Friday, February 11, 2011

Chill #4 and 4.5: Hellraiser and Hellraiser II

The Leader of theCenobites, Pinhead.
Okay, we all remember the eighties, right? Even french philosopher Michel Foucault experimented with sadomasochism during this era. And that's where Hellraiser comes in. To some, angels, to others, demons, the Cenobites can offer all the pleasures of heaven, and the pains of hell - simultaneously.

Young Kirsty Cotton's (Ashley Laurence) family had just moved into a new home, albeit previously used by her late uncle Frank Cotton and more than a little run down. However, the house holds it's own secret: Uncle Frank is not really dead. but trapped between two realms, a realm of indivisible pain and pleasure, and earth. He feeds on blood spilled in the attic to come back to earth. In order to stop him, Kirsty must team up with the Cenobites - a group of "explorers from the furthest regions of experience" - who cannot let anyone escape once they have been summoned.

In the second flick, Kirsty's stepmother (Clare Higgins) is brought back to life - in the same manner Frank was in the first - with the help of a neurosurgeon and psychiatrist who is also treating Kristy at the hospital. Kirsty teams together with Tiffany (Imogen Boorman), another trauma patient at the hospital, to enter the Cenobite's region of Hell - the labrynth - with the hopes of stopping her stepmother and saving her father.

Clive Barker directed this adaptation of his novella "The Hellbound Heart" After other projects based on his works were somewhat dissatisfactory. And he's been involved in one way or another ever since. He's even producing the remake.

RANKINGS:

STORY: Not bad. The two of them in tandem makes a pretty good saga. Just wish the other six movies could have been as great as these first two.

My rating: seven point five pages (out of ten)

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Given the budget, I was clearly impressed, although rumour has it that some of them were hand drawn onto the frames.
"Jesus Wept"
My rating: six fireworks (out of ten)

MUSIC: Typical slasher music.

My Rating: Five bars (out of ten)

GORE: A guy with no skin? Plus the scene where we see the creation of Pinhead was pretty cool too, and there's more!

My Rating: nine feet of intestines (out of ten)

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