
When Kirsty's father, Larry, and stepmother, Julia, move into Larry's childhood home, Kirsty and her boyfriend take a room nearby. Unfortunately for all involved, Larry's house is already occupied: before the family's arrival, Larry's disreputable brother, Frank, used a supernatural puzzle box to summon a gang of other-dimensional demon sadists. Now, Frank requires a series of blood sacrifices to escape the clutches of Pinhead and the cenobites.... (Full plot summary below)
FREE with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Links compiled using automated software. Availability of offers subject to change / might be region specific / out of date.
When Kirsty's father, Larry, and stepmother, Julia, move into Larry's childhood home, Kirsty and her boyfriend take a room nearby. Unfortunately for all involved, Larry's house is already occupied: before the family's arrival, Larry's disreputable brother, Frank, used a supernatural puzzle box to summon a gang of other-dimensional demon sadists. Now, Frank requires a series of blood sacrifices to escape the clutches of Pinhead and the cenobites.
Leave your thoughts about Hellraiser.
| Washington PostRichard HarringtonHellraiser is certainly a cut or two above the slasher films that seem to proliferate on Friday the 13ths and Halloweens. It's a decidedly adult picture, with some disquieting sexual tensions that simply wouldn't work with the usual teen crew. It's also a treatise on the thin line between pleasure and pain and how easily crossed it can be. |
| Empire MagazineWilliam ThomasA slicky edited, white knuckle ride to the depths of depravity. |
| Monthly Film BulletinKim NewmanThe film is for the most part a return to the cutting edge of horror cinema, and in its inventively gruesome moments a reminder of the Grand Guignol intensity that has recently tended to disintegrate into lazy splatter |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawUtterly bizarre and entirely ridiculous – and yet effective, an imaginative Guignol festival, like the goriest of soap operas, in which one wrong move opens a portal to hell. |
| Total FilmNeil SmithSome of the FX haven't aged well, and nine more Hellraiser movies flayed the franchise, but this is a key '80s horror. |
| Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)Ken HankeImpressive debut film from Barker, though not quite the breakthrough film it was touted as being. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumMinor grisly fun, but don't expect the movie to linger when it's over. |
| Projected FiguresAnton Bitel"This isnt for your eyes", says the demonic Cenobite - but he is so very wrong about Clive Barker's must-see horror. |
| The Twisted Girl Next DoorChauncey K. RobinsonRightly considered a horror classic for pushing boundaries around sex and horror, Hellraiser is a flawed film with forgettable characters and gaping plot holes in the second act. |
| Empire MagazineBob McCabeWith Hellraiser, Clive Barker created one of the most genuinely disturbing movies of the last 20 years. |