Day 24 Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser 2

It was eventually going to happen. We would end up here with one of the big ones.

It is a pretty strong case for good sequel too. Furthered and concluded the story from the first film. Gave a good deal of background on the characters, and villains The lore is furthered for the franchise and it helps very subtly to paint a broader picture of the world this film takes place in.

The acting isn’t the most amazing. But it’s good enough you don’t quote bad lines from it. There are a few I am sure. But they are buried below quotable lines of blenty.

So, shall we begin?

Hellraiser

If you have a fetish, keep it within legal limits, don’t go to a far off country that allows it because others deem it illegal or highly inappropriate. Especially don’t go looking to out due said fetishes and go to some desert country to buy a box with no named value, that promises everything you’ve ever sought. Because it will lead you to hell, and a hell with a system of balance. You get what you wanted, and give what the ones giving want.

That’s one lesson in this film. The other lesson of the film comes from the alternate title one of the women working on it came up with, “What a woman will do for a good fuck”. Meaning. Don’t sleep with your husbands brother, then kill people including your husband to bring him back, just because you felt super naughty one time.

It doesn’t end well for anyone, Which this movie shall demonstrate, I am sure.

So we open with a Mr. Frank. He is on a quest to find the ultimate pleasure. He’s a sex freak and he’s never satisfied. It’s never enough and he keeps trying to find where his limits are, but he can’t. So he hears about a box. The Lament configuration, lemarchand’s box. It promises everything you desire, and things you never could admit you desired but wanted in your deepest most secretive thoughts. Once you were given these things. Then they within the box have fulfilled their end. The problem then becomes, when they ask the same from you. What they ask, is to experience your flesh. Pain beyond our understanding, taking their time exploring everything that makes you scream. Eventually leading to death. Unless you are lucky, and deemed a worthy explorer. Then you get to become one of them.

The box opens a portal between hell and earth. Those that come through the portal are servants of hell known as Cenobites.

Frank got what he wanted from the cenobites, and they took from him what they wanted. Thus ending poor Frank’s life. Leaving his brother to pick up the pieces and inheriting a house that belonged to their parents, which Frank had used as a crash pad until his sudden disappearance.

So his brother Larry, wife Julia, begin the long process of moving into the house, leaving behind a place, and a lifestyle Julia was more accustomed too. So she’s not entirely proud of the move, but doing her best to make things work.

Her husband however is still trying to make things work in his new marriage, on top of his daughter Kirsty not being entirely onboard with his choice in wives.

The family has a long way to go before being happy with each other. But thankfully things are going to change for all of them.

Kirsty decides to come over and play nice, to help her dad with his stress and a slightly unhappy wife. But alas his wife is preoccupied. While going through the rooms, she came across one Frank used and found his private photo collection of various lovers he’d had in the past. Which treats us to a flashback of her infidelity with brother Frank. Which is famously talked about and laughed at by Clive Barker, as the MPAA had little to say about the violence in the film, and more to say about the sex scene in the film. They were told to cut it down to 2 thrust on screen. So he began the joke that sex in accordance with the MPAA only last 2 thrust.

While moving one of the beds up the stairwell of their new home. Larry ends up slicing his hand open, thanks to a crooked nail sticking out. Larry is not a fan of blood, so he’s feeling sickly and ready to faint. He makes his way upstairs to his wife. Whom he knows can handle things like this much better than he can. So while he is blooding out pools, literal pools of blood on the floor. His wife helps escort him to the bathroom to bandage it up for him and take him to the hospital.

This is when things begin taking shape. Literally.

The blood split on the floorboards just happened to fall in the very spot Frank had opened the Lament configuration puzzle box and was taken off to hell. The blood spilt was enough to resurrect him. Part of him. We are treated to a scene, which still manages to look every bit as creepy and cool as it did when it came out, and is no wonder why people still end up affected by it.

