Review of Hellraiser (1987) by Miguel A — 07 Nov 2014

I loved this. Very original monsters, loved the puzzle cube idea, and this was legitimately scary (very impressive for 1987!). I loved how it explored the darkest side of how far someone will go to satisfy their obsession for sexual gratification.

There was a great grounding in reality after that dreadfully gorey opening, which was important. A gore fest is not effective and it's not fun to watch unless it's used to good effect and this movie pulled it off. Having believable strained relationships between husband/wife, father/daughter, and daughter/stepmom grounded this movie enough that it felt like real world people who live normal lives coming across an absolutely grisly string of events and that makes it feel terrifying as opposed to just messed up.

There were some really great shots here too, and some spectacular practical fx. The Cenobytes were a horrifically beautiful, and Frank's revival was disgusting and incredible.

I liked the open ended ending too. I didn't feel cheated at all by it. Rather I was more excited by it, which is rare for open ended endings.