Today's entry is 1987's Hellraiser, Clive Barker's gory and disturbing immorality play about masochism and why you shouldn't get involved with demons. Barker's version of demons - the Cenobites - are truly disturbing creatures. But they are far from anyone's first exposure to devils.
Barker is a fantastic writer. I've read many of his short stories in The Books of Blood, and The Damnation Game - his twist on Faust - goes beyond pop horror and into fine literature. At some point in my life I read The Hellbound Heart, the story that begat Hellraiser, but I honestly don't remember much of it.
But what I do remember from way before I saw this film in the theater is being afraid of demons. And there's a very straightforward reason why: I was raised in a religious household. I think that's something that holds true for most people, which is why we're so petrified of these abominations.
Think about it: Most of the films recognized as the scariest are related in some way to demons or malevolent spirits. The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, The Omen films, Sinister, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity -- all concern demons or the devil himself. And there's just nothing more terrifying, at least for those who had a religious upbringing, which includes most of us. Our nation may be moving away from that, but we're still overwhelmingly a religious society.
That religious influence sticks with you, even if you move away from the church or form doubts. The power of religion is in its staying power. It's so firmly ingrained, because who teaches it to you? Your parents, usually, and at a very young age. Who do you trust more as a kid than your parents? If they tell you there's a God and a Devil, you believe them. And if they take you to a hellfire and brimstone church (I grew up Baptist) where the preachers get frighteningly red in the face while they scream about forgiveness and love, then the more real Hell and the devil become.
For the most part, horror films are escapism, 90-minute roller-coaster rides about seemingly preposterous things. But the effective ones make you say, "that could really happen." Because situations that can really happen are the moments in film that go beyond simple jump scares and into your psyche.
For some, this means people and animals - the nonsupernatural - are going to be the scariest things that can be on film. (Prime example: A friend of mine doesn't think The Exorcist is scary. But Texas Chainsaw Massacre disturbed her greatly. I told her the same thing I'm writing now: If you'd grown up Baptist, you'd be scared by both of them.)
But for those of us who grew up Baptist or Catholic or Holy Roller, it doesn't get any more real than the devil and his minions. And so nothing is scarier than being in the same room with a 12-year-old girl with the devil inside her (OK, purists, I know it's really the demon Pazuzu, but you know what I mean) or a little boy who is the anti-Christ, or having a demon attach itself to you and follow you wherever you go. Nothing. Not even a maniac with a chainsaw, and that's pretty damn scary.
The older I get, the more I wonder about who or what might be in charge of this universe and if someone is, if they even care, given the state of the world. But I know this: if there is a God, then there is a devil, and if there is a devil, then I'm still scared of him and his demons. I haven't darkened the door of a church in a long time, but that part of my religious upbringing still holds true.
And that's why movies like Hellraiser scare us, so much that apparently a new generation is ready for its version, because Hellraiser is next on the remake list.
Barker's original is pretty damn scary though. Maybe even for those with no religious background.
4 stars.
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