It isn’t long before Frank makes his presence known to Julia. Who is terrified as any logical person should be to see the site of a man barely even muscle tissue and bone. But more nerve endings and skeletal.

Here Frank begins laying out his plans. He tells Julia how the blood brought him back, that he needs more. She’s horrified at the thought. But Frank, knowing she would help him with the right push. Does all he can to sway her and charm her. It isn’t long before she decides to do so. Bringing a man home from a bar, and letting Frank drain him of his blood. Helping to regrow more muscle tissue.

She still isn’t sold on the idea of repeating the grim process. But after a few wet dreams and the prospect of what awaits should she go along with it. She decides why not. Thus beginning her new adventure as a house wife black widow, luring drunken horny men to her former lover.

Meanwhile Kirsty is trying to hold together her own life. She has a job, a boyfriend, but also a good deal of odd troubles. Ranging from a weird homeless man who enjoys eating grasshoppers at the pet shop she works at. She’s also having odd bloody dreams which she can’t really explain. But they all are connected. She just can’t see it yet.

The world of hellraiser is an odd one as hell has it’s own hierarchy as well. There are generals, security. Doctors even, lords and even protectors. Something has disturbed the natural order of things and hell is a bit concerned, knowing it centers around this family and Kirsty. So she’s been tapped by evil so to say.

After a few fun romps for Julia, she decides Frank owes her an explanation. Which he offers by sharing visions with her of what he went through. Frank still has the box with him when he was reborn, and somehow hell is aware the box is with someone it shouldn’t be. Frank does his best to explain who the cenobites were, what they did, she sees Frank having hooks dragged through his skin, muscle and tissue being torn from his body. Chains keeping him held up. It’s too much for her. He explains how he escaped hell and can never risk the cenobites finding him. Knowing it would mean his being taken back again. Knowing how pissed hell will be to find he escaped. So she promises to do all she can to ensure they won’t find them.

However, unfortunately He’s about to get a visitor. Kirsty.

Kirsty runs into still skinless Frank and has the super most awkward family reunion with the creepy uncle that flirts with you while sober and drunk. Which yes he does flirt with her. Yes it’s also creepy.

He toys with her debating killing her or sleeping with her. Maybe both. But the game soon ends when Kirsty grabs the puzzle box he so closely kept guarded and with himself. He pleads with her to leave the box, to put it down immediately. She screams he can go to hell and tosses the puzzlebox out the window which send Frank into a panic. She escapes and heads out of the house, picking up the box as she does so, but soon ends feeling faint for some reason. Soon passing out on a street corner, and taken to a hospital.

Unfortunately, as they found blood on her top and she looked distressed, they want to hold her there until the police arrive. Left on her own in her room. Kirsty gets curious why Frank would be so protective and scared of her having that box. She finds herself being drawn to the box and unfortunately opens it.

It’s a rare moment, as the box was opened without a desire. No need to summon the cenobites to perform their duty. She merely opened the box and its doorway. Finding where once there was a wall. There is not a doorway leading down a cobwebbed corridor. She decides it’s worth exploring, naturally. And as she does so. She comes to face, The Engineer. A demon roaming the hallways of hell clearing away any vermin it comes across. Which it indeed considers Kirsty to be. It chases her clear through back to her room, at which point, the cenobites arrive.

So the cenobites arrive to take Kirsty back with them. As she had nothing to ask of them and the unfortunate luck of summoning them. They can’t return to hell empty handed, so she must be turn apart like the others. But instead Kirsty begins attempting to bargain with them.

After discovering they’ve done this for many years, and to thousands of people. She ask if they knew a Frank Cotton. They definitely remember him, and get very upset at the prospect she offers them, that Frank had managed to escape them. But the decide to strike a deal with her. If she can get Frank to confess his identity, then they will consider taking him back to hell with them instead of her. A scene that grants us the tag line from the films poster as Pinhead, the leader of the cenobites warns Kirsty if she tricks them, “We’ll tare your soul, apart.”

