Director: Tony Randel
Cast: Claire Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Kenneth Cranham, Doug Bradley
Have I Seen It Before: I’m 90% certain that I’ve seen this movie all the way through at some point. I am reasonably certain that I’ve never seen any of the subsequent films in the series.
Did I Like It: I came to a conclusion while recently re-watching Hellraiser (1987) that if this series wasn’t—at it’s very basic core—about fucking, then it might make a pretty good horror movie for kids.
There are odd little creatures all about. It’s about the creaky, unsettling parts of living in a new house. The monsters aren’t irretrievably lethal monsters of the other slasher movies of the era. Often they are willing—if not strangely eager—to negotiate just how much danger you are in. That all is ignoring the fact that the McGuffin that unifies this series*
The fact that the one human trait that gets people in trouble in these movies is hedonism almost makes it more childlike.
Again, as one ignores the fundamental undercurrent of sadomasochism. Which I will admit, is hard to do.
This movie is somehow even more consumed with almost fairy tale qualities. There’s a new character who we can see this world through, a quiet, traumatized girl (Imogen Boorman), Julia (Higgins) is even more of a wicked stepmother than she was before (if that’s possible), and it all centers around this massive labyrinth standing in for hell. Throw in David Bowie and a handful of muppets, and you’d be off to the races.
Did I just come up with the latest Muppet re-make? Everybody’s a puppet, except the mad psychiatrist (Cranham)?
Can something be simultaneously a terrible and great idea?
*At least I think the puzzle box is the unifying factor in the endless series of direct-to-video entries. Judging from some of those posters, it might just be the internet that summons the cenobites. Which, now that I type that, kind of makes sense.