3. Hellraiser (1987) – Why do I like this movie so much? Do I like seeing people without skin? No. Do I like seeing people get hit in the head with a hammer? No. Do I like seeing a guy eat a handful of crickets? Ummm…no. Maybe I’m just a fan of Andrew Robinson, who played the killer in the first Dirty Harry movie. Uh…no.Then why do I like this movie?
Cenobites, of course!
Before I get ahead of myself, here’s the story of Hellraiser: Frank, a guy who is in search of new sensual “pleasures”, acquires a mysterious cube puzzlebox. He solves the puzzle and opens the box, then all these hooks and chains appear out of nowhere and tears him to shreds.
Later, Frank’s brother Larry moves into Frank’s old house with his daughter Kirsty and his new wife Julia. Larry cuts his hand in the house and somehow brings Frank back to life, although he has no skin and requires more human blood to become whole. He gets Julia to help him lure victims to the house so he can drain their blood. Kirsty finds out what’s going on and runs away, taking the puzzlebox with her. She manages to open the puzzlebox, and suddenly appear the Cenobites, demons from hell. Before they take her away, she makes a deal and brings them to Frank, who had escaped from their clutches. The Cenobites tear Frank to shreds again, and everyone lives happily ever after. Got it?
When I first saw this movie, I thought the Cenobites were the coolest thing since sliced bread. They all wear black leather, and they are all distorted or mutilated in some way. Look at these guys, they’re like rock stars!
They should be in a band, although they wouldn’t move around too much on stage. In all the Hellraiser movies, I’ve never seen a Cenobite run. They just kind of move slowly and stare at you. That’s what makes them so cool. They’re a different type of monster that doesn’t need to chase you around with a big knife; just being around them means that you’ll have hooks and chains flying at you.
Unfortunately, none of the sequels to Hellraiser (six so far, with a seventh one coming) have matched the quality of the first one. Heck, one of them even had the dreaded “Alan Smithee” as a director. But as long as Pinhead and his Cenobites are around, I’m sure they’ll keep churning them out. Hooray!
As you probably know, The Shining is based on a book by Stephen King and was directed by Stanley Kubrick. The story is about a man who takes a job as a caretaker for a large hotel which was closed for the winter. The man settles into the hotel with his wife and young son. Unfortunately, the previous caretaker went insane and killed his family. Slowly, the man loses his grip on reality and begins to acting irrationally and interacts with people who aren’t really there. He finally loses it completely and goes after his wife and son in a murderous rampage.
This is not your typical horror movie with monsters and pop-up-from-behind-the-bushes scares. It works more with mood and atmosphere, turning the hotel setting from something innocuous into someplace you really don’t want to be. It kind of makes you appreciate smallness of your typical living space instead of being in a huge empty building – it leaves way too much to the imagination.
One of the scariest scenes is where the son is riding around the corridors on his Big Wheel. Following along with him in a first-person view, you would think it be lots of fun riding down corridors with out any obstructions. That is, until you see little twin girls standing in front of you. The way the film forces you to view this perspective is pretty effective, as if you are standing there with no where else to go.
There are a lot of other things in the movie that are really freaky. Old women in bathtubs. Little boys saying “redrum” in squeaky voices. Shelley Duvall.
The sequence towards the end where Shelley Duvall is running through the hotel and seeing everything go to hell is one of the most unsettling things you’ll ever see in a movie.
I would call The Shining one of the scariest movies of all time. If you haven’t seen this movie, check it out. I guarantee it will stick with you for a long time afterwards.
Carrie is the story about a high school teenager who is constantly abused and teased by her classmates. She also has a psycho mother at home, who is super-religious and forces Carrie to stay in the closet all the time. During the school prom, some of the kids play a prank on Carrie, by pouring a bucket of pig’s blood on her when she goes onstage to win the rigged prom queen event. Unfortunately for everyone involved Carrie has telekinetic powers, and she unleashes them on the student body and gets her ultimate revenge.
OK, here’s my story with the movie: I was about nine years old when I saw Carrie on TV, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. The stupid thing was that I clearly remember thinking I was “grown up” enough to handle this movie. Boy, was I wrong.
The evening I saw this movie, my Dad was away on business, and my sisters were at summer camp, leaving only my Mom and me in the house. Our family house was two levels, and my bedroom was the only one on the bottom floor, while everyone else slept upstairs. My room was adjacent to a dark corridor that led to the garage. Since I was nine, I still had quite got used to sleeping in complete darkness; but I tried.
That evening I went to bed, Carrie’s bloody image plastered in my head. I couldn’t sleep at all, in fear that she was going to come get me. She was probably going to come out of that dark corridor right next to my room. So I’m lying there, wide awake in a pitch black room in utter silence.
Then I hear a crash come from the corridor next to my bedroom.
Let me tell you, I made a beeline for my parent’s bedroom. I woke my Mom up, telling her that I had a nightmare and couldn’t sleep (I guess I figured it would be a little foolish to tell her Carrie was downstairs). She let me sleep in their bedroom for the rest of the night.
So it turns out that it wasn’t Carrie walking though our house. A box that was stacked in the hall had fallen down. But how did it fall? Hmmm…..
The image of Carrie covered in pig’s blood with all the uplighting is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. The big prom scene is done with a split screen: Carrie’s bloody face on one side, and the destruction she is causing on the other. It’s really an effective technique, because it gives you no rest from the terror and the carnage that you would get if they had spliced the scenes together.
To this day, I’m still freaked out by this movie, which I’ll never see again. I’m also still afraid of Sissy Spacek. I don’t believe I seen any of the movies she’s done after this. Who can blame me? I look at her today, and I still see that young girl bathed in blood. Yeesh. My number one scariest movie, without a doubt.
Yes, it’s finally over. Maybe if I see at least ten worthwhile horror movies in the next twelve months, I’ll do another list. Pray that I don’t….Bwah ha ha!!!
Next: My Top 10 Thanksgiving Movies
Just kidding.
No comments:
Post a Comment