Hellraiser

1987 Directed by Clive Barker

He'll tear your soul apart.

An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover while the demonic cenobites are pursuing him after he escaped their sadomasochistic underworld.

Ashley Laurence Andrew Robinson Clare Higgins Sean Chapman Oliver Smith Robert Hines Doug Bradley Grace Kirby Nicholas Vince Simon Bamford Anthony Allen Leon Davis Michael Cassidy Frank Baker Kenneth Nelson Gay Baynes Niall Buggy Dave Atkins Oliver Parker Sharon Bower Raul Newney Pamela Sholto

Alternative Titles

Helraiser, Le Pacte, Hellraiser 1, Hellraiser Los que traen el infierno, Clive Barker's Hellraiser, Clive Barkers Hellraiser, Pekelník

horror

94 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by demi adejuyigbe 16

shocked this movie doesn’t seem to have a lot more cultural permeance past Pinhead being considered a genre icon. literally did not know anything else about this movie going into it– took a while to feel like i was locked into its groove, but when i was i thought it was fantastic. love the big cenobite with sunglasses that looks like several Dragon Ball Z characters came to life. big ups to whoever cheated on clive barker the same week he saw Possession for blessing us with this banger
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★ 29

Some cool stuff here and there but Kirsty? Is that the best name they could come up with?
Review by Branson Reese 4

The cenobites, ranked:
1: Fat Cenobite- the GOAT. This guy looks great and he knows it. He’s got torture sunglasses and that’s frankly cool as hell.
2: Pinhead- The main guy. Gotta give it up. He’d be first place but my man Fat Cenobite came to win.
3: The Female- Not great and I’m not crazy about her name but at least she has eyes.
4: The VCR mouth guy- where are your eyes? You’re trash.
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★★★ 32

After watching Doug Bradley in Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines I had this immediate need to rewatch Hellraiser....so I did.
The first time I watched Hellraiser I was at an incredibly impressionable age, honestly, I was probably too young to see something of this nature, I couldn't have been any more than 10-years-old. The movie absolutely terrified me but at the same time caused me to have an intense curiosity about the morbid things I was already fascinated with: pain, hell, death, afterlife, etc.
For its time, Hellraiser was above and beyond what most genre-films were exploring. When Clive Barker wrote the novella The Hellbound Heart (a year before the movie was released) it was obvious he was capable of bringing…
Review by Dyrnott ★★★★★ 6

“What’s your pleasure Mr Cotton?” “The Box!” I love this movie! Directed by the legend Clive Barker. For most you either love it or it doesn’t float your boat! Some in the series is nearly bad but this is the gem of the all! The one that started the series! If you haven’t seen it you have to watch!
Review by katie ★★★★ 1

goddamn disgusting
Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★ 25

Hoop-Tober, Film 10 of 31:
Whoa. This movie is truly insane, and bizarre, and...
Yeah, bizarre.
Seriously really bizarre.
I wasn't expecting Phantasm-level strangeness.
One of the scenes in this film is a definitely contender for the scariest scene of the 1980s, in my opinion:
goo.gl/images/eVBC9N
It's 4AM. I can't sleep (not sure if it's because of the film).
I can't seem to gather my thoughts,
Or think of anything worthy of including in my review.
I want to watch this again.
But no, I don't. I really don't.
G
R
O
S
S
But awesome.
The acting though, is kinda meh. The writing is kinda meh.
But the creatures. The SFX. The music. The atmosphere.
The main character shift.…
Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 12

I first watched (half watched) Hellraiser through covered eyes and pulled up blankets in a hotel room on a trip to Disney with my parents. They were watching it on the HBO while I pretended to be asleep—I must have been around 7 years old and I was absolutely horrified by what my what I was sneak watching...in no way ready for that or the hopeless nightmares that would follow.
Fast forward a few years and I was knee deep in late night vhs viewing sessions with my cool older cousin, Richard, who was the spark plug in showing me horror that was more intense than what I was accustomed to at that age. He’s ten years older than me and I…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 3

86
Take note of the religious iconography, which Clive Barker even has spilling into the frame during a suspense sequence. Pain and pleasure are intertwined, but the perversion is fueled against god, who can only weep when there is no return, no penetrative act worth saving. A flower blooms, a new world opens, and the lord is still. Probably top-5 all time in the history of horror practical effects.
Review by amaya ★★★★★

gonna tell my kids this was 50 shades of grey
Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 8

“pain and pleasure, indivisible.”
WE HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU. one of those rare movies where your eyes can hardly believe what they're seeing even on rewatches. genuinely gets under my skin. what is even the genre here? cosmic sadomasochistic body horror? maybe an erotic fulci movie? idk but leave religion at the door, we only worship the flesh here.
full discussion on episode 58 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.
Review by robyn ★★★★★ 4

Jesus wept.

