I’m getting to the point where I can’t identify what movie on this list is worst than the other but this one is pretty far down there. I was more terrified at the acting than I was toward anything actually happening in the movie. And I understand that horror movies aren’t going to be Oscar-worthy performances in most cases but still, this was just awful. I’m honestly surprised anybody in the cast was able to find work after this movie was released. 3-6-1