Rating: 
Summary: More gore with your compelling storyline? Yes, please
Review: Hellraiser is an extreme horror lover's dream come true. Clive Barker's unique vision marked a virtual rebirth of the genre at a time when slasher sequels were the fun, yet predictable, norm. Although the premiere setting for viewing this movie is a crowded theater of screamers (and sick puppies like myself who find humor in gore), one can still achieve a quite satisfactory effect watching this movie alone in the dark. Some horror creators rely on blood and gore for its own sake, others rely on the story itself to produce the desired effect. Clive Barker is one of the few horror geniuses who can make copious amounts of gore an integral and necessary part of the story. Hellraiser can be deliciously gross, so those with weak stomachs should beware. It features rats; decayed, maggot-infested meat; and copious amounts of blood--and that's just the teaser. Later there are acts of cold-blooded murder, human dismemberment by arrays of chains, a partially formed, pus-dripping, oozing carcass, and then the incredible Cenobites themselves.The movie at its simplest level is a retelling of a story that goes back to Goethe's Doctor Faustus and beyond--when you sell your soul to evil forces, you will regret it. Frank Cotton is a despicable, uncaring man who has grown bored with life's most extreme pleasures. When he hears about and eventually acquires a puzzle box which can open the door to a new world of perverse pleasures, he finds out that one man's pleasure is another man's pain under the tutelage of the Cenobites. Somehow, he manages to escape the other world, and when his brother's blood is spilled in his chamber of horrors, his body begins to reform itself. More blood is required to complete the job, and his brother's wife Julia supplies it by picking up men at bars and bringing them home for Frank's nourishment. The prim and proper Julia was ravaged by Frank soon before her wedding to Frank's brother Larry, and she enjoyed the experience so much that she will do anything to get Frank restored to vaguely human-looking life. Larry's daughter Kirsty, played by Ashley Laurence in her motion picture debut, discovers what is going on and manages to get her hands on the puzzle box. When she is introduced to the Cenobites, the fun truly begins. The Hellraiser series degraded into a sad mimicry of itself in later movies, but the original vision personally sculpted by the masterly hands of writer and director Clive Barker is a horror masterpiece. The Cenobites are one of the most unusual, fascinating "bad guys" ever dreamed up in the imagination of man. They really don't appear too often in this film, and Pinhead (played by the great Doug Bradley) is never referred to by this name even in the credits. When they do appear, with Pinhead enunciating such great statements as "No tears, please. It is just a waste of good suffering" and "We will tear your soul apart," they are truly horrifying, mysterious, and larger than life. Less is definitely more when it comes to the prominence of Pinhead and his demonic associates in the movie. Those who dislike horror probably have sense enough to stay clear of Hellraiser. Those of us who revel in extreme horror delight in watching it. If you are an intermediate-level horror fan initiated by the Scream and Freddy/Michael/Jason movies, here is your chance to really test your horror mettle.
Rating:
Summary: Horror Classic.
Review: This is a horror classic because it stars many unknown people and it is very scary. The only idea of the movie I didn't personally like was the spinning box at the end but hey nothing's perfect. This movie only had a 1 million dollar budget. If you're a fan of horror movie I suggest you get this movie and get Hellraiser 2:Hellbound also is just as good. I heard there is another Hellraiser coming out, Hellraiser 6. I recommend Hellraiser because horror movies will live on.
Rating:
Summary: i'm so happy..i'm so glade!!
Review: because clive b. is great... i wanted blood,action and well made monsters..i got it...
i wanted a story like no other..i got that too.. it takes a lot to spook me just a little..i got spooked here..damn!!
we need more minds like clive b....
we need more pinheads.... i was like 2 years old when the first hellraiser film was made..
but that doesn't change the fact that somethings never grow old..like great horror...
Rating:
Summary: Stands on its own
Review: I was very young when I first saw this movie. At the time I couldn't have been more than seven years old. I didn't remember a whole lot about it except that it had scared me...there is currently no other movie out there that is better than this. I won't go all out and say that Clive Barker is a genius, but I will say that he made a good movie that will always be good and will always remain in my collection. As for the sequels, they too are good but fail in comparison to the original...
Rating:
Summary: Do not let the flesh murder the spirit.
Review: For years I was at a loss to explain why I watched the entire Hellraiser series. As a general rule, I avoid horror movies and slasher flicks. Yet, I made it a point to watch this entire series- more than once.
