Review of Hellraiser (1987) by Ian B — 21 Oct 2016

By the late 80's the horror genre was in a bit of a downfall after the slasher boom that preceded it. We still got a few classics towards the end of the decade and one of the best was Clive Barker's Hellraiser.

Adapted from his own novel, The Hellbound Heart, this low budget shocker never enjoyed the mainstream success that fellow franchises like Halloween and Friday the 13th saw for very obvious reasons. Hellraiser is an extremely gruesome film with some truly haunting imagery, but it's also smart enough to build a good story around all the gore.

It works as a horror film, a dysfunctional family drama and a sadomasochist nightmare all rolled into one. There are plenty of nasty moments (even by today's standards), but the film also has some wonderful cinematography, strong performances, a terrific score, and, obviously, introduced us to one of the genre's most memorable villains in Pinhead.

Clive Barker created a horrific work of art with Hellraiser, and perhaps the best compliment one can say is that all these years later there's still absolutely nothing else like it.