by When a film spawns more sequels and prequels than anyone could ever watch or, in this case, count, there must be something about it. A certain appeal that defies drawing simple conclusions. You would even assume the film and anything that came along in its tide is appreciated because it features all the characteristics of a classic. And then again, there are films live Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER, a film based on his own novella THE HELLBOUND HEART (1986). Barker’s, success both in film and publishing cannot be denied, and yet after over 30 years of its making, you wonder what people see when they’re watching this ostensible horror classic.
The story is easily told, if not understood thoroughly. A man with no back story or qualities or motivation goes to an oriental market to buy a mysterious puzzle box. For what reasons? For reasons unknown and never disclosed to the viewer. For simplicity’s sake, it might be assumed this box possesses some certain powers drawing potential victims into its realm. Back home in Great Britain later changed to America, that same man retreats to the basement of his former childhood home, twisting and turning the box to solve the puzzle. At the chance of giving away any vital information to future viewers, to solve the puzzle, you lift and make a quarter turn, then push back down. Puzzle solved. What this triggers is frankly hard to grasp. A portal opens up, connecting reality to hell or purgatory or wherever it is the so-called Cenobites reside. These powerful demons have one obligation: tear you apart for. Why? Well, you guessed it - no particular reason whatsoever.
What Barker then feels obliged to show is supposed to be explicit, and it certainly is not only within the context of its era. There’s a lot of flesh and blood, nails, chains, hooks, wooden apparatuses moving like wind plays in front of a dark background. Somehow it is to be assumed that poor Frank was dismantled to detain his soul in hell. But none of this is genuine horror. First, why should we even care for a man’s soul if we don’t even know who he is and what he left behind on earth? Second, violence, as explicit as it may be, is never horror just for its own sake. The violence and masochism in HELLRAISER only speaks to a very primitive human fascination with death and violence and afterlife. And maybe even to the psychopathic fascination with having control over other beings through torturing them.
As not to end the film on this note after approximately fifteen minutes, Frank is revived by the blood of his brother seeping into the building as he is moving himself and his wife to the old castle. Nothing of real importance then happens until the grand finale, with the Cenobites actually entering this world. The Cenobites, while never explained, ostensibly strive for masochism, they’re powerful and can control dimensions and the elements. What they cannot do is go where they please without someone solving the puzzle, but then that’s just a note on the side. Whatever made them create themselves and gain god-like powers is undisclosed to us, proving the fact that this film is only supposed to be the 80s equivalent to a “freak show” or PT Barnum’s fake artifacts. Add to that the repetitiveness of the plot, the lack of suspense and conclusion, the uninteresting “characters” and questionable set design and creativity and the result is a disappointing film. Nothing more, nothing less. And Doug Bradley as Pinhead defies any conceivable explanation as well.
The box. You opened it. We came.
Pinhead
Even though known as The Priest in this film, the man’s appearance is as redundant as his name may suggest. There’s hardly anything shocking about a man dressed for a Goth concert with clipped-off nails glued to his face doing hardly anything more than chasing people by strolling at a leaned-back pace and speaking with a booming voice, saying nothing comprehensible. To Bradley’s credit, not much could be done about this lead Cenobite with no supporting story giving him motivation, thus reason to be in this film. At the same time, it is difficult to understand what his performance could be praised for. It is this absence of motivation, one of the assets of conventional horror as it isn’t fathomable why all this violence had to happen, that proves HELLRAISER is a failure as a film. What we see is driven by gruesome snapshots hastily pasted together. Only they never add up to anything.
HELLRAISER willingly and effectively centers on speaking to man’s inner and primitive instincts. By doing that, it is modestly successful in attracting the attention of anyone seeking the most simple form of entertainment comparable to the ancient beast fights or death matches between gladiators. Horror, action and visuals are vulgar and bereft of genuine creativity. If anything, HELLRAISER proves that art of any form is invariably redundant when it only pretends to yield expression. Any kind of expression. Worse than the fact that Barker made a film that shouldn’t be referred to anyone is that it spawned plenty of equally-bad prequels and sequels.
