Hellraiser Discussion Thread,All things Pinhead...

I`ve been a horror fan for a while,and have seen all most every slasher/ghoul movie. Well only recently I was introduced to the Hellraiser series.I was pleasantly surprised. Hellraiser was an awesome story,and today I rented Hellraiser III,it is pretty cool too,making Pinhead the main villian. Discuss Clive Barker's Hellraiser series here...

 

...well, admittedly i've only seen the first 3 Hellraiser films..

I've enjoyed the 3, of course.. They're among the more deliriously imaginative horror entries...No surprise, of course, with Clive Barker as the man who conceived this stuff.. Mr. Barker has a wicked imagination..

Of the 3, i'd have to say that the most well-made film is the original "Hellraiser"..Very gory, yet also very romantic..


However, for whatever reason, my favourite of the series is "Hellbound: Hellraiser II"...For whatever reason, i just love the way that Hell is depicted in this one..

"Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth" was a serviceable entry, but after that one...I dunno.. I lost track of the Hellraiser films.. If i'm not mistaken, there's at least 5 other entries that have pretty much gone direct to video..


Well, not entirely true.. I can remember "Hellraiser: Bloodlines" getting a theatrical release... I kept telling myself i had to go see it, but to date still haven't pulled it off..Heard some bad things about it, but then again.. As i'm learning lately, most critics just don't get horror films, so maybe it's worth a look..

After "Bloodlines", we seem to have:

"Hellraiser: Inferno"

"Hellraiser: Hellseeker"

"Hellraiser: Deader"

"Hellraiser: Hellworld"

Cripes, until looking this up, i didn't realize we were up to Hellraiser 8!

Eventually, i'll probably wind up renting this at blockbuster on a rainy night, or something...

I'm a completist, what can i say..

If you like the films, you may want to check out the book upon which "Hellraiser" is based: Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart".

 

I didn't know there were so many beyond the fifth one, which I have not seen.

I've been a fan for a long time, delving into the comics as well. There are some bad/boring stories in them, and then there are what could be classics of horror in them.

I think the 5th film was the made better as far as quality and so forth, but my fav is a toss up between the first and the forth.

I really didn't care for the third film except for the scene where Pinhead resurfaces and his line later on "I...am the way!" I believe the scuplture that encased Pinhead was called The Pillar of Tears.

I could see Pinhead, Hannibal Lector, and Darth Vader dining together.

 

I believe number 6 is generally considered the best of the direct-to-video bunch. Considered better than number three and four, too, I think.

I do believe that Clive Barker's written a story in which his recurring character D'amour (from "The Last Illusion" and <i>Everville</i>, etc.) kills Pinhead. Not to stop them from making movies, but just to show that he himself is done with the character.

 

That'd be interesting Mastadge,from what I`ve heard the next entry is about Pinhead being brought to life on the internet

 

I`m going to the video store to get another Hellraiser sequel today...

 

I that the Doug Bradley film?

 

hellraiser II is one of the first movies i remember seeing. my brothers were pretty into horror (and clive barker in general). i've seen 1, 2, 3, 4, and i think the one called hellseeker. only 1 and 2 were good. i hated 3. it had the stupidest cenobites. 4..i don't remember that well..just hellraiser in space, which seemed silly to me. i borrowed hellseeker awhile back from a friend and didn't care for it either.

my first ever screen name years and years ago was cenobite.

 

I that the Doug Bradley film?

Doug Bradley has played Pinhead in every Hellraiser movie so far...

 

Up I`ve just learned that Region 2 has gotten a Hellrasier boxset loaded with extras. If anyone has seen it please tell

 

If you like the films, you may want to check out the book upon which "Hellraiser" is based: Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart".

honestly, i think that everything good about the entire Hellraiser mythos is encapsulated in The Hellbound Heart. i just don't think any of the movies (even the first one) really do it justice in the end, and the same goes double for all the comics and whatnot. i think Barker and those after him got lost in creating a whole mythology and wedging the square peg of the Cenobites into the round hole of "horror villains," and totally dropped the core of the work, which is the relationship between pain and ecstasy in the mystical sense, and the fear of ego death inherent in that.

for an interesting perspective on the total fiasco of the making of Hellraiser, the movie, i recommend the book England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground. in one section, it details Barker's involvement with John Balance and Sleazy Christopherson, better known as electronic musicians Coil, from Coil's perspective. basically, Barker was introduced to the sadomasochistic and the modern primitive material he mined for Hellraiser through Coil. the movie was originally more collaborative with the members of Coil, who were originally supposed to provide the soundtrack, but New Line made Barker ditch Coil, move to Hollywood, and drop some of the more esoteric/avant-garde elements in favor of more conventional elements.

John and Sleazy are understandably a little bitter about the whole thing, and sort of sneer at what Hellraiser became ultimately, which (to them) is a watered-down Hollywood version of things the British occult/sexual underground had been doing better for years.

i wouldn't be quite so damning, but if you're interested in Hellraiser, you might want to check out some of the material from the scene that inspired it, like Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Coil, Whitehouse, Merzbow, Derek Jarman, etc, and their antecedents from Pasolini to Lautremont.

 

up

 

Thanks Mastadge

Hellraiser Deader came out on the 7th,I bought it

It`s an interesting movie,for the fans of Pinhead he gets about 4 minutes screen time max but it`s all right.

Deader had a very interesting concept.It had some chills especially when Amy finds Marla.The movie feels and looks like a DTV but I don`t really mind,it still packs a powerful punch.It has scenes that rival the orignal especially the first Deader ritual with the girl and the handgun.I liked that Pinhead wasn`t the main villian he had a good sized part but it wasn`t central to the story.The downfall of the movies is that some of the plot is hard to understand especially Winter,he was an interesting character but I don`t like the way his story wasn`t fully explained.Pinhead of course was great as usual,and the ending scene with the cenobites is ****ing awesome,Enough to drool over hehe.The acting was really good too.All in all the only problem for me was that some of the story was weak.

***/****

I rented Inferno too,I was pleasantly surprised it was better than Bloodline and Hell on Earth,I have to watch Hellseeker later today