Hellraiser (Film, 1987) #31DaysOfHorror

Curiosity killed the cat, but the thought of it brought him back.

With the upcoming release of the new adaptation of Hellraiser next week on Hulu, it felt appropriate to dedicate the first stretch of #31DaysOfHorror 2022 to the series. Clive Barker is one of my favorite authors of all time, and the Hellraiser series is one of my favorite in all of horror. The idea of people opening a portal to a realm of “pleasure for some, pain for others” by solving a puzzle became a real fascination for me as a child. I was a puzzle-solving kid and I still love puzzle games as an adult. I have my LeMarchand models and choose not to play with them just in case.

The original film is disturbing in ways a successful 80s slasher really wasn’t allowed to be in the late 80s. Barker’s entire aesthetic has always been ahead of his time. Hellraiser, in particular, distills the raw and twisted sexuality of his work into something genuinely repulsive. Horror has leaned into sexuality for decades, but it’s still rare to see the more mature elements be the entrée of horror rather than a side dish 35 years after Hellraiser.

In the novella The Hellbound Heart, we discover the first victim of the story travelled the world to find the box. He wanted to experience a pleasure beyond any available to mere mortals. Tales of the Cenobites travelled around the world, leading him to risk everything on solving the LeMarchand Configuration. Humans who solve it invite the Cenobites to do what they want with them.

Why do the Cenobites look how they do? Why do they do what they do? Simple. Pleasure and pain. In the novella, it is made clear that the sensation of pleasure and pain feel the same to the Cenobites in their inhuman forms. Pain is easier to achieve than pleasure, so they share their painful gifts with those who invite them in.

The aesthetic of the Cenobites clearly pulls from the world of BDSM. Leather, harnesses, d-rings, surface piercings, colors, blindfolds, hooks, and chains transform these Cenobites into something far beyond their mortal form. Pinhead is the most famous, but the other three tell their own stories of pleasure and pain. There’s the Female Cenobite with her wired open throat. There’s Butterball with his wired blindfold hiding his stitched eyes. And there’s Chatterer with his mouth wired open as wide as possible. They have given up control of some of their senses in the pursuit of eternal stimulation and gladly share their gift with those who ask for it.

The narrative of Hellraiser embraces this raw sexuality in the adulterous relationship between the living corpse of Frank Cotton and his sister-in-law Julia. Julia grows from initial shock at Frank’s decayed appearance to desire and lust for the opportunity to build their relationship all over again. She is willing to do whatever it takes to bring back Frank, even if that involves feeding his corpse with fresh human victims until he is whole again.

The sexual nature of Barker’s writing is not for titillation or exploitation. His horror work, Hellraiser included, explores the animalistic nature of humanity. No matter how far we’ve grown throughout the existence of the human race, we are still animals. Barker pushes his characters to the point of surrendering their humanity in exchange for immediate power, pleasure, or gain.

In Hellraiser, curiosity is the uniquely human trait that unites victim, villain, and Cenobites. There are victims in these films that clearly do not deserve what happens to them. I will not argue against that. However, the connecting thread is curiosity. No one needs to follow Julia to the attic. No one forces Kristy to solve the puzzle box (in this film). And no one (in the first film) forces the Cenobites to claim those who did not know what they chose with the LeMarchand Configuration. They are all curious to see what could happen without knowing exactly what will happen.

Hellraiser will always be one of my favorite films. I am curious to see what 2022 will allow in the story. We already have a female Pinhead, which was originally envisioned for the 1987 film. Audiences are more open to gore, abstract horror, and sexuality onscreen. Society may have finally caught up to Clive Barker’s imagination, merely teased at in the original 1987 film.