32 Days of Halloween, Day 28: Hellraiser

Okay, folks. Time for a little history. There was once a time when Clive Barker wasn’t written young adult whacked out fantasy, but was writing totally whacked out sex-infused horror stories. He also directed a little film called Hellraiser, which made the Lament Configuration and Pinhead staples in the horror genre. Hell, Doug Bradley is like Robert Englund–you like him so much as the character, you’re fine with the fact he’s made a career out of crap sequels, because you want the guy to be able to cash those checks.

But no, long before crapquels with names like Hellraiser: Deader (Deader? Deader? Are you goddamn well kidding me?), there was the original. And lo, it was good. Elevating pain to an artform, the Cenobites were great, great villains. And they weren’t even necessarily villains in the traditional sense. They were just doing their jobs. It really was a great flick. And unlike most, I actually thought the second film had some merit. But anyway, back to this one.

Anchor Bay has just released a “20th Anniversary Edition.” And while many people bitch about Anchor Bay doing multiple dips, I will give them this: at least they had the decency to include three new interviews with actors Andrew Robinson and Ashley Laurence, plus with composer Christopher Young. You also get previous featurettes, including a look back from 2000, an interview with Mr. Bradley, first and final drafts of the screenplay on DVD-ROM, as well as commentary with Barker and Laurence, moderated by Peter Atkins.

Now…should you buy this? Well, obviously, if you have previous editions (and there have been a few), you might want to do a feature comparison and see if it’s worth re-investing. However, if you’re happy with your present edition, you might just rent this one or snag it from Netflix to check out the new bonus bits.

Now, let’s check out the trailer, shall we?

Direct link for the feedreaders.

It’s a good trailer that doesn’t give away too much but still leaves the impression of “Damn, that’s freaky.” And like I said, it would stay freaky until DJ Cenobite in the third film. He could hurl razor sharp CDs from his body, sort of like in that Aerosmith arcade game, but, you know, totally different. It was at that point I sort of gave up. Ah well. Still: “Satan’s done waitin’?” Really?

• Click here to buy it on DVD from Amazon.
• Click here to buy Hellraiser stuff from Amazon.