Hellraiser – The Movie

When I was a kid, I wasn’t even allowed to watch Labyrinth as my mother deemed it too scary. Horror movies were not welcome in our house, my mother’s attempt to shield me from them (yeah, see how well that worked). So I missed Hellraiser first time around, which meant when I finally watched did, I came to it having seen many more modern horror movies. I felt that it got off to an impressive start. The opening music was far grander than I was expecting and set the scene for something truly great and the music quality continued unabated. When I got to the resurrection scene, the music was so familiar, I Shazamed it, only to discover that it was in fact the original soundtrack, and my knowledge of it was through its reuse in many later productions. Having read the book, I knew Frank’s background and thought the flashbacks were handled well without breaking the overall build-up of the opening sequences. Once you got past the big hair, billowy blouses and baggy trousers, the characters were convincing. Clare Higgins’ interpretation of the bold Julia particularly appealed to me, and it has to be said the make-up department did a wonderful job with her startling eye make-up and hair. There was no comic book set design like Nightmare on Elm Street. Instead, the film focussed on a definite plot and strong character development, which for me made it stand out from its contemporaries. Unfortunately, the overall quality decreased around the time that Kirsty got her hands on the box. The downfall, like so many horror movies, was that once you actually see the monsters, they start to be less scary. It seemed that once Clive Barker began with his special effects budget, he really went to town, at the expense of the character development and tension which he had built up so beautifully at the beginning. Less would have been more, and when the Cenobites first appear, their sinister words would have had greater effect if spoken in hushed tones in a dark room, rather than in the maelstrom of wind machine and dry-ice that Barker uses. And of course, the problem with special effects is that they are the first thing to make a film seem dated. In summary, the soundtrack is definitely going to find its way into my library and while I would watch this film again, I expect I’ll end up doing the washing up by the end.

- Charlotte Bond 

Charlotte Bond 


Charlotte has had several short stories published in various formats from print to electronic and even audio. She has a novella out with Screaming Dreams publications, and a short story anthology due out this year. She is currently working on a novel and some radio productions.

Charlotte is thrilled to join the Ginger Nuts of Horror team, and is looking forward to indulging in two of her favourite things - reading new books and spouting opinions.

Originally from North Yorkshire, Charlotte now lives in Leeds and that's as far south as she's prepared to go. She is married and lives with a small child and a very fluffy cat. One of them is a small bundle of hurricane-level energy which tears up everything it passes; the other leaves hairballs wherever it sits. It is left up to the reader to decide which is which.