Welcome to Franchise hell ... Hellraiser 1-3

Clive Barker's seminal horror movie Hellraiser, is a gore drenched yarn about a man, Frank, who becomes trapped in a hell dimension of perfect pain when he messes around with a cursed mechanical box. On solving the puzzle of the cube he his dragged into the realm of the Cenobites, a race of S&M demons who pierce and tear at his flesh with spiked chains, torturing him to a state of agonizing ecstasy. Our violent anti-hero returns to the earthly realm when his brother moves into a creaky old house and the box is re-opened. Now Frank's brother's corrupt wife is seducing unsuspecting men to the attic in order to feed their blood to the skinless Frank, putting new flesh onto his mortal remains...

An incredibly sick and bloody fantasy that has aged very well over the last twenty years, this is an essential for any horror collection and also a stylistic masterclass for aspiring cybergoths.





Following the gory demise of her father and perverted stepmother at the hands of the loathsome Cenobites, Kirsty, Frank's Niece, winds up in a psychiatric unit. No believes her outlandish claims about hell demons, sadism and curious puzzle boxes so she is sent to the institute where she receives care from the deeply odd Dr. Channard, a seeker of a key to other dimensions of experience.

Channard uses the information given to him by Kirsty to resurrect he wicked stepmother, who looks particularly heinous without any skin. Luckily for her, the crazed doctor is happy to bring her his patients so she can feed from their life blood. She's soon back to her old self! She helps Channard as he tries to bring the Cenobites back to earth but Kirsty has other ideas.

This is a lot more over the top then the first movie which is a remarkably subtle and nuanced film for a movie about being pierced with hooked chains and tortured till your mind snaps... Hellraiser 2 throws caution to the wind and is a delirious, trippy nightmare of a movie; full of horror and pain. A decent follow up to a genuine classic.




After the terrible inconvenience of being trapped in a large stone block with the cursed puzzle box at the conclusion of Hellraiser 2: Hellbound, Pinhead get lucky when a dim witted young playboy buys the block thinking it's a piece of modern sculpture, a decision that we all know he's going to live to regret.

Pinhead starts warping the rich kids mind, making him bring victims to his presence so he can use their blood to get free from his prison. Now released, he quests to destroy the box so he and his Cenobite friends need never return to the hell dimension from whence they came... Can a plucky female reporter assigned to the murder cases stop him?

The franchise took a downward turn into the realm of trash with this second sequel to the 80s classic, but fun is still to be had. The gore scenes look great; very creative and gruesome. Some new Cenobites will cause titters, particularly the one with the Camcorder lodged in his head, quite why they chose to make these most amazing of horror monsters so tacky is a question that need answering! Still, for cheap horror laughs and the still commanding presence of Doug Bradley as Pinhead, this is still worth shelling out for...

Please no requests for reviews of the rest of franchise, which is one of the more extreme examples of a film series declining from salubrious beginnings.

I'd rather string myself up with spiky chains...