So Kirsty sets out to return to her parents new home and out Frank.

Unfortunately Julia and Frank have their own plans, and brings about the only scene that really seems like it could’ve looked better with the dirt and grime of VHS, or Kirsty is just sadly that blind.

When she returns home, a very obviously bad thing has happened. Her father, seems a bit out of character, He also has a new hairline of blood around his scalp. Which seems odd. In fact he seems to be leaking blood around his scalp, and ears. He also acts a bit drunk, which seems a rather odd sort for someone trying to tell their daughter how they found Frank and took care of him. But Kirsty decides not to question this. She instead wants to see the body of Frank.

So she heads upstairs and views the carnage. A skinless body left rotting on the floor. But to her shock, when she finds the body. The cenobites are gathered there. Visibly upset. Their leader, Pinhead growls out angrily “We want, the man, who did this.” They know it’s Frank. But as he did not open the box this time. They still need him to admit who he is. But Kirsty believes the man downstairs is her father, so she tells them no and runs out. Only to be confronted by Julia. Who is far more cocky now and does not care what so ever for Kirsty. As Kirsty heads downstairs to tell her father that they need to leave immediately. She soon begins to doubt the blood leaking man is her father. She especially doubts this when he tells her they can all stay there and be one big happy family.

So she realizes her mistake and regrets not having looked more closely at the blood leaking Frank wearing her father’s skin. Julia moves to restrain Kirsty so Frank can stab her. But Julia soon realizes she too made a poor mistake as Kirsty moves out of the way and Frank not only stabs Julia, but begins draining her of her blood as well. Telling her it’s “Nothing personal baby.”

Thus begins Kirsty and Frank playing cat and mouse throughout the house. Ultimately ending up with them back in the room where she found the body she believes to be Frank, now realizing it was her father. Frank soon joins her and informs her not to cry over him, that he was dead long before he ever killed him. This upsets Kirsty but, grants Frank a moment of vanity to gloat over her before killing her. Telling her that everything will be alright, She’s with dear old uncle Frank.

The moment he says that, the room dims, and a ghostly light floods from the walls. Chains begin to rattle and Frank finds himself once again in the presence of the Cenobites. Which terrified him, but amuses the Cenobites to no end.

Frank soon discovers it was Kirsty who set him up and sets after her. Only to find hook and chain flying after him and pulling him back. Stretching his body out, moments away from being destroyed he says an improvised line, by a Christian actor. “Jesus, wept.” Laughing before his body is literally pulled apart.

But we’re not done yet. The cenobites are not finished. They want Kirsty. They never said they wouldn’t take her back with them. They just said it was a possibility. So now Kirsty finds herself on the run in a house being torn apart by hell.

At some point Kirsty comes upon the corpse of Julia. Which has moved from the hallway it originated in. To a bedroom, clasping the puzzlebox between her hands. Which also helps explain why, possibly the cenobites did not choose to free Kirsty. Though it wasn’t filmed, it was implied that Julia in her last few moments before dying. Attempted to summon the cenobites to spare her life and take the lives of everyone in the house. But alas she was unsuccessful, as she was found, chains in her face from the box, on the matress. Kirsty fights the box free from her hands and hurries to set about solving it. Which brings another famous line from the film, again thanks to Pinhead, “We have such sights to show you.”

But Kirsty is having none of it and soon finds success in solving the configuration. Much to the dismay of Pinhead, who is the first she sends back to hell.

One by one Kirsty solves the next part of the box’s puzzle and sends each cenobite back to hell. Which leads to a fun scene toward the end of it when her boyfriend returns to the house and tries to help her. She shrieks at him and elbows him in the ribs. She’s got this!! She knows what she’s doing it!

But it’s not over yet. Though she may have defeated the Cenobites. The Engineer from earlier has arrived for a game of keep away with the box. Sadly though Kirsty is done playing games, so she wins and defeats the monster.

