Hellraiser
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, and produced by Christopher Figg, based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart. The film marked Barker's directorial debut. Its plot involves a mystical puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic beings who cannot differentiate between pain and pleasure. The leader of the Cenobites is portrayed by Doug Bradley, and identified in the sequels as "Pinhead".
Hellraiser was filmed in late 1986. Barker originally wanted the electronic music group Coil to perform the music for the film, but on insistence from producers, the film was re-scored by Christopher Young. Some of Coil's themes were reworked by Young into the final score. Hellraiser had its first public showing at the Prince Charles Cinema on 10 September 1987. The film grossed $14.6 million.
Since its release, the film has divided critics but generally received praise; initial reviews ranged from Melody Maker calling it the greatest horror film made in Britain, to Roger Ebert decrying its "bankruptcy of imagination". It was followed by nine sequels, the first seven of which featured Bradley reprising his role as Pinhead. A franchise reboot, also titled Hellraiser, was released in 2022.
Plot
In Morocco, Frank Cotton, a hedonist, buys a puzzle box said to open the door to a realm of otherworldly pleasure. At home in his bare attic, Frank solves the puzzle and hooked chains emerge, tearing him apart. A black-robed figure resets the puzzle and the room is restored back to normal.
Later, Frank's brother Larry moves into the same house. He intends to rebuild his relationship with his second wife, Julia. Larry is unaware that Julia had an affair with Frank before her marriage to him. When Larry accidentally cuts his hand moving furniture, his blood drips on the attic floor and resurrects Frank in a ghoulish form. Julia later finds Frank; still obsessed with him, she agrees to help restore his body, so they can run away together. Julia picks up men in bars and brings them back to the attic, where she mortally wounds them. Frank then drains their life, which regenerates his body. Frank explains to Julia that, having exhausted all sensory experiences, he sought out the puzzle box, which was supposed to provide access to a realm of new carnal pleasures. When the puzzle was solved, the "Cenobites" came to subject him to extreme sadomasochism.
Kirsty, Larry's teenage daughter, sees Julia bringing a man to the house and follows her to the attic, where she finds Frank. She evades Frank and escapes with the puzzle box, collapsing shortly after. Awakening in a hospital, Kirsty solves the box out of curiosity, and unknowingly summons the Cenobites and a monster called the Engineer, which she narrowly escapes from. The Cenobites' leader (referred to by fans as "Pinhead") explains that although they have been perceived as both angels and demons, they are simply "explorers" from another dimension seeking carnal experiences, and they can no longer differentiate between pain and pleasure. When they attempt to force Kirsty to return to their realm with them, she informs Pinhead that Frank has escaped them. The Cenobites agree to spare Kirsty and re-capture Frank instead, with the condition that Frank must confess to escaping them.
Kirsty returns home, where Frank has killed Larry and has taken on his identity by wearing his skin. Julia shows her what is purported to be Frank's flayed corpse in the attic. Kirsty then leaves the attic, locking the door behind her. The Cenobites appear and, not fooled by the deception, demand the man who "did this". Kirsty tries to escape, but is held by Julia and Frank. Frank reveals his true identity to Kirsty and, when his sexual advances are rejected, he decides to kill her to complete his rejuvenation. He accidentally stabs Julia instead and drains her without remorse. Frank chases Kirsty to the attic and, when he is about to kill her, the Cenobites appear after hearing him confess to killing her father. Now certain he is the one they are looking for, they ensnare him with chains with hooks and tear him to pieces. Ripping the puzzle box from Julia's dead hands, Kirsty banishes the Cenobites by reversing the motions needed to open the puzzle box. Kirsty's boyfriend Steve arrives and they both escape the collapsing house.
Afterward, Kirsty throws the puzzle box onto a burning pyre. A vagrant who has been stalking Kirsty walks into the fire and retrieves the box before transforming into a winged skeleton-like creature and flying away. The box ends up with the same merchant who sold it to Frank, where he offers it to another customer.
Cast
- Clare Higgins as Julia Cotton
- Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton
- Andrew Robinson as Larry Cotton
- Sean Chapman as Frank Cotton
- Robert Hines as Steve
- Doug Bradley as Lead CenobiteTemplate:Refn
- Nicholas Vince as Chattering Cenobite
- Simon Bamford as Butterball Cenobite
- Grace Kirby as Female Cenobite
- Oliver Smith as "Skinless" Frank / Frank the Monster
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Cenobites
Cenobites are extra-dimensional beings who appear in the novella The Hellbound Heart, the sequels The Scarlet Gospels and Hellraiser: The Toll, and the eleven Hellraiser films. They are from a religious sect in Hell known as the Order of the Gash, describing themselves as "explorers in the further regions of experience", and granting sadomasochistic pleasures to those who call upon them. Author David McWilliam notes that the Cenobites are described in more explicitly sexual terms in the book compared with their depictions in the film adaptations.Template:Sfn Julia, played by Clare Higgins, was Barker's choice to carry the series as its main antagonist after Hellbound, reducing the Cenobites to a background role. However, fans rallied around Pinhead as the breakout character, and Higgins declined to return to the series.Template:Sfn In The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, David McWilliam writes that the Cenobites "provide continuity across the series, as the stories become increasingly stand-alone in nature".Template:Sfn
