13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2009: Night #2 Hellraiser

For the second night of the thirteen I've chosen a classic, and

favourite of many, the original Hellraiser. I remember when I first rented it, though I do not know how long ago that was after it was released on VHS at the video store. Used to be quite some time between film release and video release, plus the rental stores always had a certain amount of time before movies would be sold to individuals. I was quite uncertain about seeing the film. A lot of talk circulated around that (blasphemously) considered Pinhead to be better than Freddy Krueger. Shocking I know, and hardly anything more than a personal preference--go Freddy! Hellraiser certainly did not fail to live up to the rest of the hype surrounding it. It was very edge of the seat stuff, a great testament to Clive Barker as director.

It's not very often that an author will direct the movie made based on

one of their books. Least of all are those films such smash hits. Pinhead of course is an incredibly iconic horror figure and stands easily alongside Freddy, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers. Pinhead also has some of the coolest antagonist lines in any movies. There are numerous lines of his in this movie that are eminently quotable. At the same time, they are not your typical one-liners, instead opting for the serious and not deadpan, but straight lines. Doug Bradley's voice and demeanour as Pinhead make the film almost as much as the scripts adherence to Barker's "The Hellbound Heart". Not that it follows everything for indeed Pinhead is much cooler than the novella's lead cenobite.

Mood: sardonic.

Music: Hellraiser by Ozzy Osbourne off of No More Tears.