The film ran out of budget around this point. We don’t exactly know how or why the house turned to ruble around them. But it had. Kirsty and her boyfriend make their way away from the house and she discards the Lament configuration into the fire of a nearby pit. At this point we see the familiar visage of the homeless man who stalked her at her store a few times. He notes what she’s done and. Reaches into the fire for the box, setting himself on fire in the process. Soon revealing himself to be a demon that flies off retrieving its property. Which sounds cool. But in the film because they ran out of budget. We instead see a large boney skeleton figure clutching the box, and end with the camera on a crane seeming to fly away as the monster chuckles. Dissolving from the scene to a scene that calls back to the beginning. An unknown city with a man at a table, with the puzzlebox at his fingertips sat on the table stating another line, “What’s your pleasure?” and roll credits

And what credits indeed! We get treated to the most beautiful, and certainly an iconic horror soundtrack. Which was a rarity back then. Normally soundtracks for horror were incredibly one note and cheesy. Clive Barker actually was set to use the music of a punk band he was really into. They got as far as making a demo for Clive of the music they’d come up with for the film. But other partners of his insisted he should go rogue and use orchestral music. Which had not been done for Horror. He wasn’t crazy about the idea until they hired Christopher Young and he wrote a track for ‘Franks birth’ and after hearing it, he was sold.

Now I’ve heard the demo from the band he originally wanted to use, they even released a short tape of their sound track. It’s pretty trippy and cool. But still the score we ended up with was just so iconic and grand.

And now, we can begin the sequel of sequels. The continuation of conclusion for Kirsty’s story.

HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2

Clive Barker chose to direct Hellraiser because he felt no one else would do his work justice. It was a definite learning experience and the world who wasn’t already aware of him through his writing. Sure as hell was aware now of his film, and soon films. Hellraiser was a successful film so it stood to reason a sequel would be in order. So here we are. With a very ambitious story, and a much larger budget.

The opening of the movie gives us a glimpse, the first of two in this film. Where we witness a cenobite being made. More specifically. We see the birth of Pinhead. We see Doug Bradly the actor in human form as a World War One soldier tucked away in an empty room, toying with the puzzlebox as part of his worldly exploration and being chosen by hell to become its eventual leader of a group of Cenobites, giving us the first of a few lines people would quote “The suffering, the sweet suffering.”

The story centers around the aftermath of the first films events. Kirsty has found herself committed to a hospital for professional help, while police question her on the disappearance of her father, the death of her mother, aaaand the pile of bodies in the remains of the house. Which are still standing apparently.

She shares with them the truth as she knows it. About the box, the cenobites. Julia and her murdering to bring back Frank. So of course no one believes her. Though it heavily intrigued her doctor.

While the detectives men go through the house, they mention having found the matress Julia had died on. But no Julia. Kirsty tells them how she died on the matress and that it was imperative they destroy the matress, otherwise Julia could come back like Frank. Going so far as to say she doesn’t deserve even that chance to come back, while her father can never do so himself.

This peaks her doctors curiosity.

Unfortunately for Kirsty, she’s carrying a lot of Trauma with her now. Which I mean. It makes sense! But she also still finds herself the receiver of horrific nightmare visions. She begins seeing a skinless figure in her room, pleading and reaching out to her, writing in blood on the wall “Help me! I’m in hell!” Which she takes to be messages from her father, pleading for her help to free him.

The doctor is hiding a lot of things. He’s an explorer himself. In human cruelty. He also, unbeknownst to Kirsty, has had a unique and terrifying curiosity about the Lament configuration. Which leads to a few new and odd things. The first being a new character for us. Tiffany.

Tiffany is a girl who turned mute after the death of her mother. At the hands of her doctor and now Kirsty’s doctor, Doctor Channard. He was obsessed with Tiffany because of her unnatural ability to solve puzzles of any kind. Which he always felt would come in handy when he’d choose to see the effects of opening the puzzle box.

Which is the second off and great thing about him we discover.

