The film's poster.
Hellraiser is a 1987 British horror movie. It was written and directed by Clive Barker and based on a novella, The Hellbound Heart, which Barker himself had written a year prior.
The movie was a box office success. It was made on an estimated budget of only $1,000,000 and earned more than $14,000,000 at movie theaters in the United States.
Hellraiser was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It was originally banned in Iceland.
The movie introduces four recurring Cenobites seen throughout the Hellraiser series: the leader Pinhead and his entourage - Chatterer, Butterball, and the Female Cenobite.
Plot
Frank Cotton buys a puzzle box from a dealer in Morocco. In a bare room, Frank solves the puzzle. Hooked chains then emerge from the puzzle box and rip at Frank's flesh. The room is later filled with swinging chains with some of the remnants of Frank's body on them. Somebody in a black robe picks up the puzzle box and puts it back as it was before; the room also returns to its normal state.
Larry Cotton, Frank's brother, decides to move into his childhood home, hoping to rebuild his difficult relationship with his second wife, Julia. Before marrying Larry, Julia had had an affair with Frank. It is obvious to Larry that Frank has recently been in the abandonded house. Larry assumes that his brother has fled from the authorities. Kristy, Larry's teenage daughter, has chosen not to live with her stepmother and has moved into her own home.
When Larry cuts his hand on a nail, and spills his blood on the attic floor, Frank comes back to life. Later, Julia discovers Frank the monster, and they make a deal, Julia will bring Frank men, murder them, and Frank will take their blood, so he'll heal. Julia does this devious deed until Kirsty catches Frank stealing one of his victems blood, Kirsty escapes his clutches with the box.
While at a hospital, Kirsty opens the box, where she meets the Cenobites, Pinhead, Chatterer, Butterball, and Female. As they were about to take Kirsty, she makes a deal to take Frank back instead of her, Pinhead agrees but only if Frank confesses himself, but if not, Pinhead tells Kirsty that he'll tear her soul apart.
Kirsty goes to the house to warn her father, but she got their too late, Frank murdered Larry and he took his skin, Frank admits this to Kirsty, and the cenobites come, and take Frank back to Hell.
As Pinhead was about to take her too, Kirsty closes the box, and sends the Cenobites back to Hell. After sending the Engineer back, she and her boyfriend Steve through the box in a fire, but then a homeless man goes into the fire to retrive the box, then he turns into a skeleton dragon and flies away with the box.
Cast
- Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton
- Claire Higgins as Julia Cotton
- Andrew Robinson as Larry Cotton
- Sean Chapman as Frank Cotton
- Oliver Smith as Frank the monster
- Doug Bradley as Pinhead
- Nicholas Vince as Chatterer
- Simon Bamford as Butterball
- Grace Kirby as Female
External links
- Hellraiser on the Internet Movie Database.
- Hellraiser on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Hellraiser on AllMovie.
- Quotations from Hellraiser on Wikiquote.