In 1987 Clive Barker, master of literary horror, turned his sights upon adapting to the screen his sensational novella The Hell-Bound Heart. Not only upon reading one would conceive adaptation with this perverse concoction of extremism in horror and fantasy would be nigh on impossible, one could barley envision an adaptation that would work as well as the original 1987 film does. Nor in the case of its sequel could one envision a fulfilling and satisfying continuation, and yet with this double bill, two horror classics were born...
Hellraiser
(Directed and Written by Clive Baker, 1987)
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Clive Barker as an auteur is a figure in film we don’t discuss often, largely because his following and previous films to his masterpiece Hellraiser aren’t exactly up to the same merit of that film's quality. However when it comes to this initial 1987 film that would end up spawning a whole extensive series of films, one really can’t deny the immense handle Barker had on his vision. Adapting his own novella The Hell-Bound Heart to the screen writing and directing himself, one can point to many examples where such involvement has reaped far less successful products. Perhaps the miracle of the original 1987 film is just to what extent Barker makes a dynamic and world-building feature whilst also keeping the film simple at its core. The film follows a bevy of characters and touches upon many different worlds of the supernatural and beyond and yet keeps most of its action to one grimy house and in particular one horrendously grimy attic. What begins as effectively a haunted house story quickly becomes a worlds sprawling tale of pleasure beyond bounds and horror not fathomable to the human mind. We meet to begin with the trio of Andrew Robinson as Larry, his new wife Julia played by Clare Higgins, and his daughter to the first marriage, Kirsty played by Ashley Laurence (adapted from the novella from a close friend to a more oedipally perverse dynamic for this more sexual and sensory version of his tale). Before in time however we come to terms with the horrid crux of the story that Sean Chapman’s Frank, a filthy and morally corrupt brother of Larry has some time past found himself in possession of The Lament Configuration, a puzzle box secret (despite every single person being immediately able to open it) being a gateway to a meeting with the coenobites. A collection of some of the most brilliant makeup effects of the time used to create these four figures of ultimate seekers of pleasures and sensation. These demonic BDSM demons are the sorts of things are nightmares are made of and of course they include the immediately iconic Doug Bradley as The Lead Cenobite, who despite Barker’s preference to refer to him as The Hell Priest, will forever be colloquially known as Pinhead. These figures of vital horror are terrifying and their secrets are desperately compelling. But not unlike people returning to the original Friday the 13th film after the litany of Jason centric sequels, these are but four horrifying supporting characters in this initial tale of Frank’s resurrection. Robinson s Larry is phenomenal as the sort of sad-sack to begin with, but perfectly imbuing the darkness of his brother as the film takes its evil course of action. Sean Chapman psychically as Frank is perfect, however has his lines dubbed by an American who Chapman after the fact had great distain for who dulls down all the lines of Frank to be a lot less compelling as the performance Chapman is giving. Laurence is good here as Kirsty and is a fine final girl but really gets into a stronger mould by the time she ultimately leads the sequel film. However Higgins as Julia gives her first outing as this extreme evil step-mother figure, her cunningness and arc into accepting the horrors her character takes on are truly marvellous and all in all it just brilliantly highlights once again the power of having great actors in these roles. The original Hellraiser is a thrilling, sickening and dynamically simple film that strikes right at the core of a horridly particular and viscerally impactful collection of terrors that will never not be as impactful and horrid as it is wickedly simple by design.
Hellbound:
Hellraiser (Dir. Tony Randel, Written by Peter Atkins, from a story by Barker,
1988)
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Now in writing the only credit Barker has on this sequel that came the year after the release of the first film is a story credit, however with the continuation of many, many elements from the original film, in so many ways this sequel films just as Barker as the series ever got beyond the original. Hellbound: Hellraiser II is one of the best continuations in a horror series we ever had and manages to grow the world to realms far beyond a grimy attic, whilst still keeping the viscera and visceral pleasures of that original simpler film. With Christopher Young returning with another excellent score building upon his sumptuous and grand gothic compositions from the first film. With Robert Vidgeon returning to give the same aesthetic overall with his cinematography, whilst again taking things to new larger extremes. Edited once again by Richard Marden offering a similar pace and quality to even the smallest of elements of the film. In every way bar expansion this feels absolutely completely of a piece with the film that came out only a year prior to this sequel. The plot and characters are hurdled immediately into another arc off extremity with our sole survivor (ignoring her bland boyfriend figure who is immediacy written out by a single line of expository dialogue) Kirsty, played again by Laurence, waking in a mental asylum. What we think will however be a torrid re-hash of a tale we’ve seen an abundance of times before with the tale of a character we know is telling the truth being in as position of nobody believe in them. However what becomes very clear is that the villainous head of the asylum knows full well that the truth is being told and is in actuality rashioning his own plot to go beyond the realms of pleasure and encounter the coenobites for himself. As this evil Channard, Kenneth Cranham is wonderfully wicked, and although his ultimate overwhelming power ends up defeating much of the mythos of the cenobites, as a simple sequel closing the book it does have a ‘bigger, badder’ element of things that makes his character work for this film, despite a few cringey doctor based puns. However the big bad remains with our dear terrifying Julia, played once more with an even more knowing level of evil by Clare Higgins. Higgins owns every aspect of this great turn and makes the whole thing drip with wonderful horror and frankly old Hollywood star quality. The practical effects are taken to a whole other level of quality with this film too, every single effect we have already seen is heightened and bettered, and the worlds the film presents this time around are even more expansive and astonishing as works of craft. Overall Tony Randel as director does a great job and although Barker despite having only tentative credits to the film still feels like an overwhelming presence in the film, Randel does great work in building and developing wholly fresh sequences that build upon things we had glimpsed in the first film or were even wholly created for this one. Hellbound is exactly what a sequel should be, something that expands whilst honouring, something that creates whilst solidifying what worked before, something that never repeats and always develops. Hellbound is a truly manic sequel but one completely by design and one that works incredibly well.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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