Dir. Clive Barker | Now Streaming On: Tubi | Rating: 5/5

Hellraiser is one of the cornerstones of contemporary horror. Much of its success relies on the strength of its source material, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. This film and novella are 2 of my favorite pieces of horror media. It’s commentary on hedonism, sexuality, and pain holds its ground over 30 years later.

Clive Barker is not only one of the goriest and visceral horror writers of all time, but he has an amazing underdog story. In the beginning of his writing career, Barker would moonlight as a sex worker to make ends meet. The Hellbound Heart is strongly influenced by this period, with the Cenobites being inspired by S&M culture. Little did anyone know, this novella would spawn 2 written sequels, 9 film sequels, and an entire franchise.

This is supposed to be a review of Hellraiser, not a diary entry on how much I love Clive Barker. So, let’s talk about the movie. Hellraiser feels campy by today’s standards but features some of the most intense gore for its time. The original cut of the movie had to be highly censored after receiving an X rating. The scenes of pain and gore can still stack up against contemporary torture porn, like Hostel.

At it’s core, Hellraiser is a commentary on sex as power, from a masculine and feminine perspective. It blurs the lines of good and evil as the morality of hedonism takes center stage. It calls back to the dark and brooding Picture of Dorian Gray, written by another famously queer author Oscar Wilde. This commentary hits even harder when you have the context of where Barker is coming from as gay man in the 70s. It’s a reclamation of everything that was deemed evil in regards to queerness in the decades following the AIDS crisis.

Hellraiser is a horror passion project at its finest. It’s unapologetically gory and intellectual, as any excellent work of Barker is expected to be. I could go on forever, but if you have somehow missed watching this – stream it ASAP.

Know Before You Watch: Features sex, nudity, gore, flashing lights, blood, death.