It was a dark and stormy night ... well really it was just windy. Oh and it was dark too, it being night and all. But it was certainly stormy a bit farther north what with Sandy and well anyway ... there was a math professor who sat down to watch a movie. But not just any movie. No it was a -Duh Duh Duh- Halloweeeeen Classic! Muhahahaha. Ahem sorry, welcome back everyone, Zach is back (That is, I am back, hm), the blog is back, and back with one of my all time favorite features to do. Something I couldn't let pass, no matter how busy I got. That's right, the one where I gush over an old scary movie, and hey, this one's actually scary. A Clive Barker joint coming at you from 1987 it's "Hellraiser."
So, let's see? "Hellraiser" is actually a tad dreary. At its core it's about a loveless marriage and about the secrets the wife, Julia, keeps from her husband Larry. I feel that's the core to the whole story, and what makes it work. See, this couple moves into an old family home, one that Larry's half brother Frank had been living in for some time, but has strangely disappeared. The viewer knows why (From the awesome opening), but goofy sap Larry doesn't wonder too long why, or whether he'll be back, and just decides to take the old run down house. Now I know that it's horror movie logic and all, but if I walked through a house that looked like the one in "Hellraiser," I'd walk right back out and burn the shit to the ground. Just sayin.
This whole moving into the house where Frank once dwelt is stirring memories in Julia, she had an affair with him in the past, and was still in love with him. Then one night, in pure horror film fashion, she discovers there's a hideous monster living in their attic, a monster that turns out to be her lost love Frank. A monster that needs her help, that fuels her dark side, and the more she helps the monster the more wicked she becomes, and the more amplified the wedge between her, Larry and her stepdaughter becomes.
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| Oh God, would you care for some aloe? |
I'm sure I could be accused for looking too far into things, possibly giving things too much credit. It's just a damn grotesque horror flick right? Just an excuse to create some cool prosthetics, special effects and have a few "holy shit" moments, right? I don't know, to me horror is a genre of hidden meaning, a genre of tackling our own darker tendencies using the safety net of a monster to exemplify the very things that scare us about ourselves. Sure call me a pretentious twat, but come on, is it a coincidence that the nightmarish hell-monster living in this woman's attic is the very same man she had an affair with and still loves? And the process with with she helps bring him back to humanity (Which could have been through any means I might add, but it's the same every time)? The implication is deliberate.
Pure and simple, Julia has a secret, a secret that's slowly destroying her marriage, her relationship with her stepdaughter, and her own well being. The more whole the monster (i.e. the secret) gets, the less whole Julia becomes, only to become devoured by it. Figuratively that is ... or is it literally? This is a horror movie after all. We all have skeletons hiding in our closets, or more on point, demon hell monsters in our attics. And that's what this movie is really about, that and something to do with a torture hell dimension and a hardcore black metal band called the Cenobites, I didn't really understand any of that shit.
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| But hey, they kick ass live. |
So I guess the question remains, what did I think about it? Did I like it? I'd say yes, but cautiously so. Unlike the other monster movies I've looked at, like the "Frankensteins" or "The Wolf Man," the monster in this one isn't very likable at all. In fact, he's a straight up dick, I spent a lot of time wondering why Julia fell for him to begin with, and why she didn't just put a shotgun to his head when he slithered into her attic as a grotesque hell beast. I suppose that might be missing the point (Horror movie logic again), and if he's supposed to represent the horrible secret in Julia then maybe it's deliberate. Still, it's tough to follow why she'd go to such great lengths to help ole squishy bones when he's clearly a douche.
But aside from that (And another thing I'll touch on below), Clive Barker is quite the storyteller. I was often impressed with what he was consistently able to do with so little. Don't get me wrong, this movie has scenes with a lot going on in them: special effects, prosthetics, fucked up torture devices, the works. Some of the best scenes though are the simple ones. Barker does so much with just the right sounds and some deft framing. Speaking of the big stuff though, it's all pretty damn wonderful too, the makeup and prosthetics in "Hellraiser" are just incredible. Incredibly gooey and disgusting when need be, especially Frank's first monstrous form which is by far the scariest in the movie; but Pinhead and his cronies have also become iconic in their own way since, and I found myself staring at them more in awe than being frightened of them really.
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| Wait, who's the chubby guy in the sunglasses? |
And I think that brings my next complaint, the whole Cenebite thing felt a little tacked on. Sure they looked cool, and had some frightening scenes, but they kind of led the movie into a bit of a deus ex machina ... or demon ex machina ... har har har, ah it's good to be back. And maybe it's not really the Cenebites (Which sounds like a fucking breakfast cereal by the way, please oh please someone make that) it may be that the momentum of the movie kinda disappears for an effect-fest at the end, when all the--possibly made up by me--metaphors get thrown out the window in the name of pure spectacle. But hey, when your effects look that damn good, and they took that long to make, you might as well have a big pointless finish.
And it's on that tenant that I can recommend this movie. "Hellraiser" was made in a time when computers couldn't make your monsters for you, the monsters on the screen were the hard work of artists, special effects masters, and often actors who spent half their time in makeup chairs. Sure there are people still doing practical effects today, but so often modern horror movies just throw in a creepy kid, some cgi bullshit and call it a day. A lot of hard work, dedication, and love* went into the creatures of "Hellraiser" and for that it's a Halloween Classic.
I apologize for putting the word "love" and the creatures from "Hellraiser" in the same sentence.
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