Hellraiser (1987)
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63% of critics liked it
(32 reviews) -
75% of users liked it
(66,986 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… More 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 the ultimate sensual experience -- purchases a small, intricate puzzle box from an unseen dealer in an unspecified country. Upon solving the puzzle, Frank opens the door to a hellish alternate universe and is promptly torn to ribbons by a network of hooks and chains; his strewn body parts are subsequently collected by the Cenobites -- grotesque, S & M-clad denizens of hell. The story continues several years later, when Frank's brother, Larry (Andrew Robinson), moves into Frank's abandoned house with his daughter, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), and his new wife, Julia (Clare Higgins). An accident causes some of Larry's blood to spill on the attic floor, which somehow triggers Frank's hideous resurrection. His body only half-composed, Frank seeks the tacit assistance of Julia -- with whom he had once had a torrid sexual liaison -- in restoring him to human form. Still secretly in love with Frank, Julia assists him by seducing men from the town and bringing them back to the house so her undead lover can drain their bodies of blood. Her increasingly furtive behavior arouses the suspicions of Kirsty, who had already moved to an apartment to get away from her despised stepmother. After following Julia and her next potential victim home, Kirsty comes face to face with the still-incomplete Frank, narrowly escaping with her life...and with the puzzle box. After losing consciousness, Kirsty awakens in the hospital, where she manages to solve the box's intricate mechanism and summon a trio of Cenobites -- including their apparent leader (played by Doug Bradley and dubbed "Pinhead" on subsequent sequels) -- who are prepared to claim her. In desperation, Kirsty offers them a bargain in which they agree to spare her soul if she leads them to Frank. Kirsty soon returns home to find Julia with her father...whose behavior has become disturbingly unnatural. Realizing that her father has become Frank's latest victim -- and that her uncle is now walking around in his brother's skin -- Kirsty hands Frank over to the Cenobites, who have particularly evil plans for their old friend. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Directed By
- Clive Barker
- Genres
- Horror
- In Theaters
- Sep 18, 1987 Wide
- Studio
- New World Video
Critic Reviews
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Minor grisly fun, but don't expect the movie to linger when it's over.
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Derek Adams, Time Out
[Writer/Director Clive] Barker's dazzling debut as a director creates such an atmosphere of dread that the astonishing visual set pieces simply detonate in a chain reaction of cumulative intensity.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cast
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Andrew Robinson
as Larry Cotton
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Clare Higgins
as Julia Cotton
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Ashley Laurence
as Kirsty Cotton
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Sean Chapman
as Frank Cotton
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Oliver Smith
as Frank the Monster
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Robert Hines
as Steve
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Antony Allen
as 1st Victim
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Leon Davis
as Second Victim
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Michael Cassidy
as Third Victim
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Frank Baker
as Derelict
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Kenneth Nelson
as Bill
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Gay Baynes
as Evelyn
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Niall Buggy
as Dinner Guest
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Dave Atkins
as Moving Man
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Simon Bamford
as Butterball Cenobite
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Doug Bradley
as Lead Cenobite
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Pamela Sholto
as Complaining Customer
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Sharon Bower
as Nurse
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Grace Kirby
as Female Cenobite
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Raul Newney
as Doctor
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Nicholas Vince
as Chattering Cenobite
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Oliver Parker
as Moving Man 2