His entire study is dedicated to the myth and stories surrounding the puzzlebox. He has heavily detailed sketches of every panel of the box, background of people who came across the box and worst, though surprisingly of all. He owns three of the puzzleboxes. 

In the lore of Hellraiser, and in its world, there are dozens of boxes. All of different types too. But more than one do exist. Hell is a very busy place and it needed many ways for people to find their way to it. Only hell prefers, and sees to it that those boxes keep moving around. But those boxes were allowed to be had by him, as he desired them. But never braved opening them.

Returning to Kirsty’s story. The doctor bribes the investigators to give him the mattress stained with blood that Julia died on. Now having Kirsty’s story of resurrection. He decides it’s time to do some field research. He takes home with him one night a troubled patient. A very memorable character for all the wrong reasons. A man who sees his body covered in maggots, and needs to be restrained otherwise he’d claw his own flesh off to “Get them off me!” Which the doctor is all but happy to help, as he sits him on the matress and hands him a straight razor. The man is all but too happy now holding this weapon to do just that. Digging into his flesh, taring it apart and, much to the dismay of a select group of us out there. He even at one point lays himself back and drags the razor over his groin and well yes. Severs his member.

Not a fun thing to see. For a select group of us.

This act and the blood is enough to resurrect a skinless Julia. Which is enough to everyones surprise. To stop the patient who was cutting himself to suddenly become cured and try to escape this skinless monstrosity clinging to him.

Which I will admit now, and judge away if you wish. But Skinless Julia is kind of erotic. Even if she’s a murder hungry bitch.

The doctor is taken back by all of this, by witnessing one of hells miracles first hand, and being made aware that all his research into the box, was proving to be true. His hopes of seeing what the box would offer were coming true and now. Now he found himself a guide.

Which Julia agrees to be, if he will give her more bodies to complete her transformation. Which brings again. Judge away. A pretty grossly erotic scene of Skinless Julia deeply kissing the doctor, him lifting a gown he gave her and…revealing skinless glistening bloodied muscle tissue thighs and even a skinless but still defined vagina and buttocks. The movie was getting away with a lot more this time versus the first time.

Kirsty is told by an orderly at the hospital about the mattress being in the doctors possession, and what he witnessed of Julia being reborn. Which spur’s Kirsty to enter into fight mode again. He helps Kirsty to find the doctors home and help destroy the mattress and we also hope, Julia in the process.

But unfortunately it is not to be. The orderly is found by Julia and drained of his blood and life. Helping aid the final bit of healing Julia needed to become whole again. Granting us a reunion between Stepmother and daughter. Which angers Kirsty to no end. Especially when she is told by her mother. That she struck a deal with hell. Which lead to her being able to return as she puts it to her, as The wicked Queen.

She knocks Kirsty out but doesn’t kill her. She wants Kirsty to witness what’s coming.

The good doctor takes Tiffany from her room at Julias approval and urging. They simply leave her in one of his rooms with a puzzlebox and let things happen as they do. Tiffany is able to solve the puzzlebox with little concern and without bloodshed even. No sooner does she open the box, do we see the return of the original group of Cenobites. Stepping out into the room, ready to begin their work. But Pinhead stops his eager friends from doing so, puzzling one of them. He informs them that. Much like with the case of Kirsty. The box was opened by the girl but not for her own pleasure or knowledge. They know Tiffany was a tool being used, for the doctors desire.

The doctor well aware of what happens to those who open the box was taking every precaution not to end up a victim or worse, as a servant of hell himself. So the cenobites leave Tiffany be and simply wait idly by. Tiffany left on her own now decides, well? While in Rome! So she ventures off into the now open passage to hell. Kirsty waking up from the mega bitch slap she received from her step mother, soon finds the room Tiffany solved the puzzlebox. She also no sooner is greeted by the cenobites. Who tease her and toy with her. They’re in no rush to kill her. They even dare her to take her time exploring hell, delivering another great line from Pinhead. “We have an eternity, to know your flesh.”

