Hellraiser

Hellraiser (1987)

  • 63% of critics liked it
    (32 reviews)

  • 76% of users liked it
    (64,462 ratings)

The feature-film debut of multi-talented filmmaker Clive Barker, this grim and surreal project is based on the writer/director's own novella The Hell-Bound Heart. The film opens with a chilling prologue in which globe-trotting pervert Frank (Sean Chapman) -- a connoisseur of sexual depravity seeking… More

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R, 1 hr. 34 min.
Directed By
Clive Barker
Genres
Horror
In Theaters
Sep 18, 1987 Wide
On DVD
Mar 3, 1998
New World Video

Critic Reviews

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    Minor grisly fun, but don't expect the movie to linger when it's over.

  • Richard Harrington, Washington Post

    It's a dark, frequently disturbing and occasionally terrifying film that suggests Barker's vision hasn't quite made the conversion from paper to celluloid.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    This is 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.

  • Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

    For all that it is an incredible, and incredibly disturbing, film to look at, Hellraiser doesn't entirely click as a narrative.

  • Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

    Gore-torture-horror-ghoul fantasy from the '80s.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Michael E


    Hellraiser is one of the most disturbing films made in the 80s, and when I say disturbing I mean sadomasochistic disturbing, mainly because of what the cenobites do to humans, but this is a very creative film when it comes to the plot and with the characters.

  • Mike S


    Genuinely creepy and rife with suspense. Great make-up and gore effects for its time. Some characters actions are a bit stupid and unnatural though (such as the scene where Andrew Robinson's character gets his hand all bloody in an accident and his wife barely reacts to it). I… More

  • Film C


    God knows why they went on to make 2 others? but it was a very bad movie. Maybe i cant appreciate it because its an old moie and the graphics and the design of hellraiser himself was truly dreadful but i seriously wouldnt inflict this movie onto anyone.

  • Melvin W


    Hellraiser is a cool and entertaining movie, but that's all it is. It's predictable and goes through long spells of horrible dialogue and even worse acting. All of that can be forgiven though because the story is really awesome. The greatest aspect of the movie is definitely… More

  • Dean !


    A cult classic and for the time I can see why. However if watching it for the first time now, like I have, it looks very dated and the effects quite poor. Still it has its gory moments a rather simple story and could do with the cenobites being in the film a bit more. It did launch a… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

Cast

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