Hellraiser

Horror film for yesterday:

10/8: For tonight's film I watched Clive Barker's Hellraiser, another horror classic that oddly enough I have never seen before. I guess this month is kind of going that way, filling in gaps of my horror knowledge. To start things off, this movie... really caught me off guard, I guess is the best way to put it. This is another film that is so much in the public consciousness that I almost felt like I had seen it before I had even seen it; how wrong I was. I was expecting a slasher along the lines of the Freddys/Jasons/Michaels of horror, with someone opening a box  that unleashes a force that attempts to kill them. What I got instead was a tale of sadomasochistic torture from hell. Well, alrighty than.

This movie follows the story of a unfaithful wife who finds the zombie body of her dead lover (her husbands brother Frank) upstairs in their new home. She finds his penis just so life-changing and magnificent that she agrees to sacrifice other men by luring them into the house with sex to bring her lovers body fully back. So that she can, you know, not have sex with zombie penis. This is all wrapped up in greater story revolving around a cube that when opened brings forth sadomasochists from hell (Cenobites) that torture the opener. So yeah... completely not what I thought.

This movie is weird as all hell, and I can conclusively say I've never seen another movie quite like that. I mean that in a good way. The subject matter is horrifying beyond just the gore and horrifying in a way atypically horror, if that makes sense. The special effects too are masterfully done and remind me quite a bit of The Thing. They're real, gross, and none of that CGI shit that is a crutch for lazy filmmakers not wanting to put in the expense to make their monsters (or other creatures/people/etc) look genuine or horrifying. I felt disturbed after watching the film, not really scared, but disturbed at what I had seen. I can't say that for many movies, and for that right there the movie was a huge success for me. Sure, the acting generally blows (save for the Cenobites and Frank, both genuinely creepy), but really, that's a minor complaint. Well done, Mr. Barker.

9/10