Frank's story begins with his purchase of a puzzle box said to hold unimaginable pleasures, unfortunately some people's definition of pleasure is quite a bit macabre as is custom in most of the works by Mr. Barker. Long story short, Frank opens the box and in turn summons the cenobites, who proceed to tear his body apart. Soon after these events Frank's brother, Larry, moves into Frank's abandoned house with his wife, Julia, who had an affair with Frank directly before her marriage to Larry. While moving in Larry manages to cut his hand rather badly, spilling his blood across the attic floor. As it turns out this is just enough to bring a dead man back to life, and Frank emerges from the pool of blood, not to mention in a rather poor state seeing as how he has no skin. Not long after Frank reveals himself to a terrified Julia, asking for help, which just so happens to be a delivery of humans to feed on so that Frank can resume his original form. As if things couldn't get bad enough Larry's daughter comes to visit and the real horrors begin. Now to go on any farther would ruin the story for those who have not seen the film or read the book.
To give a short synopsis of Hellraiser would not do the film any justice. The film, just like the book, is not simply a story about monsters from another dimension. It is a ride through the depravity of human beings and in short a story about how the need to know and feel more isn't always a good thing. While some would argue that the cenobites are the most horrifying aspect of Hellraiser, they are much more civilized than the man who escaped their clutches, Frank Cotton. Frank represents every bad thought and every evil deed put into motion by humankind. He is simply a criminal on the run from the only captors who could deliver him suitable punishment. Having said this, the cenobites are definitely not saints. They are remorseless as well as relentless in their pursuit and torture of those who open the puzzle box, whether they are guilty of horrific crimes or not, a description made even more chilling by the fact that they are simply humans who embraced the pain and torture inflicted upon them as presented in sequels.
Personally I feel as though Hellraiser is the underdog of the eighties horror genre. Although the film lives on as a cult classic it has never reached the same popularity of films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th, probably due to the dwindling quality after the second film. This is unfortunate because the film presented a certain dark depth to it's creatures that not many films are willing to display. While Nightmare and Friday appealed to youths because they reflected pop culture at the time, Barker directed Hellraiser as a film which purely and simply focused on horror without regard to what was popular at the time. In my opinion this makes it superior to much of the genre at the time and most of it today. Despite best efforts no director has managed to duplicate the same vibe as Hellraiser, and one would be hard pressed to find another Doug Bradley to create such a macabre figure as Pinhead or for that matter another Oliver Smith or Andrew Robinson to portray the bloodthirsty Frank.
To this day I still watch Hellraiser on occasion and hope for another film that will dive into the great depths of darkness in the human heart and some have come close such as Midnight Meat Train, which is also based on a story by Barker. If Hellraiser were to have come out in this decade I fear it would not do well in our pop culture saturated society that always calls for more violence and a faster pace for it's horror films. When Barker released The Hellbound Heart Stephen King stated "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker". It's only a shame that such popularity didn't last longer.
Off topic, but below is a link to a horror compilation video on youtube I quite enjoyed.
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