For its day the scariest and goriest movie of its time. Special effects were lorded when this first came out but now they appear obvious and copied and improved on but this is still a good horror movie. Released in 1987 this is a British horror movie from the pen of Clive Barker, who if you didn’t know is an awesome horror fiction writer, Clive also directed the movie. A British movie that was so good they moved it to New York. It starred Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins and Ashley Laurence. For an 80’s movie this has a minute budget of $1m but it went on to recoup $14.6m. It split the critics down the middle on release but the usual two are in agreement with IMDb with a 7 out of 10 score and Rotten Tomatoes a point higher with 71%. I will jump straight to the plot.
The story starts with a prefix of the story with Frank Cotton buying a puzzle box in Morocco. He takes it back to his bare attic when he solves the puzzle and suddenly hooked chains appear and tear him apart. The room is filled with swinging and twinkling chains and a large block with flesh parts stuck to it and other parts of the hooks. A black robed figure arrives picks up the box, returning it to its original state and the room is returned to normal and empty. Frank’s brother Larry and his wife Julia move into the house in an attempt to resolve the strains on their relationship. Julia had had an affair with Frank before marrying Larry but he is unaware. Larry has a daughter from a previous marriage Kirsty has chosen not to move in with them but find her own place. Whilst moving in and carrying a mattress Larry cuts the back of his hand on a protruding nail and spills his blood on the attic floor. The blood soaks into the floor and resurrects Frank and he is incomplete and requires more blood and flesh to be able to complete to resurrection. Julia is still obsessed with Frank and after finding his living remains in the attic she is recruited to help him. Bringing men back to the home so he can kill and devour them. Frank explains that he had experienced the ultimately sensory of carnal pleasures of sadomasochism. When he solved the puzzle the Cenobites were released and took him to subject him to those extremes of sadomasochism.. Meanwhile the Cenobites have realised that one of their victims have escaped from hell and want him back. Kirsty catches Julia bringing one of the men back and gets involved by bursting in just as Frank is finishing off his latest victim. Frank attacks Kirsty but she throws the puzzle box out the window creating enough distraction to escape. She reclaims the box and collapses. Awaking in hospital she solves the box in her hospital room summoning the Cenobites. They arrive from Hell and explain that they are perceived as both angels and demons they are simply explorers from another dimension seeking carnal experiences to the point where they do not the difference between pleasure or pain. They are about to force Kirsty to join their realm when she explains that she knows where Frank is and would take them to him for her freedom. The deal is that they will consider her freedom is they catch Frank and he confesses from escaping from them. There you go the story is set up for you to watch all by yourself.
I wouldn’t watch this by yourself though. For a 1987 low budget movie this is some proper scary shit here ladies and gentlemen. The Cenobites consist of four people the lead is covered in pins inserted into his head and you can guess the others from their names. One is called Chattering Cenobite, the other is Butterball and the last is inventively names the female Cenobite. They all have wires and hooks and who knows what poking out of them and they cannot be stopped either. When they are after you there is trouble coming. They truly summed up the type of horror Clive Barker had dreamed up and for me there was theme there long before he announced anything. Having read some of his booked Clive Barker is an excellent author and as a result he has created some great movies although not that many will appear on this list as I may not own them. Such as Raw Head Rex, The Midnight Meat Train, Candyman, Cabal, Books Of Blood, Lord Of Illusions as well as eight sequels for the Hellraiser story. OK they got worse with each one but you get the point, in fact I didn’t fully appreciate how many movies there were as I had given up after the totally dour fourth incarnation. This doesn’t stop the original movie being a fantastic story and although someone dated scary as Hell itself. This movie shows you the monsters that live in your cupboard and they aren’t fluffy and kind like Sulley they are tortuous evil creatures from Hell with one desire to tear your soul apart. They won’t be buying you a coffee afterwards either. The Cenobites became the focal point for the future movies despite Kirsty returning for the second movie Pinhead returned for all of the nine movies and you tell what people liked about these movies. I like Clive’s work and his films of late I have watched with a this isn’t going to be very good attitude and have always been pleasantly surprised and I need to stop doing that and realise that I am going to like it after all. Anyway it is gone 1am and I need to stop rambling and go to bed and not do the next review for a John Candy comedy.
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