The infamous Pinhead makes his screen debut in this film, which later on spawns three more sequals.  Author Clive Barker directs and produces this "classic" and as you watch this film you get the feeling of him trying to step away from your average teenager slasher flick.  The concept is certainly original.  A mysterious puzzlebox of middle eastern origin, is bought by a man named Frank Cotton.  The box is supposed to explore the depths of pleasure and pain but unfortunately he gets more then he bargained for.  He takes it home with him to America and he tries to solve it in his attic.  When doing so, he finds the box to be more than what he bargained for.  He ends up releasing the Cenobites who come from neither hell or heaven.  These Cenobites are demonic creatures who are very solemn in nature but are responsible for handing down pleasure and pain to the holder of the box.  Pinhead is one of these Cenobites and he surprisingly makes very few appearences.  Frank ends up getting tortured beyond himself, but somehow, miraculously escapes them and ends up living in the floorboards of the attic.

Flash foward to his brother Larry (Robinson) and his newly wed wife Julia (Higgins).  The old house where Frank resided is now up for sale and Larry and Julia plan on moving in.  But Julia has many secrets to hide.  Julia used to have an affair with Frank unknowingly to Larry.  Julia explores the house and goes into the attic.  Some of Frank's old things are there, but otherwise it looks pretty barren.  But accidently Larry scrapes his hand across a nail, which causes a massive wound.  He goes upstairs into the attic, and some of the blood from the wound hit the ground.  The blood awakens Frank from the floorboard, and Julia discovers him in the attic.  He's all bones and flailing guts and he needs Julia's help to bring in more people, so he can use their flesh to slowly bring his body back to what it used to be.  This is a predicament for Julia.  She thought she had broken up the old affair with him and she managed to forget about him.  But here he is again, and he needs her help more than ever.  She's married now as well.  How far is she willing to go to prove her past love for Frank?  After much thinking, she decides to do it.  She picks up various men in bars and brings them home to Frank, where he does what he needs to get back to normal. He slowly starts regenerating, but one day Christy Cotton (Laurence), Julia's stepdaugter, stumbles upon the skinless Frank in the attic and takes the puzzle box with her in a fit of anger, not knowing what it really is or what kind of power it holds. . .

What really pulled me in this movie was the human interest presented by both Julia and Frank  It is unlikely for films in the horror genre to have an emotional impact.  But it doesn't really have a solid impact on you to really make you care about about the movie.  More time could have been spent exploring just how far Julia did go with Frank.  All the audience gets is a few scenes showing them together in bed while they exchange cliched lines such as, "I'll do anything for you" and what have you.  And you don't really get a clear idea of how they met in the first place and how they fell in love all of a sudden.

But mostly I think the script is the biggest flaw in Hellraiser.  Cheesy one-liners are peppered throughout the movie and many times the lines the characters exchange between each other get repitetive and they lose their dramatic appeal (if there was any at all).  The makeup job done on the Cenobites is well done, but as characters, the only ones that provided any chills was Pinhead and his female companion.  The movie doesn't push their scary attributes on to you.  They don't even look that scary, but its just the way they look at each other that I think gives them an eerie feel to them.  The other two Cenobites could have fared better and the movie could have done without them.  They're supposed to look more frightning but across laughable as a result.  I mean, come on!  One them even wears sunglasses and that just ruins him.

At the end of the movie it becomes Christy's responsibility to defeat the Cenobites.  Suspenseful? I don't think so.  Very boring actually and the last scene absoulutely makes no sense whatsoever.  But Clive Barker presented a very original idea and I liked the concept of an innocent looking puzzlebox causing so much mayhem.  Its not really that scary overall, even with all the eeky gory stuff.  But its still enough to maybe send some chills down your spine.  Pinhead's scenes are really good and it was good the way he was used liberally throughout the duration of the film.  I think I'm gonna raise some hell with the screenplay writer though.

RATING: ***