What's your pleasure?

Torture, gore and death are the three elements that are required in order to produce a high-quality bloodcurdling scary movie. My whole life I have enjoyed watching horror movies, although I will admit that I am terrified of zombies!!!! My name is Jackie and I am a student at the University of St. Francis. In my blogs I will give my opinion as well as little known facts on various scary movies, both new and old.
Clive Barker’s greatest masterpiece would have to be the creation of the movie “Hellraiser”. “Hellraiser” was created back in 1987 (great year!!!). It is a story of love, lust, demons and hell.
The story begins with “Uncle Frank". He is a sexual predator in search of new pleasures. On a trip to a third world country, he purchases a mysterious Chinese puzzle box. On his return home to England, he solves the “puzzle box” only to discover the line between pleasure and pain as his body is impaled with fishhooks and ripped to shreds by the very Cenobites that he unknowingly summoned from another dimension. Years later, Frank’s brother Larry and his wife Julia move into the old family home where the incident occurred in the attic. Larry slices his finger, dripping blood onto the floor, which brings “Uncle Frank” back into a form that is not human. In order to be returned to his original appearance he has to devour human blood. The twist is that he and Julia had an affair and she is coaxed into luring men into the home for Frank. Kirsty, Larry’s daughter from a previous marriage, comes into the story when she begins to suspect her hated stepmother of having an affair. Her suspicions get her entangled with Frank, the puzzle box and the Cenobites when she discovers how to open it. After opening it the movie begins to truly take off when she proceeds to mkae a bargain of Frank's soul in exchange for hers.

Clive Barker’s interpretation of hell is, for a lack of a better word, beautiful. The beginning scene where “Uncle Frank” meets the Cenobites is awesome. You get to see hooks flying from every angle, one after another just impaling every part of his body, than it’s like an explosion as he is ripped apart. Also, the scene where Frank sucks the life out of the men that Julia brings home is odd. He pierces his hand into the back of their neck (like where the top of your spine is located) and all you see is the final product which is a shriveled up grey looking corpse. The creation of the Cenobites deserves some praise. The detail put into these characters is immense. I love Pinhead! He is just a remarkable character. He is not terrifying to look at, but you know the power that he is capable of has no boundaries.
The inspiration for the movie came from a novel that Barker had written called The Hellbound Heart. This movie was his directorial debut. The titling for this movie was very difficult, due to the fact that the production company (New World) did not feel comfortable with the title “Hellraiser”. Barker’s original title was “Sadomasochist from Beyond the Grave”. Thankfully, that one did not stick and eventually the title “Hellraiser” was agreed upon.

If you would like more information on this movie or Clive Barker there are numerous web sites that you can visit, including www.houseofhorrors.com/hellraiser.html , http://www.cenobite.com/, and http://www.clivebarker.com/.