This was more fun than I expected but I enjoyed it. And just to put it out there......Fly was the one I enjoyed the most now wathing them. "Just because I forgot how fun it was"
Thank you sir! It was a good idea now please rest. You have a lot on your plate James! We will be here to show love when ur ready to give us more :) Good night
I do recommend reading the novella - The Hellbound Heart - if you want to dig deeper into the lore around the Cenobites (there aren’t a LOT of answers). There’s a special kind of magic to the world around the movie. This all predates Barker moving fully into the world of fantasy, but the fantasy touches are really powerful. You can really see Barker as a contemporary of Neil Gaiman here. British urban fantasy with a strong horror bent. It’s also worth hunting down the original Hellraiser anthology comics that were put out by Marvel Epic back in the day. It helps place this firmly in the same family of horror that would lead to Vertigo. You can imagine all of this with Dave McKean or Bill Sienkiewicz art.
The movie is messy around the edges. It was Barker’s first feature, and they fucked with it a bunch. A lot of the dialogue in the movie was ADR to give people American accents because they didn’t think a US audience would relate to British characters. They also pushed “Pinhead” as a key figure because Freddy Krueger was the hottest thing around. But in an era driven by soulless corporations, a gay horror writer/painter managed to make a movie about pleasure and pain that feels way more visceral and inventive than a lot of the mid-late 80s corporate driven horror franchises.
It doesn’t all hold up. The movie rests on the performances of Frank and Julia, particularly the two of them together. Kirsty is a pretty shallow character. The world around them doesn’t feel fully developed (a product of them trying to hide that it was set in London). The dragon at the end is completely nonsense. But still there’s a magic to all of it. The cenobites are so damn striking. The world they imply is horrific and strange and you both want to know more and don’t want to know anything. I was terrified of this movie for years because of the incredibly detailed McFarlane figures, and they are as scary in the movie as they were in my imagination (except for the hallway crawler - He’s a bit goofy).
I'm tapping out! Goodnight everyone, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Happy Halloween!!
Happy Halloween!!! 🎃 👻
This was more fun than I expected but I enjoyed it. And just to put it out there......Fly was the one I enjoyed the most now wathing them. "Just because I forgot how fun it was"
Yeah! THE FLY was the big winner of the day for me, too. Glad you enjoyed yourself!!
Thank you sir! It was a good idea now please rest. You have a lot on your plate James! We will be here to show love when ur ready to give us more :) Good night
Thanks James!
Thanks, Anthony!!!
James, Thank you for putting this event together. I had no plans but to spend Halloween
sitting at home not doing much. But this made my day. Getting to spend the evening with
one of my favorite authors and all the amazing others watching some of your favorite
horror films was a blast. This really gave me some insight into where you take some of
your influences and put them into your writing. I now have to go back and re-read Nice House
on the lake with these new eyes. I for one can't wait to see where your going to take the
story. Its been an amazing read so far. Thank you!
BTW DC Vs. Vampires #1 was awesome!
Thanks so much for watching some scary movies with me, OBC!!!
I look forward to doing this again!
James, thank you so much for doing this. FIVE MOVIES! You really don’t do anything half-way, do you? 😉 This was a lot of fun!
I think in the future we might keep this to a Double-Feature, rather than a Quintuple-Feature, hahahaha. My brain is pudding but I had a blast!
And that was HELLRAISER!
I do recommend reading the novella - The Hellbound Heart - if you want to dig deeper into the lore around the Cenobites (there aren’t a LOT of answers). There’s a special kind of magic to the world around the movie. This all predates Barker moving fully into the world of fantasy, but the fantasy touches are really powerful. You can really see Barker as a contemporary of Neil Gaiman here. British urban fantasy with a strong horror bent. It’s also worth hunting down the original Hellraiser anthology comics that were put out by Marvel Epic back in the day. It helps place this firmly in the same family of horror that would lead to Vertigo. You can imagine all of this with Dave McKean or Bill Sienkiewicz art.
The movie is messy around the edges. It was Barker’s first feature, and they fucked with it a bunch. A lot of the dialogue in the movie was ADR to give people American accents because they didn’t think a US audience would relate to British characters. They also pushed “Pinhead” as a key figure because Freddy Krueger was the hottest thing around. But in an era driven by soulless corporations, a gay horror writer/painter managed to make a movie about pleasure and pain that feels way more visceral and inventive than a lot of the mid-late 80s corporate driven horror franchises.
It doesn’t all hold up. The movie rests on the performances of Frank and Julia, particularly the two of them together. Kirsty is a pretty shallow character. The world around them doesn’t feel fully developed (a product of them trying to hide that it was set in London). The dragon at the end is completely nonsense. But still there’s a magic to all of it. The cenobites are so damn striking. The world they imply is horrific and strange and you both want to know more and don’t want to know anything. I was terrified of this movie for years because of the incredibly detailed McFarlane figures, and they are as scary in the movie as they were in my imagination (except for the hallway crawler - He’s a bit goofy).
The Bone Dragon will always baffle me as a choice to end the movie on.
Totally!!!
That thing came out of no where
what the hell is that!?
Uhhhhh, what happened to the house?
Jesus Wept. This the spot?
pretty close
I'm a few minutes ahead of you, but only a few!
Am I in the right spot? Are the meat hooks coming out now?
The shortest verse in the Bible
Yes!!!
Come get whats coming to you Frank!!
The eyes!
Pay no attention to the blood around his face
It feels pretty obvious, right?
just a little lol
“We’ll tear your soul apart!” Great line.