2nd Personal Film Review - Hellraiser (1987)

Film Title: Hellraiser (1987)
Genre/Genres: Thriller, Horror
Director: Clive Barker
Personal Rating: 7/10

Synopsis-

Hellraiser follows the story of Frank who purchases a puzzle box from a dealer of antiques whilst in Morocco. He then becomes somewhat obsessed with the box and attempts to open it. He succeeds and is met with a very grizzly and gorey end, after his body is torn apart with meat hooks and robed figures known as the 'Cenobites' take him away. Frank's brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his wife Julia (Clare Higgins) move into Frank's house and decide to renovate it a bit. Larry cuts his hand whilst decorating and the blood that drips into the floorboards resurrects his dead brother Frank as a corpse. Now Larry's wife must get Frank more blood through murders so that he can be whole once again. After Frank cheats death, it isn't long before the Cenobites come looking for him to seek his comeuppance.
Which two scenes impressed you the most? Why?

One scene which impressed me was Frank's last scene after he becomes mortal again when the Cenobites come after him as they trap him. The Cenobites rip into him with many large meat hooks, just as they did the first time round at the beginning of the film. There's a nice use of restricted narration that's used here to show the hook digging its way into Frank's skin. The camera uses a mid shot as we see him run towards the daughter character whilst claiming "you set me up" in an attempt to kill her, and the camera cuts to one of the Cenobite's faces as the audience hear the hook going in, the camera then cuts to an close up of the hook embedded within the flesh of Frank's arm. Then the camera cuts between Frank's pained face to the cenobites one by one, before we hear the hook on the chain sweep down into Frank's back. Now comes a montage of different hooks, with some cuts of the hooks tearing into the flesh, this movie was low budget but the effects used within the montage are hard to study closely and look very good upon a glance. The audience are then treated to a close up of a sawblade clawing its way up the back. And we are then placed face to face with Frank with the many number of hooks pulling his body apart. We are then treated to collision cutting from a fast montage to Frank laughing and uttering his final words "Jesus Wept" then the scene speeds up and the audience catch a glimpse of the body being fully torn apart with blood splatters covering the attic. I really love this scene for the fact the effects are good for such a low budget movie ($1 million) The pacing in this scene is also really good, there isn't a dull moment in this final gore fest, and Clive Barker's use of montage helps to really ramp up the pacing of this scene and make it exciting for audiences. We may not see the hooks going directly into the skin, but we are treated to the bloody aftermath where we get a good five second look at the damage done. I think this scene was probably one of the most exciting in the movie, it's nice that we have all of the Cenobite characters arranged around Frank to come and claim him. As for the sound used here, it is an ominous mix of screeching violins and a very high note on a keyboard. It's a horrible sound but I think it fits well with the nature of the scene.

Another scene which really impressed me was the part where the Cenobites come to find the puzzle box and claim it back from Larry's daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence). I found this scene really unnerving but effective because it had a nice blend of the classic horror conventions. It's also the first time we see all of the Cenobite characters for a good while instead of the brief mention they get earlier towards the start of the film. The location is a hospital room and all of the lights go out when the Cenobites make their entrance into the mortal world, there is a nice use of low key lighting here around the Cenobites with a unearthly blue tint around them which helps to create a lot of shadows in the room, to make it seem like Kirsty is surrounded by these monsters with no way out. I also really liked the mise en scene used within this part, It had parallel music to compliment it, it was a slow monotonous sound, which made the Cenobites seem all the more terrifying. The cinematography for this scene was well constructed too, when the "Chatterer" character took Kirsty hostage and started to strangle her, a lot of close ups were used on her face to show the pain she was in to the audience and her strive to get her father back. I also liked the close up shots used on the Cenobites because it allowed the audience to study them a little closer and see just how gruesome they really are as characters, some have gore constructed onto them such as the "Chatterer". He has his mouth peeled back so there is a large set of teeth protruding at the front of his face so his skin is very bloody and gory. As far as the character development goes in this scene, I really enjoyed it in the sense that we learn how devious the Cenobites are in order to capture Frank and claim him as well as the box, which puts them under the quick, smart monster category due them them being able to deviate a plan to get what they want. There was a nice use of collision cutting here too, Kirsty goes into a passageway that opens in one of the room's walls and it's very quiet here, until a monster charges towards her then it gets very loud, very quickly and it works in order to shock audiences.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of filmmaking? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? When? How?

This movie was relatively low budget as aforementioned with a total budget of $1 million, so this film has shown me that in order to create a successful movie (made $4 million on the opening weekend) This film contains classic elements of the horror genre such as having a final girl, the character of Kirsty endures some pain in a number of ways such as physically, emotionally and mentally but despite all that she pulls through well in the end. The locations of the movie are creepy, the main set being the house which has an isolated victorian feel to it. It's an old large wooden house and the main action takes place in the attic which is a classic location also used in many horror films such as in Amityville Horror (1979). The lighting of the attic is very low key which helps for dramatic effect when Frank first looms out of the shadows but it also helps to build that creepiness of the scene. A lot of body horror is used too, the main part being when Frank is standing in the middle of the attic and the hooks are shooting out and tearing into his flesh before being taken back by the Cenobite characters. The gore effects are very effective and are all practical effects from what I can see, which means that there was no CGI based effects used which most of the time don't look great. As for the ending of the movie it was an open one because we see the box end up back in Morocco with the same dealer, so it is as though the cycle has started again. And this ending led to a number of sequels which are all still rated pretty well. The narrative is pretty strong throughout the film and I think it was good that they left it open, because I wanted to see more of the Cenobite characters, so by used Propp and Todorov's open ending narrative theory Clive Barker was able to continue making films within the Hellraiser franchise. As for the thematics of the film, there is a strong element of sadism used within the film such as how Frank enjoys watching people get killed so he can feast upon their blood.

