This is not the first time, the issue of hell has been brought into a horror movie zombies movies use the theme of hell being unleashed in their plot. Lucio Fulci in his movie ''The Beyond'' is another movie that uses that theme well.

Made in 1987, the film is still a pretty good flick to watch during this time of year.
The plot of the film is probably a little hard to swallow, but onscreen it sure worked.
Julia Cotton (Claire Higgins) is having an affair with the brother of her husband Larry Cotton (Andrew Robinson). Apparently Frank (the brother of Larry is killed (played by Sean Chapman), but through the gates of hell is resurrected as a monster. That is because Claire opens up the pandora's box (puzzle box) which opens up the gates of hell. In order to gain his human form , Frank must absord literally the skin and tissue of his victims.

Yes ''Hellraiser'' and it's sequels contain graphic violence and thus if you are not a fan of horror you probably be better of passing it of. That's not to say that ''Hellraiser'' craze isn't good, their are good movies, and they have inspired
other newer movies to up the ante as far as scaryness and violence is concerned.

Clive Barker's special effects for hellraising were crude but effective. The thing about Clive Barker's ''Hellraiser'' movies is that unlike other cheap sequels to horror hits like
''Halloween'', each sequel ''Hellraiser'' gets better and better, loading more special effects, gore, and suspense.

Eventually Claire and the newly formed Frank now then sets their sites on killing everyone in their house including Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) and Larry Cotton.

However a monster from hell named Pinhead (Douglas Bradley) is thriving to inflict his pain of hell into others and so now now Kirsty and Larry have quite a few problems in front of them. They got this evil maniac Frank and now this monster known as a cenobite , Pinhead who wants to get out of hell and cause mayhem.

''Hellraiser'' is a good horror flick. It's use of the macabre, suspense and phsycial attack on the senses with its graphic theme made it stand out from other horror flicks. It's probably the series has lasted so long up to the new ''Hellraiser: Hellseeker'' sequel.


Hellraiser has its moments

I have very mixed feelings about Hellraiser. My thoughts about this film changed around a bit after I watched it. Now I think I finally have my absolute opinion of this film. Hellraiser is considered by many to be a classic in horror film history. I don't know if I should argue with that. I've seen maybe close to twenty horror films in my life and I've only liked about six of them. Hellraiser is based on a Clive Barker novella. It's about a man named Frank who buys a strange looking contraption. It's supposed to be a configuration that opens a portal to beings of wonder called the Cenobites who offer great pleasure. Instead the Cenobite offer pleasure in a way no one understands and puts Frank in unspeakable suffering in the floor of one of the rooms of his house. Frank is later revived by his brother Larry's blood but he needs more to become a full bodied human again and this leads to a bloodbath of sadistic manner. Hellraiser can be both very suspenseful and horrific and then just turn plain boring. That's what I disliked most about this film. It wasn't certainly scary at some points but Barker seemed satisfied with frightening the viewer at one point and then decided to slow down the film some more. This made the transitions very uneven. The Cenobites were an impressive sight but they didn't do anything impressive. The acting in this film ranges from bad to good. The bad: Ashley Laurence, the good: Doug Bradley who easily steals the show with his limited appearances. I'm very surprised about a few things in this film. Hellraiser's budget was only one million dollars and it's special effects were actually quite amazing for the late eighties. Some examples are the appearance of the Cenobites, the chain scenes, and how Frank's body grew from the floor and just mended together. The film easily earned its budget amount back at the box office with 14 million. Another thing that surprised me is that this film wasn't heavily threatened with the infamous X rating at the time. The film has more blood and gore than its copy film Event Horizon. As for how Hellraiser compares with the other Clive Barker films, I would highly recommend that you watch Candyman instead. It's more frightening and stylish with less gore. Lord of Illusions is another film from Clive Barker that's not bad.


This will be short but sweet.....

Ok, I will try to keep this brief. Hellraiser is incredible for it's originality in story line; leaving behind the god/satan area of evil and just going straight an other worldly group of creatures that teach that there is no difference between pleasure and pain- there is only sensation. That is not a topic that most horror flicks venture(although that point is not as explored in the movie as in the novella).

Plus, any movie that has a character say,"Jesus wept" just as he is about to be torn apart by hooks (and yes that line was improvised) gets major brownie points in my book.