Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker in his directorial debut. Based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, decided to attempt to direct a film himself. He asked Christopher Figg, who became his producer, how small the budget would have to be for someone being willing to hire him as a first time director. Figg said the budget had to be less than a million dollars, which could be done if the film was just about a house and some monsters, and if he used more or less unknown actors. Barker decided to adapt The Hellbound Heart, as the story fit those parameters.
About seven or eight weeks after principal photography had finished, the executive producers saw the footage and liked the film enough to invest more into it. Because of this, a few scenes were redone with a higher budget, like the scene near the end where Frank's body is ripped apart. To produce Frank's resurrection, effects like reverse motion were used to give his skeleton flesh and inner organs.
The film had two editors: Richard Marden
Soundtrack
Barker originally wanted the electronic music group Coil to perform the music for the film, but that notion was rejected by New World. Editor Tony Randel then suggested Christopher Young as a replacement for Coil for the film's score. Young had previously composed scores for other horror films such as the 1985 slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and the 1986 Tobe Hooper film Invaders from Mars.
The score for Hellraiser was released in 1987. AllMusic stated that the score proved that Christopher Young "hadn't used up all of his ideas for the horror genre" and that Young had matched "Barker's stylish look with a gothic score that mixed in exciting synthesizer effects". The film was released in the United States and Canada on 18 September. By a 3–2 majority vote, the film was deemed "not approved in its entirety as it contravenes community standards". It was banned because of its "brutal, graphic violence with blood-letting throughout, horror, degradation and torture".
Hellraiser received a wide theatrical re-release in the United States on 5 and 6 February 2025, accompanied by featurette Under the Skin: Doug Bradley on Hellraiser.
Home media
In North America, Hellraiser has been released by Anchor Bay Entertainment three times, all of which are the original 93-minute version of the film (this is the only version to ever be released on DVD). The original DVD release was a "barebones" release and is now out of print. It was reissued in 2000 with a new 5.1 mix mastered in THX. Finally, it was packaged along with Hellbound: Hellraiser II in a Limited Edition tin case which included a 48-page colour booklet and a reproduction theatrical poster for both films. Anchor Bay released the film on Blu-ray in 2009. This version retains all of the special features found on the 20th anniversary special edition DVD. In 2011, the film was re-released on Blu-ray by Image Entertainment under the "Midnight Madness" series label. This version contains no special features. However, various Blu-ray releases have since emerged with a highly variable selection of special features, although most of these are recycled from previous DVD releases.
In October 2015, Arrow Films released the film on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom along with Hellbound: Hellraiser II and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth in a Scarlet Box edition featuring new 2K restorations and extensive list of bonus features including feature-length documentaries on the first 2 films and a bonus disc containing additional content such as two short films by Clive Barker. The Scarlet Box is now out of print in the UK and replaced by a three-film edition of the set without the bonus disc.
A US version of the Scarlet Box (with the same material) was released by Arrow on 20 December 2016.
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the film, Clive Barker has adapted his early "Hell Priest" concept designs for the Lead Cenobite into an officially licensed mask for Composite Effects. Only a limited quantity of thirty of these masks were made and then released to the public on 24 March 2017. As part of the Anniversary, Hellraiser was re-released via Blu-Ray in a SteelBook edition on 30 October. It additionally received a theatrical screening at the Prince Charles Cinema, where it made its world premiere in 1987. A remixed and remastered version of Christopher Young's score was also made available, debuting at the Anniversary screening.
Reception
Box-office
Hellraiser grossed $14,564,000 in the United States and Canada, £763,412 in the United Kingdom and $30 million worldwide.
Critical response
For contemporary reviews in the United Kingdom, Time Out London referred to the film as "Barker's dazzling debut" that "creates such an atmosphere of dread that the astonishing set-pieces simply detonate in a chain reaction of cumulative intensity" and concluded that the film was "a serious, intelligent and disturbing horror film". The Daily Telegraph stated that "Barker has achieved a fine degree of menace". Melody Maker described it as "the best horror film ever to be made in Britain". Kim Newman writing for the Monthly Film Bulletin noted that the most immediately striking aspect of the movie is its seriousness of tone in an era when horror films (the Nightmare on Elm Street or Evil Dead films in particular) tend to be broadly comic". The Washington Post referred to the film as a "dark, frequently disturbing and occasionally terrifying film" but also argued that "Barker's vision hasn't quite made the conversion from paper to celluloid [...] There are some weaknesses, particularly the framing of close-ups and the generic score, but there are some moments of genuinely inventive gore [...] the film falls apart at its climax, degenerating to a surprisingly lame ending full of special effects and triumphant good". Roger Ebert gave the film one-half of a star out of four and deemed it "as dreary a piece of goods as has masqueraded as horror in many a long, cold night. This is one of those movies you sit through with mounting dread, as the fear grows inside of you that it will indeed turn out to be feature length" and that "this is a movie without wit, style or reason, and the true horror is that actors were made to portray, and technicians to realize, its bankruptcy of imagination". Writing in The Atlanta Constitution and other Cox papers, Eleanor Ringel assessed: "Re-Animator and Evil Dead II demonstrated that films like this can be made with a bit of wit and style. Hellraiser, alas, buries itself in its own shoddy shock tactics. It's not scary or funny; it's just squishy." Trade magazine Variety stated that Hellraiser is "well made, well acted, and the visual effects are generally handled with skill". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
In the early 2010s, Time Out London conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. Hellraiser placed at number 80 on their top 100 list.
Sequels and remake
thumb|right|Concept art by [[Gary Tunnicliffe for Pinhead from Patrick Lussier's defunct Hellraiser reboot. Several ideas and concepts were developed for the project, with William Fichtner at one point considered for the role of the Hell Priest.]]
Hellraiser was followed by nine sequels, the first seven of which featured Doug Bradley reprising his role as Pinhead. Clive Barker has stated that he signed away the story and character rights to the production company prior to the release of the first film, not realizing the critical and financial success it would be.
Plans for a Hellraiser remake were publicised in October 2007, when Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury were reported to be directing, with Barker producing and Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton writing the script. After Maury and Bustillo left the project, Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier were attached, with production slated for an early 2012 release. However, following the release of Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) to secure continuing rights, Farmer and Lussier were no longer involved. By 2018, after the critical and commercial success of Halloween, Miramax Films had confirmed plans for new Hellraiser installments. The film was green-lit in early 2019, with David Bruckner directing from a script written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. It was released on Hulu in October 2022. A Hellraiser television series is in development at HBO.
See also
- List of British films of 1987
- List of horror films of 1987