Which aspects of the film would you like to include in your own trailer? Why?

Personally, I'd like to include some of the creepy monster characters as seen within this movie, I feel contextually within modern day horror films, they focus too much on psychological horror as opposed to the classic slasher monster movies like Friday the 13th (1980) or Halloween (1978). I'd like to have a creepy monster of monsters to play the role of the antagonists, so i'd like to include something similar to the cenobites from Hellraiser. Despite it being a low budget movie it skillfully built tension elsewhere with the music (composed by Christopher Young) which I think can make or break a movie. The music has to go well with a scene otherwise it turns into contrapuntal music such as the ending scene of Dawn of the dead (1978) with 'The Gonk'. It took away any horror element of the movie and I don't think it worked. So I would like to try and use music that helps fit in with the horror genre as displayed within this movie. I'd also like to find a suitably creepy location, similar to the large house in this movie, but maybe a church seeing as they're used contextually within a lot of gothic fiction, the house in the movie seems pretty ordinary but it's old and wooden so it's got that ageing feel about it. Most of the action horror takes place in the attic of the house with the minor exception of the hospital, it's pretty small so it adds that sense of claustrophobia to it, also it's extremely dark and uses low key lighting to create shadows which adds character to the the scene, and helps to build tension with the moments that happen here. I loved the gore effects too, I'd want to do something with that and try to add an extra dimension of horror to the film, but I would stay with practical effects as opposed to the computer generated ones.

What aspects of the film would you like to avoid in your own trailer? Why?

The only thing I can really pick up on from this film is some of the very ill fitting dialogue and it feels like it's been put in there just because it can be. I'd say it broke my personal immersion from the movie and actually made me laugh at some points, it gives it a very dated feel. An example of this would be Larry cuts his hand open on the nail and Julia doesn't really give any reaction to it, despite it being a deep cut so I'd like to avoid this stale reaction in order to shock audiences more, I want to build that tension as opposed to tearing away from it.

What was the best aspect/ more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? How can you recreate this in your own trailer? How?
The best aspect of the film for me was actually the character creation, and how the Cenobites act as a purgatory council to reap souls and claim the box to keep themselves safe. I found the backstory of the characters interesting and it made me want to see more of them, which would explain why I liked the sequels that came after this film. I'd like to use a creepy monster within my trailer and completely break away from the standard psychological horror with ghosts that Hollywood tends to replicate so much now. The quick and smart monsters are very effective and combined with collision cutting and make quite a good few jump scares which are good tricks commonly used within the horror genre. I can recreate the effects the Cenobites have on them such as how the character of Pinhead (Doug Bradley) has large pins protruding from his skull all the way over his head. I can also help my research by looking into how Clive Barker has chosen to portray these characters to his audiences through the films,and look into detailed horror masks online or better yet how to recreate the effects through use of liquid latex.

How does the film show the influence of its "auteur" director? How does it show the director's filmmaking style  and soul? Give examples of three scenes from the movie that show their auteur style.

Clive Barker is a very interesting man within his own right not only is he a director, he's a best selling author, openly gay, excellent artist and very proactive about filmmaking. And it's through his zaney character that he is able to create and display some of the most interesting characters to ever grace the screen. Barker has actually said he has a love for latex effects to help create such an effective horror movie. I think he really hones in on this during the production of Hellraiser. One scene of the movie where I think he pays homage to this trait the most is the Frank's last scene in which we see an incredible amount of latex effects used within a montage of hooks ripping into skin. The creative genius of Barker really shows in this scene with the alien like characters standing around as they deliver pain unto Frank, the fact that the Cenobites aren't human or anything remotely close is an interesting tidbit on Barker's part and shows his unique ability to create memorable characters such as "Rawhead Rex" or "Candyman" which both did okay as movies.

Another scene which would show Barker's artistic talent would be with the part where Kirsty makes an attempt to capture all of the Cenobites inside the puzzle box. During this scene we see all of the Cenobites get sucked into the box after trying to kill Kirsty and get the box back in their control. Because it was such a low budget movie some of the effects after reading into them, are a little bit bit improvised, much like some of the dialogue in the film but I'll get to that later. During this scene where Pinhead rises above Kirsty and in order to do this Barker had a seesaw with a heavier person than Doug Bradley on the other side so it looked like he was floating. Contextually this is interesting as Barker had never directed a film before and the only way he would release Hellraiser as a movie was if he got to direct it. He actually tried to take out a book on how to direct a movie but the library had them loaned out already. I think this reflects Barkers style within the movie because he had to try and get around these issues through sheer trial and error, and the scene looks incredible so finding that out really made that scene special for me.

The last scene I am going to talk about is the one where we have Frank in his fleshy corpse smoking the cigarette whilst talking to Julia. The actor who played Frank (Oliver Smith) liked to smoke cigarettes before filming his scenes, Barker actually saw this as an opportunity to make the character of Frank a little more rough around the edge and give him a bit more "fleshing out" as a character. Barker told Smith that it should go into the movie, and I think this kind of split second thinking to put little parts into the movie reflects Barker's character well as a person. He is a very creative man and was heavily interested in art, and this is quite an arty shot to look at within the movie. It also looks quite nice too, there is low key lighting used to shadow Franks face, so all you see from the darkness is a little bit of the red flesh from his head and cigarette smoke drifting upwards.