Which Hellraiser films are worth watching?

Which Hellraiser films are worth watching?

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1, 2 and parts of 3.

1

Just the first. The other ones are trash.

The consensus is that the first two are worth watching, and that you can safely skip the rest.

In this respect the Hellraiser franchise is like the Alien franchise.

One really remarkable thing about the original film is that it was adapted for the screen by Clive Barker, the author of the original text (a novella in this case), on a shoestring budget. Even back in the 80s, a million bucks to make a movie was nothing. I am not aware of another time where a person whose PRIMARY job function is "author" successfully directed a feature film based on one of his own works, much less birthing a highly original concept, film franchise, and beloved piece of horror in the process.

Too bad he's since proceeded to shit all over it.

the alien comparison is good

1 is unique - horror
2 is more, louder, faster - action/adventure

despite the "consensus" that these sequels are of high quality, I could very well do without them in both cases

I'm pretty sure even Clive Barker forgot that Clive Barker wrote The Scarlet Gospels.

Also he must have the juiciest contract with his publisher since Stephen King because other then the Hellraiser sequels he's been involved in every adaptation of his work as either writer or director.

I've actually never heard anyone claim the Hellraiser sequels were good. Seems like everyone considers them varying degrees of shit.

only correct answer. they ruined the mythos with sequels, although I have a lot of respect for the people who did and worked on the sequels. there was money to be had.

there's one in space, jesus

1-2 Are good, you can stop here.
3-4 Are watchable if you really really want more.

Everything is garbage.

YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY EVEN IN HELL

>4
>watchable

Only for a laugh.

>I'm the guy who comes in a quotes lines

YOU WANT IT? WELL FUCKING HAVE IT!

putting it in air quotes won't make the reality of majority opinion by people who've actually watched the movies vanish.

Another interesting surface comparison: an older brunette female rescues a younger, almost mute blonde female from a mazelike hellscape, bathed in blue light and filled with monsters.

Even 2 and 3 is stretching it a little.

Also, I have a theory about the very last shot in Hellraiser:

Halfway though the movie, Kirsty is briefly attended by a black doctor, a bit part played by one "Raul Newney". /This doctor actually has the box in his possession for a while, before returning it to Kirsty./

Mr. Newney is a light-skinned black man, or possibly a biracial man, with a distinctive large nose and short curly hair.

In the film's final shot, when everything has come full circle, the box is being offered for sale to a new customer. The customer, shrouded in darkness and little more than a silhouette, matches the above general description.

My theory is that this bit character of "the doctor" became curious enough about the box in the intervening days, to eventually seek it out. Most specifically, I believe that Raul Newney portrayed this "second customer" in the last shot. I have never been able to substantiate this view, however.

Also, if my theory is true, it's a nice bit of foreshadowing for the story elements of the second film, where it's a doctor who becomes obsessed with the occult and drives the story forward.

1 is the only good one. 2 has some good moments and a cool design for hellworld so worth watching for that. They get worst every movie beyond that though.

just one and two

2 is hokey in places but it really does warrant at least one watch. The monsters and gore are interesting step-up, the steam effects in a basement were done by a crewman who worked on David Lynch movies (who loves using steam), there's a really important and striking money shot within the first 15 minutes that people who have seen it will remember (this is worth the price of admission), and there's an exceptionally nasty scene of self-mutilation which kicks things back into gear, effectively starting the second act.

Basically there's a lot of great practical effects (matte shots!) and a still-cohesive story that isn't total shit, for people who now complain of the lack of the above in the movies. The movie does function on a very dark "fairy-tale" level, albeit a bit more explicitly than in the original.

I thought of another comparison with Aliens: both films feature William Hope (Gorman). he doesn't survive either movie, although he's slightly more useful in this one.

Add to this that the doctor's study is a really nice set. If you look closely, you can just make out a tarot card from Aleister Crowley's Thoth deck in one corner.

2 is a masterpiece you fuck and it fits so well with 1.

Hellraiser 1 and 2 should ALWAYS be treated like a double feature. 3 onwards is to be avoided.

None. They are all terrible cliche ridden genre fiction crap, serving only the edgy needs of neckbearded basement dwellers who get off to torture porn. Which it doesn't even do that well.

1
2
4


4 is extremely underrated

t. allan smithee :^)

Isnt 4 hellraiser in space?

Hellseeker was decent

>Hellseeker was decent

this is actually true
when people go as far as saying 2 or even 3 was good, they might as well include 6

barely hellraiser, but this is top tier sleaze. it's like the asylum version of mulholland drive

>Clive Barker wrote The Scarlet Gospels

he literally didn't, though.

look it up.

Just finished the first one. It wasn't very good, I don't think I'll be watching the sequels any time soon.
Neat special effects though.

Fuck what everybody says in this thread, 5 is actually pretty good. Better than 4 and 3.

Although 3 is pretty fun in a "Jason lives" kind of way.

this
number 5 is kino

What about this kino

haven't seen 3 in awhile but it looks pretty bad

youtube.com/watch?v=jMmRBUOEilo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

at least we got a motorhead song out of it

1 and 2, the comics are a direct continuation of 1 and 2's style and plot.

so read the comics.

I like how the Cenobites are never exactly antagonists, and more or less, have nearly no agency of their own.

Making the cenobites human ruined the characters forever. Fuck part 2.

GOD TIER
Hellraiser - 1
Hellbound - 2
Hellseeker - 6

OKAY TIER
Inferno - 5
Deader - 7
Hellworld - 8

SHIT TIER
Hell on Earth - 3
Bloodline - 4
Revelations - 9

GOD TIER: These movies all stick to the Hellraiser lore about the Cenobites being extra-dimensional creatures exploring the depths of pleasure and pain. They all also focus on a central protagonist, Kirsty, and if watched together, form a pretty coherent series.

OKAY: These are more just generic horror stories that happened to be set in the Hellraiser universe. There's not really any continuity to them, but are good watches for anyone that was a fan of 1, 2 and 6.

SHIT: These are terrible movies where the lore clearly wasn't understood. The Cenobites become actual demons in these movies who are bent on world domination (for some reason). We introduce non-Cenobite demons and infernal politics and a whole bunch of other non-Hellraiser themes. 3 and 4 are what turned Hellraiser into a joke series and pushed them from the big screen to B-movie shlock. They should be avoided at all costs. As for 9? You're better off not knowing.

This is very accurate. The problem is, people watch them in order. By the time they've finished 4, they don't want to give the rest of the series a chance, and even if they get to 6, they forget what the movies were like back at the beginning of the series.

Really sucks how Hellseeker got lost in the shuffle because of the shit that proceeded it.

>implying Hellraiser ever had a coherent lore to begin with and 1 wasn't just a mess of random ideas thrown in on the spot by a very drunk Barker who wanted to play movie director that weekend

2 even retcons the UK setting of the first story into the US FFS

>UK setting of the first story into the US
The first movie's setting was very unclear as to where it was. Half the people had US accents and half had UK

The first one is honestly pretty bad, but still worth a watch. TERRIBLE acting and some awkward writing, but the story, ideas, and effects are cool.

1 and 2 are good. 3-6 are meh at best. 7-8 is fucking terrible...

>lore needs to spelled out explicitly for me!

It was explained well enough with throw-away lines in those movies.

>Explorers... in the further regions of experience. Demons to some, angels to others.

>You solved the box, we came. Now you must come with us, taste our pleasures.

or

>It is not hands that summon us. It is desire.

The fact that it gives you little snippets into their laws and reasoning is better than having them sit down and outline how everything works and why.

Asshole beat me to it