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Hellraiser
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
1987 · Directed by Clive Barker · 93 min · Horror · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
Demon to some. Angel to others.
Plot
In Morocco, a hedonist named Frank Cotton buys a puzzle box said to open the door to a realm of otherworldly pleasure. At home in his bare attic, Frank solves the puzzle, and hooked chains emerge, tearing him apart.
Later, Frank's brother Larry moves into the same house. He intends to rebuild his relationship with his second wife, Julia, but is unaware that she had an affair with Frank before their marriage. When Larry accidentally cuts his hand moving furniture, his blood drips beneath the attic floor where Frank's organic remains lie undiscovered, which resurrects Frank in a ghoulish form. Julia later finds Frank; still obsessed with him, she agrees to help restore his body, so they can run away together. Julia picks up men in bars and brings them back to the attic, where she mortally wounds them. Frank then drains their life, which regenerates his body. Frank explains to Julia that, having exhausted all sensory experiences, he sought out the puzzle box, which was supposed to provide access to a realm of new carnal pleasures. When the puzzle was solved, the "Cenobites" came to subject him to extreme sadomasochism.
Kirsty, Larry's teenage daughter and Frank's niece, sees Julia bringing a man to the house and follows her to the attic, where she finds Frank. She evades Frank and escapes with the puzzle box, collapsing shortly thereafter. Awakening in a hospital, Kirsty opens the box out of curiosity, unknowingly summoning the Cenobites and a monster called the Engineer, from which she narrowly escapes. The Cenobites' leader explains that, although they have been perceived as both angels and demons, they are simply "explorers" from another dimension seeking carnal experiences and can no longer distinguish between pain and pleasure. When they attempt to force Kirsty to return to their realm, she informs Pinhead that Frank has escaped. The Cenobites agree to spare Kirsty and recapture Frank instead, with the condition that Frank must confess to escaping them.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Clive Barker
- Cinematography: Robin Vidgeon
- Edited by: Richard Marden, Tony Randel
- Music: Christopher Young
- Production design: Michael Buchanan
- Produced by: Christopher Figg
Cast
- Andrew Robinson as Larry
- Clare Higgins as Julia
- Ashley Laurence as Kirsty
- Oliver Smith as Frank the Monster
- Sean Chapman as Frank
- Robert Hines as Steve
- Doug Bradley as Lead Cenobite
- Nicholas Vince as Chattering Cenobite
- Simon Bamford as 'Butterball' Cenobite
- Grace Kirby as Female Cenobite
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: New World Pictures, Cinemarque Entertainment, Film Futures, Rivdel Films
- Budget: $1,000,000
- Box office: $14,580,380
- Themes: based on novel or book, sexual obsession, pain, ritual, supernatural, haunted house, seduction, gore, surrealism, undead
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