I was 10 when horror novelist-turned-director Clive Barker came out with his seminal classic "Hellraiser." My parents were smart enough not to let me go see it in the theater, but I managed to catch it at a sleepover at a friend's house a year or two later. And...wow did it bend my brain backwards.
Certainly "Hellraiser" isn't nearly as transgressive now as it was back in 1987, and to a modern audience inured by extreme horror movies like "Martyrs" and "The Human Centipede" it might even seem a little silly. The special effects certainly don't hold up, and Doug Bradley's Pinhead is one of those iconic images of 80s horror — like Freddy Kreuger and Jason Vorhees — that now probably borders on self parody (countless direct-to-video sequels haven't helped in that regard).
But at the time, this movie was unlike anything that really anyone had attempted in the genre before. Barker is often called the "Godfather of Splatterpunk" for his early contributions to the much-maligned subgenre, but he was always so much further out on a limb than any of his contemporaries (with the possible exception of Joe R. Lansdale), who were mostly content with cranking up the gore and laughing at their own dick jokes. Just compare any random John Shirley or David J. Schow short story to Barker's "In The Hills, The Cities." Barker's weirdo vision — metaphysical, violent, surreal and often unapologetically homoerotic — always kept him in a class of his own.
"Hellraiser" is a case in point. It's equal parts arthouse and grindhouse, and — as dated as it is — Barker crafted some supremely upsetting images that still stick nearly three decades later. We had Lamarchand's Box, the Cenobites, all the hooks and the chains, Frank walking around in a nice button-up and slacks with all his skin flayed off. Barker's concept of Hell existing not as a Lake of Fire where our sins would be punished in a moralistically defined way, but rather as a completely amoral and torturous realm of extreme pain and pleasure that exists beyond human comprehension, took all our mid-80s squeamishness about the rise of previously underground sexual subcultures (like BDSM) and distilled it down to something elemental, erotic and deeply disturbing.
And what the fuck was the deal with the dragon at the end?
Barker's work (particularly in the film world) can be pretty hit and miss. As much as I love his "Nightbreed" (1990), it carries a much more B-movie stank on it than this one does. And "Lord of Illusions" (1995) is basically an interesting failure.
But "Hellraiser" still has something. Hollywood is in development for the inevitable remake now. I don't have high hopes, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.
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