The Temple of Dagon

there's a part where the cenobites are zapped and they revert to human form.. the chattering teeth guy turns out to be a little kid, which i thought was cool. but the fat guy was just a fat guy, only less oozy.. anyway, i don't know if they went immediately from human to cenobite, or if they had to start out in the mail room and get promoted...

i never read the book(s), and i've only seen parts 1 and 2 completely. which of the later movies to you recommend most highly?

I'm afraid to report that the series kind of peaked at two, once Barker lost creative input and people got a bit obessed with the "pinhead" character and tried to turn him into a freddy kruger or mike myers monster, a role that he never fit comfortably. In fact, he wasn't ever really intended to play a big role in the story and isn't even mentioned in the novella which spawned the film - "the hellbound heart" which I cannot reccomend enough. Barker has said that he is already in the process of writing "the scarlet gospels", which he sees as taking the character back and concluding his story in Barker's own terms, in light of the interest he generated in the public.... looking forwards to that one...

Hellraiser 3 is where the whole thing starts going rotten and derivative, it's almost like dissapointing pornoraphy, we lusted after the "pinhead" character, wanted to know more about him and how he became transfigured into this posthuman condition and they gave us a whole movie about him that had good intentions and ideas (the 1st world war genesis of the character and the "dreamworld"/purgatory element) but ultimately ended up being a tacky horror film, more interested in providing shocks and gore than capitalising on the more menacing, lyrical, surreal and challenging aspects of the franchise.

Hellraiser 4 is utter nonsense, backtracking on the overexposure of pinhead in 3 and trying clumsily to concentrate on the story of the lament configuration, in the style of a TV soap opera... like the cast and crew of "sunset beach" make a hellraiser movie.

Hellraiser INFERNO (5 - I think) is interesting, like a sort of "christmas carol" morality play, done in the style of a film noir. I have to say that I enjoy it, but I think it's a shame that it's been done as a Hellraiser sequal and not a movie in it's own right. The issue really is that the Pinhead character and the lament configuration could have eaily and more comfortably been replaced by other narrative tools, in doing so giving the film more room to explore it's own (rather interesting) ideas and broaden it's scope, without dumbing down, trivialising and distorting the Hellraiser elements.

My advice? - just read the novella. It's brilliant.

ok, i'll look that up, thanks

5 was THE best. The first four were cheap flicks and pointless. Atleast the fifth had horror and soul in it.

Just to add really, if there are people out there who love Hellbound as much as me, then get a hold of the origional script on www.cenobite.com and you'll be amazed at the lovecraftian elements that are in there but I guess remained "unfilmable" - especially the sections describing each individuals subjective experience in "hell"...

I love Hellraiser but only the first one. Is a very cool movie and story. Is true that Pinhead was a female character in the Barker's books?

no, I wonder where you heard that?... in the novella from which Hellraiser was based, the "pinhead" character never really existed. "Pinhead" in fact never really emerged until Hellbound - hellraiser 2 after the character credited only as "lead cenobite" in the 1st movie, with a relatively small role captured people's imagination.

Ok thanks man, I hear that from a drunk friend of mine lol

has anyone seen Hellseeker, Hellworld or Deader?

I've seen hellseeker, is not that bad, but not as good as the first ones.

deader has a few interesting elements, the setting was pretty cool. I like the idea of the party on the train... you spend all you're teenage years looking for parties like that before you realise they only happen in horror films...

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