Review of Hellraiser (1987) by Familiar S — 08 Nov 2013

This has more to it than most run of the mill scary movies. It does not the settle for weak jolting surprises and cliches. It is a surprisingly a well written darkly ironic supernatural story of murder, betrayal and fate.

The characters are good and the slow pace seems right, but bad acting and some breakdowns in logic hold the movie back. All of the actors overact and it takes away from what could be decent characters.

The director Clive Barker makes up for some of this with this by keeping the audience on edge with his camera work during standard scenes. The movie had budget concerns that lead to some poor supernatural effects towards the end.

Still, the gruesome visuals and costume design help make up for a lot. This movie gets a lot of the big picture stuff right and is surprisingly enjoyable as a low budget B movie. It is a shame that there was not more money to see this thought to its full potential.

I rarely say this but it is a strong candidate for a reboot. Better effects and better acting could move this up from 80s horror staple to classic horror movie status if done correctly.