What follows is one of the more Hitchcock inspired set of shots, as we are treated to a few shots showing us the immense Labyrinth of hell. A literal maze of corridors, passages, and rooms. Each containing the sins and visions of those who inhabit it, and that from the minds of those who venture through.  Tiffany is treated to dark visions of her youth and what the doctor had done to her through surgery. The death of her mother at his hands even. Kirsty herself even has her own visions. Stumbling onto a room that very much looked like her room as a child. Discovering photos of her family. Which soon fall apart as she sees pictures of Julia and Frank. The room begins to fall apart and leak blood.

Even the doctor isn’t safe. Seeing visions of a twisted threeway with Julia. His own youth spent killing and dissecting animals, killing people to get what he wanted. Being shown his own dark mind and exposing he was simply a murderer from the start. Things he can’t handle. Especially when being shown this by the lord of the labyrinth, Leviathan. A floating obelisk at the center of the labyrinth with a search light that once it finds you, forces you to look into the darkest parts of yourself.

Which leads us back to Julia being who Julia is. A woman out for herself. She informs the doctor he’s only seeing what he wanted to see, and how she had seen the same for herself. That she struck a deal with Leviathan. To return to our world to bring them souls, and more importantly the good doctor. Hell had been waiting a long while for him and he was going to become one of its servants, in the shape of a cenobite.

Meanwhile Kirsty has discovered in hell, the one thing I don’t think any of us would feel comfortable finding. The front door to the home her dad died in. She opens the door to reveal what looks like an air plane hangar, filled with retractable stone beds. Each with a writhing shadow woman. Nude and moaning. Which she begins to question why her father would have this. Well of COURSE HE WOULDN’T!! It’s dear Uncle Frank! He’d tricked her to coming back for him. But not to free him. Not entirely. He may not be that lucky to escape twice. But he is fortunate now, to have a living woman in his lonely private hell. Which means yes. He made a booty call for Kirsty from hell. But thankfully she won’t be doing so with him, She sets fire to his retractable beds and Frank finds himself skinless once more, and pissed. Which is a good intro for Julia to return, making it as Frank says, a true family reunion. But one where Julia is in charge and has plans to repay Frank for his earlier actions in the first film. He demands Julia Kiss him. So she does, While also taking out his heart and feeding back to him his last line to her. “Nothing personal, babe.” Giving Kirsty her moment to flee, and seek out Tiffany.

The two navigate their way from the labyrinth back to the hospital. Only to discover that. Well. When you leave a door to hell open. Hell isn’t just going to sit idly by. Dozens of patience in their beds are toying with puzzlebox’s Each trying to solve them, ending up with chains dug into their flesh, and at the center of the room. We are greeted by the new and remade doctor. A leather bound floating man with tentacles bursting from his hands. Which grants Tiffany her first words in the film “Oh shit” The girls take off running as Channard the Cenobite begins cutting into the patience with glee.

Unfortunately for Kirsty they run into once more, Pinhead and his gang. Who finally declare “Time, to play” But Kirsty isn’t done yet. She remembers retrieving something from Channards home, a photo from his desk of a man she recognized all to well thanks to these hellish experiences. So she shares this with the group who are now amused with her once more, Thinking she plans to trick them again, bringing another classic line from Pinhead of “Trick us again, and your suffering will be legendary, even in hell.”

But she tells them it’s not a person that escaped them. She comes with information. The person in the photo, was Pinhead. That they all were human at one point. This troubles the group and upsets them. But Pinhead begins to remember. They all do.

