Synopsis
Hedonist Frank Cotton finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, who open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
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Cast
- Clare HigginsJulia Cotton
- Ashley LaurenceKirsty Cotton
- Sean ChapmanFrank Cotton
- Oliver SmithFrank the Monster
- Andrew RobinsonLarry Cotton
- Robert HinesSteve
- Doug BradleyPinhead
- Grace KirbyFemale Cenobite
- Nicholas VinceChattering Cenobite
- Simon Bamford'Butterball' Cenobite
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
With Hellraiser, Clive Barker created one of the most genuinely disturbing movies of the last 20 years. - 80
The Guardian
Utterly bizarre and entirely ridiculous – and yet effective, an imaginative Guignol festival, like the goriest of soap operas, in which one wrong move opens a portal to hell. - 80
Time Out London
A serious, intelligent and disturbing horror film. - 80
The A.V. Club
Pinhead barely appears in Hellraiser, a film that, with its intense and uncomfortable family drama, might have even worked without him. With him, however, it becomes one of the most innovative and memorable horror films of the '80s. - 78
Austin Chronicle
This skillfully creepy film tells the story of some housemates who experience unwelcome visits from a partially decomposed former resident who rises from beneath the floorboards. Seems he wants the flesh and blood of the new residents in order to settle some old scores. - 63
Slant Magazine
Barker’s vision cribs equally from the mythos of vampires and zombies, but Hellraiser‘s overriding ridiculousness (and nagging budgetary shortcomings) can’t disguise the fact that the movie is at least unwittingly a product of the AIDS crisis. - 60
Washington Post
Hellraiser is certainly a cut or two above the slasher films that seem to proliferate on Friday the 13ths and Halloweens. It's a decidedly adult picture, with some disquieting sexual tensions that simply wouldn't work with the usual teen crew. It's also a treatise on the thin line between pleasure and pain and how easily crossed it can be. - 50
Chicago Reader
Minor grisly fun, but don't expect the movie to linger when it's over.