Recent reviews

Review by Roderick_Goat ★★★½

This is a fun time, and I love Kirsty. Obviously most of it is silly and campy, but the Cenobites are spooky as hell, I am always genuinely freaked out by them.
Also, the musical score is beautiful.
A fun, atmospheric horror film to rewatch at times.
Review by Bebo Mourad ★★★★

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Review by katechad94 ★★★★½

As a child, my mum would regularly let me and my brother watch horror films (even if they were wildly inappropriate and scared us shitless for weeks afterwards...!). Hellraiser, however was firmly off limits. For this reason, the film for me has always had an air of mystery surrounding it so when I decided to watch it, it felt particularly naughty.
The film isn’t perfect. For starters, it’s set in America but is clearly filmed in the UK on what feels like film stock left over from some shite ITV police drama... also... how hard is it to say the name Kirsty correctly? Do you honestly pronounce it that way in America? ... y’all are strange.
Julia is a sick…
Review by Ophelia ★½

i really wanted to, but i just really didn't like this movie. wowee those special effects were cool tho
Review by jjnaedrums ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

that scene where julia's screaming no to her husband's murder but he thinks she's saying no to sex... and yet he keeps going? that's a lot of a scene wild she doesn't get her rightful dues as the ultimate antiheroine
Review by matt ★★★

this is one of the first horror movies i remember watching and it has stuck with me my entire life. i cannot even begin to count the amount of nightmares i've had because of this movie, specifically the scene with the nail in the wall. and kirsty... oh kirsty, with a name like that, you were literally set up to be one of the most grating female protagonists of all time.
i'd still fuck pinhead though.
Review by Budlo ★★★★

Fuck a Rubik's Cube
Review by crisbrother ★★★½

Macabramente satisfecho de Hellraiser, es horror del bueno, oscuro, gory, surreal, pero muy certero a la hora de retratar de forma sanguinolenta los mas profundos y retorcidos deseos humanos.
Se le perdonan clásicos desafios a la lógica, por su intrigante atmósfera y sus impactantes efectos prácticos y maquillaje.
Me declaro deseoso de mas Hellraiser, pero con los Cenobitas lejos de mi, que yo vengo por el show nada mas. 😈🤭
Review by Milos ★★★★★ 2

Hellraiser March 2021 Marathon

Demon to some. Angel to others.
Clibe Barker erschuf mit Hellraiser einen visuell wahrgewordenen Albtraum. Wenig Locations, viel Gore. Kleiner Cast, grosser Ekel. Die Cenobiten stehen im Erstling noch im Hintergrund und der Film fokusiert sich auf das sadistische und sodomistische fleischliche Vergnügen rund um Franks Hölle.
Ich verstehe wieso man als Neuzugänger den Film ablehnt oder einfach nicht gut findet. Wenn man aber mit der Reihe aufgewachsen ist und Hellraiser in den 80ern oder 90ern zum ersten Mal gesehen hat, sieht die ganze Sache schon anderst aus.
Der Splatter ist auch aus heutiger Sicht immer noch eklig und die handgemachten Effekte machen richtig weh. Clive Barker erschuf mit seiner Romanverfilmung eine beklemmende Atmosphäre, führte die Geschichte der Cenobiten und der Höllenbox weiter und kreirte mit Doug Bradley und Pinnhead eine der ikonischsten Horrorfiguren überhaupt. Hellraiser gehört zurecht zu den grossen Horrorklassikern.
Review by Slashley_G ★★★★½

100 Must See Horror Movies Scratch Off number 21 - Hellraiser
Watched while eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch because the cinnamon swirls are the sights the Cenobites wish to show us. It’s a wonderful mix of beauty and gore. The reanimation sequences are fun to watch and the effects used are bloody brilliant. I haven’t seen the full hellraiser franchise but I appreciate the style of this one! Also, this is an extreme example of toxic relationships - seriously, if there are enough red flags to guide an obstacle course, just run away and go pet some cats.
4.5/5 twists of the puzzle box
“Come to daddy.”
Review by Kenny Rg ★★★★

Admito que no me llamaba mucho la atención esta película, y es una grata sorpresa que el terror de los 80 ya tenia definido como perturbar al público. La trama algo sencilla va en creciendo permitiendo que los personajes experimenten esa sensación de incredulidad y sorpresa, ahí recae lo bueno de una historia así, naturalidad de las reacciones. Después de esto tendré que ver donde consigo las demás de la saga.
Review by Ryanduncan ★★★½

This was my first horror movie ever and oh boy was it a choice. Fhe body horror and practical effects in this movie were more then enough to scary this 11 year old. But the end scene with the hobo made it all worth it.