But just as this plays out. Channard has discovered their hiding spot. Leading us to what was meant to be a grand duel. But again with budgets being what they were and money running low. We were robbed of it. Pinhead and his gang are set to fight Channard. It’s a power struggle between the groups. Hell and its system do have internal fighting. Not all cenobites follow the same leader, and they do fight indeed. But in this case, it’s both Leviathan trying to do away with the failed group of Pinhead and his minions, and getting rid of the group as they’ve discovered their humanity. It’s still an amazing scene as they try to tare Channard apart with chains. But end up being killed and turned back into their human selves again. Pinhead even manages a smile to Kirsty as he’s returned to human form. But still dies at the tentacles of Channard.

So now we get our final FINAL showdown. Kirsty remembering how she managed to survive the last film tells Tiffany they need to find the puzzlebox and solve it again. Which leads to a run in with Julia. Who almost kills the two. Until Kirsty is able to complicate things and Julia struggles to escape a vacuum of a hallway. But proves unable to do so as Tiffany holds Julias hand to try and save her, only to feel the flesh tare from Julias body, sending her screaming body down the wind tunnel of hells corridor. But the girls now have their puzzlebox. Which Tiffany sets out to solve. But this time, as she does so. The box is reformed. No longer the square box it was before. The box is now shaped as Leviathan. Presenting a challenge for Tiffany. Even more challenging is trying to solve a puzzle when Channard appears ready to kill the girls. But Kirsty is a true OG and team player. She does the unthinkable to stop Channard and distract him. She slides into the bloody skin of Julia to trick him into believing its her and pulls the cenobite in for a deep tongue kiss. Giving Tiffany time to solve the box. Returning it to its original form.

Much to the displeasure of Channard and especially Leviathan. Channard Pushes Kirsty aside and  tries to impale Tiffany with one of his spearing tentacles. But ends up trapping himself to the floor. Unable to pull away and float off. His head is ripped from the body. He is defeated and the girls are able to escape. Running as fast as they can just as a doorway leading to safety begins to close. They manage to slip through and find hell has been trapped. Leviathan the lord of the labyrinth destroyed, and as far as they know, the cenobites as well.

But it isn’t over. Hell is a wide reaching plain and there are many cenobites left. The film ends with the cleaning out of Channard’s home and the erectionof a wooden pillar from Julia’s mattress, On the pillar as it spins we see the stretched out face of Pinhead, a humping doll corpse, a few other faces and the homeless man from Part one, covered in Locust stating once more “What’s your pleasure sir.” Then the film ends.

The first two of this whole series are far and away the best. Clive Barker was able to tell his story, his way. Build a world for these characters visually, Tell a story beginning to end and give a satisfying end to them. Even the villains as I said. Part three is, well. When things began to go down hill. It saw the rebirth of Pinhead, now free of Hells rules. But still somehow a cenobite. Part four gave us Hellraiser in space, through time. Everything after that was a variation on human feces, and attempted stories from the hellraiser comics, right down to movies that were so bad, they felt adding Hellraiser to the title and tossing in cenobites would save them. They even reached a point with the sequels where Clive himself after seeing his named tied to one of the films as “Inspired by” took to twitter and proclaimed “I had nothing to do with this piece of literal shit.”

I love that man.

I love these movies. There are extensive making ofs and tons of behind the scenes. I remember renting it on VHS and the so so cool Hellraiser merchandise video that played on the first film offering you Hellraiser Shirts, jackets, keychains. I also recall when my family went to the theater, we were going to see Bambi rereleased. I don’t remember bambi. But I do remember seeing beside us the cardboard cutout of the cenobites for Hellbound, and the large line of punks and teenagers to see it.

I own two puzzleboxes as well, infact. On my movie shelf there’s a replica box, held in a glass dome. On my desk while writing this is another I got as a birthday gift. I love these films the same way almost that I love Star Wars, and the first two, though I own all the way up to part 4. The first two will always remain my favorite for the simple fact, they were and still are to me the ideal sequels. Everything was doubled down on from the first film. The score is just as epic and expanding as the first, yes I own the vinyl for both soundtracks. The story and characters are all evolved and again it gives a satisfying conclusion.

So of COURSE YES! Check them out! Again and again!