Hellraiser (w/Doug Bradley LIVE)

Directed by
Clive Barker
starring
Doug Bradley, Andrew Robinson, Claire Higgins, Ashley Laurence,
94 mins
 | 1987
 | United States
 | English
 

Presented LIVE and in-person by Doug Bradley.In this cult classic from author/director Clive Barker, an unfaithful wife encounters her back-from-the-dead lover, who's being chased by demons after he escaped from their sado-masochistic Hell. But, is Hellraiser Lovecraftian? Let me give you a hint: the cenobites aren't really demons... they are individuals who have been corrupted by forces from the outer darkness and return to our plane to prey on humankind, and are perceived by humans through the ages as occult entities (a bit like Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep). You call them, not by casting a spell, but by using a machine in the form of a musical puzzle box, covered in strange lines and curves, which opens a portal between dimensions, evidenced by an unearthly glow. We're describing Pinhead and his posse, but we may as well be talking about the Witch Keziah Mason from Dreams in The Witch House. This movie is so full of Lovecraftian influence (rare antiquities acquired from shady dealers, dimensional travel, unseen deities, secret orders, other worlds and beings that become visible inside our world through the use of special machines, and more), we wonder why we've never played it before. Once you've seen it with us, you'll never look at the film the same way again!

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