Do I really need to waste both of our time recapping the story of HELLRAISER? What, I do? Fuuuuck. Alright. A dude, Frank, buys this mysterious puzzle box. Up in his creepy attic, he starts messing with the box. Chains with hooks shoot out of it and grab into him, next a group of demons come and drag him to Hell. Sometime later his brother, Larry and his wife Julia, move into the house. Larry has an accident and spills blood onto the floor in the attic. The blood is soaked into the floor and this somehow brings Frank back from Hell, but only partially. He's all gooey and doesn't have any skin. Frank was having an affair with Julia so he confronts her and asks her to help bring him back to life. How's she gonna do that? He needs human blood and lots of it. Added to this fucked up story is Larry's sexy teenager daughter and the group of demons who are looking for Frank. There, you happy?
I remember seeing HELLRAISER as a young sexy teenager and it scared the fook out of me, not as bad as the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE which damn near killed me, but it still freaked me out. Watching it again now for the first time in a number of years I was kinda shocked at how dark and fucked up this movie was...especially for a mainstream release from the 80's! I thought the story held up really well and even though I knew what was gonna happen, I was glued to the screen. The story captures your attention, the demons were scary as Hell, good acting, budget restraints kinda hamper the look of the film a little bit but it adds to the charm, quick pace, awesome violence and best of all: Pinhead. That dude is just fucking awesome! Behind Jason and Leatherface, I think he's my favorite horror movie villain. Of course, he's appear in a few shitty movies and even a Satan-awful Motorhead music video, but still the basic idea of Pinhead is totally badass.
As far as Part 1 goes, it's easily the best of the series and a legendary horror movie with a really cool and original idea. Highly recommended.
Part 2 - Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Part 3 - Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
Part 4 - Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Part 5 - Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
Part 6 - Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)
Part 7 - Hellraiser: Deader (2005)
Part 8 - Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)
Part 9 - Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)
Part 10 - Hellraiser: Judgement (2018)
Remake - Hellraiser (2022)
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