HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HELLRAISER! (2007)

Happy Birthday Hellraiser!
by Eric M. Harvey

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the original HELLRAISER. I remember that fall of 1987 very well, having just started the ninth grade. I remember also catching the bus with my best friend, MC Randelhi Fresh, and being dropped off at 6th Avenue and 167th Street, then making the 3 or 4 block trek down to the 167th St. Twin on an overcast Saturday afternoon. HELLRAISER had opened the day before and we’d been waiting for it, especially after the spreads in Fangoria.

Here in 2007, I stumbled across a used copy of HELLRAISER (the collector’s tin Anchor Bay put out with HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II-$5.99!) and figured why not? It had been a long time and it wasn’t in my collection. I spent the next two nights watching both movies and have to ask this question about the original HELLRAISER: How in the hell did this talky gore fest that reeks of a foreign film become such a watershed moment in the horror genre, and most importantly, with mainstream American audiences?

One of its strangest (and endearing) qualities is its look. Anyone familiar with British cinema of the 80’s knows that most of the films of that time have a look that’s very similar, nowhere even remotely what an mainstream American audience would be used to. I’m sure there are some film scholars who could define this look and the reason, but to me, HELLRAISER comes off almost as a TV movie. The American equivalent would be the Universal product of the 70’s such as TWO MINUTE WARNING and THE CAR. I’m very proud that I grew up in a generation that could sit through HELLRAISER and appreciate for what it was, rather than dismissing it due to its lack of flash.

Its lack of flash is also noticeable in its story structure. There’s a lot going on and much of it has nothing to do with Cenobites. In fact, it’s almost a whole hour into the movie before all the Cenobites show up. It takes its time setting up the characters and plot, although there’s many a moment where the damn thing just doesn’t make sense. I still can’t figure out if it’s supposed to be set in England or America (although it goes to great pains to fool you into thinking it’s America, it can’t lose the overly British look and vibe).

What I think sold HELLRAISER was its originality. Clive Barker obviously wasn’t going to settle for the same old horror clichÈs, and created an S&M netherworld that resonated with many a viewer. Most of the film’s sexual overtones (and dysfunction) were way over my head at 13 years of age, but the gore definitely delivered, which is what I was going for at that time anyway.

And in that department, HELLRAISER shows it’s age. Some of the effects (mostly the hooks in skin) are quite crappy, but some are still incredible works of art and quite sickening. The rebirth of Frank Cotton and his sinewy regeneration cycle provide proof of the superiority of prosthetic effects to CGI. Most important, many of these scenes elicit disgust and not for the sake of it alone like some lesser horror films of today (see Eli Roth). Every repulsive scene is integral to moving the story along and conveying the horror experienced by the characters.

After HELLRAISER ended, I had some minor quibbles. Ashley Laurence as Kirsty is quite the terrible actress. There are a lot of moments where it doesn’t make sense, especially in a film that explains a lot at the beginning, then kind of sidesteps other possible questions the audience might have for certain character motivations. And it is quite forgettable. It’s been two days since I’ve watched HELLRAISER and while I remember a lot of it, all of what I remember is rather hazy. Upon thinking about it, I had the same reaction when I was a kid. It was a weird film for me at the time, not similar to the horror films I was used to and while enjoyable, made no real mark on me as it has for others.

What is it now? Seven or eight HELLRAISER sequels, each one getting progressively worse, and ending up a straight to video franchise? They’re quite shit, but very much in demand due to their dumbing down to the lowest common denominator of horror fans. This unfortunate change seemed to happen with the Wilmington, NC lensed HELLRAISER III, which was an American scrubbing away of the foreign-feel associated with the first one and it’s sequel (which is quite good, if not better than the original).

It’s hard to envision the original HELLRAISER being released today theatrically, much less a modest hit that begs for an immediate sequel. What’s even funnier is reading Roger Ebert’s original review, calling it “… a movie without wit, style or reason, and the true horror is that actors were made to portray, and technicians to realize, its bankruptcy of imagination.”

There’s so much imagination going on here that, obviously, Ebert couldn’t process it. Maybe Clive Barker should’ve ripped off some Bergman and tickled Ebert’s snobby bone, guaranteeing a three and a half star review.