Then it hit me. All of these movies have a "message." Under all the gore is one central message: "Do not let your flesh murder your spirit." Think about it, every character that is butchered and torn to bits has pretty well deserved it- it was their weakness and ambition that led them to it. Otherwise the Box would have held no fascination for them.... A spiritually centered being , such as a saint or a shaman, can laugh as he is being flayed by demons (or Cenobites.)
"Pinhead" ,you see, is a spiritual teacher- if you give too much importance to worldly matters and the flesh, then you deserve what you get....
Rating:
Summary: Horror at its best!
Review: 'Hellraiser' is one of the greatest horror movies ever made, EVER!! Clive Barker's vision is so dark, so appalling and so disgusting, yet at the same time it can be so appealling and desirable. Aren't we all (or haven't we at some time) searching for the ultimate in pleasure? That's what makes the Lament configuration (the puzzle box) so appealling to so many. And, that's what makes this movie so much more than your typical horror, gore-fest, it contains the most base feelings that we all have: desire. The storyline, writing and directing are first-rate, not to mention Mr. Doug Bradley (aka Pinhead). In other words.....Time to play!
Rating: 
Summary: Splatterpunk On Steroids
Review: Innocent young Ashley Laurence's evil stepmom, Clare Higgins, had an affair with husband Andrew Robinson's half-brother, Sean Chapman. Family reprobate Chapman died, with Robinson none the wiser about his wife's affair. Moving into Chapman's flat, Robinson suffers a slight cut, spilling blood onto the attic floorboards. As a result, Chapman's wraith begins manifesting back into the world of the living, seducing Higgins into bringing him more bodies on which to feed and grow more substantial. Laurence finds out what is going on, and escapes the house with an ornate metallic Chinese puzzle box Chapman seems very intent on keeping. She opens it - and along with it, the gateway to hell, out of which emerge the sinister Cenobites: truly gruesome, disfigured nightmares out of Hieronymus Bosch, but dressed in leather, spikes, and torture-gear. The Cenobites want Laurence, body and soul - unless, perhaps, she can lead them back to their escaped recent roomie, Chapman... This film won the 1988 16th Fantasy Film Festival Le Grand Prix de la Section Peur award. It virtually defined Splatterpunk cinema, filled as it is with the goriest carnage imaginable - until its sequel, Hellbound - including hammer murders and a man literally torn to pieces by meathooks. It also seethes with perversity and madness, Higgins being drawn into a renewed sexual liaison with the bloody and hideous Chapman even before he has re-grown new flesh and skin. This is the kind of movie that used to be rated "X" for violence. If you can stomach it, this film is very good. The special effects and unsettling music score are terrific. The makeups for the Cenobites - and other sundry assorted denizens of hell - are pretty much guaranteed to make anyone queasy. It's a little over-directed and, at times, over-acted, but it all works as especially intense horror melodrama.
Rating:
Summary: HeLLrAisEr---------------¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?a great HORROR film/////
Review: I'm a big clive barker fan. Barker wrote the book on which hellraiser was based, The Hellbound Heart. Clive achieved his task of adapting this gruesome novella into a horror movie without turning it into a piece O' [junk] very well. The only thing holding this film back from being perfect are the graphics at the end of the film, but that ain't worth a star.the plot is also great-(man solves a puzzle box which summons the cenobites, which kill him. Man's brother moves into same housewith his wife who had an affair with dead brother. (story progresses from that)) I would also strongly reccomend the book, as well as any other Barker book.
Rating:
Summary: Kinky intercourse?
Review: Well, what can I say. This is the definitive horror movie. Everything that the genre should embody: psycholgical horror, physical imagery that gives you shudders, and a villain so heinous that it goes down in horror movie infamy. Clive Barker has created a masterpiece. It has everything that the highly overrated Candyman lacks: Scares. This is a quality film. Trust me, if you love Clive Barker, this movie is your ticket. Get it today!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated.
Review: Clive Barker's Hellraiser is on of the most overrated movies ever. I saw this movie when I was young and did not like it, but about twelve years later I gave it a second chance. I liked it even less.
A silly, foolish, sadistic movie that plays like a bad independent film. More of the blood and guts that we have all seen over and over agian but with some real sick elements thrown in.
The monster Pinhead was a real good force in the movie but the other monsters are just silly looking.
If he wanted to show us the horrors of hell (and why would anyone want to do that?)he ended up just grossing me out instead.
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