Hellraiser

Rating:
Summary: Awsome!
Review: I realy think hellraiser is a brilliant horror movie that is why i own and watch it all the time ! If you love horror movies buy this now !

Rating:
Summary: A classic horror!
Review: A classic horror that doesn't revolve around the "slasher" concept that often ruins many horrer movies. Heavy bondage undertones in this movie and a great performance by Pinhead, it's a shame he's not in the movie more as he should be the main character. The movie is a little old and it shows, but it is still entertaining and twisted and despite it's age, it doesn't come off as corny as many horror movies do.

Rating:
Summary: One of the scariest , most imaginative horror movies ever
Review: 'Hellraiser' came out in 1987 and still has lost none of it's punch. Clive Barker did an excellent job with his first film. He successfully transferred his vivid, twisted imagination to the big screen. I can honestly say this is one of (if not the) most imaginative and frightening films ever made. The acting is not great, in fact for the most part it is subpar (a given with most horror movies) but the film's concept just reaks fear. The character Pinhead is the epitome of terror and one of the most popular characters ever in the horror genre. We hardly see Pinhead, but when he comes you feel the presence of pure evil, particularly in the climax. The make-up effects on Frank in his in-human form are startling. The Cenobites (headed by Pinhead) are deliciously menacing. This is the type of film that makes you gratefull stuff like this only happens in movies, and is one of the most brilliant additions to the horror genre ever. So if you are a horror fan and you don't own this classic, well, wake up.

Rating:
Summary: Every Franchise has a beggining
Review: Every Franchise has a start. If proven succesful than it can continue into many sequels and copycats. Halloween proved this point. However with this the concept was so weird and plain bizzare at times that the idea of making a copycat was nearly impossible.

The story revolves around a british couple who inherit a the husbands family home. His brother Frank earlier had died in the house by the evil Cenobites after he unlocked the secret of the box. After an accident involving a matress, a nail, and a lot of blood frank is revived but needs blood to become whole. So just like in life he seduces his brothers wife into doing his bidding. Meanwhile the husbands daughter Kirsty shows up and discovers the plot and makes a deal with the cenobites to lead them to Frank. From there it spirals into chaos as many deformed creatures try and kill Kirsty as well as any one else who interferes.

This is the start of a fairly succesful Franchise. The first should at least be checked into.

Rating:
Summary: Still Pretty Good
Review: Im one of the old geezers who remember when this movie was all people were talking about. I picked up the DVD version on an impulse and find this movie is still pretty intense. Lots of blood and gore for those of us who like it and who doesnt love Pinhead? The DVD quality is good with an option for widescreen or fullscreen and THX did a great job on the sound as well. Very well done and quite creepy.

Rating:
Summary: A little pain with your pleasure
Review: 15 years ago extremely gifted horror writer and author Clive Barker made his directorial debut with the original Hellraiser; a film that would re-define the horror genre, spawn many inept sequels that suffered without Barker at the helm, and introduce one of the most frightening, menacing, and unforgettable horror icons in film history: Pinhead. Based on Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser was one of the few films that delivered loads of graphic violence and gore and could still be scary as hell, something that can very rarely be pulled off in the horror genre, especially today. I'm not going to go into the storyline, you can read it in the Amazon review or one of many other customer's reviews, but I will say that this new edition DVD which is remastered by Anchor Bay (also responsible for recent remastered DVD's of the Evil Dead Trilogy and Manhunter among others) is great and features some commentary from Barker himself. All in all, if you've never seen the original Hellraiser, you are sorely lacking. But be warned: if you consider the recent "teen horror thrillers" to be horror films, then this definitely isn't for you.

Rating:
Summary: Kind of scary, very gory...
Review: The original in a (so far) six-film series, this film is not a triumph in the horror movie genre, but it does have good themes as well as a menacing villain, Pinhead. It's watchable if you like this kind of stuff, but it gets a little ridiculous. Some neat-o special effects and lots of gore make this a horror fan's treat.

Rating:
Summary: Barker's Perception of Hell
Review: This movie, inspired by Clive Barker, was a watershed in the horror genre which introduced a character called "Pinhead" to audiences. There's a lot of violence, gore, and blood throughout this film, with the likes of Pinhead threatening to torture and doing the same, and if you like this kind of stuff, you'll be in your own kind of heaven, I suppose. Of course, on the real side, this stuff may not exist at all. Although Christ said that Hell was made for the Devil and his angels and all those who would ultimately reject Christ as their Savior. In Pinhead's Hell, there weren't many friends to party with, and that lines up with the biblical vision. Hell is total isolation from God. If this movie is your cup of tea, drink with caution.

Rating:
Summary: "Time to play," says Pinhead. Everybody out of Hell...
Review: It is surprising when you go back and watch "Hellraiser" again, after having steeled yourself for the experience because this time you know exactly what is coming, that Pinhead, the leader of the Cenobites, has so little screentime. Of course, this shortcoming has been rectified by the various sequels to the original, but even if there had only been one "Hellraiser" the image of Pinhead would remain one of the most disturbing images of contemporary horror films.

However, even without Pinhead, "Hellraiser" has plenty of intensely disturbing images. We begin with the compelling little Lamont Configuration, an exotic puzzle box that opens a door to Hell, which is what poor Frank (Sean Chapman) discovers just both the Cenobites rip his body to pieces. But when Frank's brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his second wife Julia (Clare Higgins) move into a new house and Larry rips his hand open on a nail, the blood brings Frank--well, part of him--back from the Hell dimension. It seems that Frank and Julia had been lovers, and she had promised to do "anything" Frank wanted. Julia was looking for something in the area of sexual deviancy we assume, but Frank now has something else in mind as he holds Julia to her word, namely, seducing men to come back to her house and up to the attic where their life's blood can help further regenerate Frank's body. By the time poor Larry and his daughter Kristy (Ashley Laurence) have a clue what is happening upstairs, it is pretty much too late.

Writer-Director Clive Barker does not pull any punches in his first film when it comes to putting as much raw horror on the screen as he can cram into this 94 minute film. "Hellraiser" rewrites the rules in terms of how far you can go and what you can try to do to the poor viewers of your horror film. The key thing is that as gross as things get on the screen, there is an intelligence and a creativity behind the horror that can neither be ignored nor easily dismissed. You can imagine Barker saying, "What? You WANTED to see a movie that would give you nightmares, didn't you?" This is not a particularly polished film, but I really think that adds to its effectiveness. "Hellraiser" is a primal horror film, operating on a raw level that is as innovative as it is disquieting. If they had rated this film "X," I probably would have agreed with the judgment. Not for the squeamish (or their neighbors).

Rating:
Summary: Good start...
Review: Unlike most, my favorite Clive Barker movie is not Hellraiser but Nightbreed so from there you might be able to see why I didn't find Hellraiser to be a great movie. Mainly because the most interesting characters in the movie, the Cenobites, were also given the smallest amount of screen time.

The movie falls apart in many dramatic scenese which weren't dramatic at all like the love making scene when we find out the Mrs. was with Frank, it plays out worse then even the worst of soap operas. In my opinion the last part of the movie from the hospital and on is the only thing of interest, the rest really making me feel like I need a nap.

Of course if you haven't seen the movie then by all means rent it but as a fan of the horror genre I thought this was a very average film with lots of gore that didn't make up for a drawn out story. Yeah, we get it Frank needs blood to get his skin back, get on with it.