Hellraiser (1987) and Hellraiser (2022) (Film Reviews)

Hellraiser (1987) British novelist Clive Barker wrote and directed this film. I already didn’t like his Nighbreed. What boggles my mind is that this film is said to be his best. If not the best! Better than its sequels, better than its remakes. But it’s already completely rubbish!

They say it’s a cult film, which just goes to show that that doesn’t mean anything. I didn’t want to see this film, I just saw it for my culture. So I watched it at 1.25x speed to save a few minutes of my life. Pretty bad acting. The ridiculousness of the film is funnier than the humour of the film itself! The French dubbing doesn’t help.

Very dirty film, but that’s to be expected! But in every sense of the word: larvae and insects in close-up, insect eaters, blood dripping everywhere, shredded flesh…The story is relatively lame and goes off in all directions. It’s a load of rubbish! Another film I saw thirty-six years too late… but I wouldn’t have liked it back then!

I even had more fun seeing the first ‘The Howling’, that’s saying something !!! Okay… friends, Cenobites, that’s it for me! You won’t see me again!!!

My Rating

Hellraiser (2022) I’ve surprisingly never been interested in Hellraiser and I haven’t even seen the first one. I’m going to do it just for my culture and to see where this film comes from. In any case, I wasn’t thrilled by this remake.

Inconsistencies, long running times, characters who aren’t particularly likeable or endearing…It was painful to watch all the way through. I couldn’t wait for it to end halfway through. If you don’t get attached to the characters, that means you don’t really care what happens to them. And that’s not really a good thing.

The creatures are nice, just like in Nightbreed (Cabal), but none of them really manage to enhance or save this pointless and far too long film. That said, it’s always good to see Goran Visnjic… even if it’s possible that this is his worst film.

My Rating