‘Hellraiser’ (1987) and ‘Hellbound: Hellraiser 2’ (1988)

 


It was a lovely ‘late spring/early summer’ (I honestly don’t know when one ends and the other begins…) kind of evening, last night, so you can guess what I did after I’d dropped my daughter off with their Mum… The title, of the post, kind of gives the game away but still, give yourself a bonus point if your first thought was, ‘I bet he went straight home and watched the first two Hellraiser movies’. Because that’s exactly what I did ;o)

I’m going through one of those phases where whatever book I pick up, it doesn’t work for me and I have to move onto something else (which kind of puts paid to that TBR Pile I put together the other day…) I know what I’m like, and I know what I like, so it’s not a case of every single book in the flat suddenly becoming a crap read. This is a reaction to work stress, mental stress and a couple of other stresses that I won’t mention here (all sprinkled with a little ADHD). I can’t concentrate on a book so on went the telly for a little ‘Hellraiser’, specifically two out of the three movies that I haven’t written about here.

This isn’t the first time I’ve watched these movies (a large part of the reason I chose to last night) and there is always something to take away from them, especially watching them ‘back to back’. Like I said, this was very much a rewatch and I was still chilled by the sheer amount of evil going here. Can something be subtle but overwhelming at the same time? I’m not sure but the evil of these two movies comes pretty close. On the one hand you have humanity, prepared to go to any lengths to experience pure sensation, mostly Frank but watch Julia grow into that mindset as well. I’d say that there’s a pretty strong argument for Julia being the real villain of these movies. While Frank and the Cenobites are more or less locked into a spiral of travelling ‘in the further regions of of experience’, Julia still has some agency and consciously decides not only to step onto that path but also actively serve Leviathan itself. There’s a character arc happening here that no-one else has, not even Kirsty (who may discover a hidden strength but doesn’t do a lot else other than use it, fair enough really given what’s happening around her). But that moment where you see the Chatterer shed its ‘Cenobite skin’… That is one of the most powerful moments, in the two movies (for me anyway).

And then there are the Cenobites themselves…

‘Hellraiser’ pulls off a real masterstroke by not introducing the Cenobites until over halfway through the movie. You think you’re just in for a movie about a sex starved ghoul trying to grow a new body… And then you find out just why Frank is running and why it’s so important that the Cenobites never catch up with him. While the evil of humanity lies in what it is prepared to do (and how inventive it can be on the way, I’m looking at you Doctor Channard…) the Cenobites are even worse because they’re so far past that now, they just don’t care and they’re still doing it. The note of boredom in Pinhead’s voice when he hints to Kirsty just how long he has been doing his job for… There is a real note of banality, in the Cenobites, that is even more chilling as they’re so relentless at the same time. And it really helps that Pinhead has all the best lines and Doug Bradley delivers them so effortlessly. Even when all he says is ‘Frank…’

Do I have a favourite movie of the two? Well, it’s funny you should ask… ;o)

There isn’t a lot separating the two but for me, ‘Hellbound’ wins out for the little ‘extras’ that it gives us, namely all the extra context that we get from the worldbuilding (‘hell-building’?) and the continuity that is building as a result. A continuity that lasts up until ‘Bloodlines’ and makes those movies a self-contained series in themselves.

And that’s pretty much all I’ve got today. I’ve got a lot of time for ‘Hellraiser’ and ‘Hellbound’ but you’ve probably gathered that by now ;o) Now all I’ve got to do is watch ‘Hellraiser: Deader’, and post about it here, and I’ll have watched the whole lot.

Comments

  1. Bookstooge18 June 2026 at 09:26

    I really enjoyed this duology. The rest of the series was extremely hit n miss for me.
    The only thing I didn't understand is why they cast the woman who was Julia. It might just be me, but she wasn't the least bit attractive. She played the part great, but every time I looked at her, all I could think was "Why Frank, why?"

    ReplyDelete

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