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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic way to rediscover a true horror classic!,
This review is from: Hellraiser Puzzle Box [1987] [DVD] (DVD)
I recently received this boxset as a present i had debated buying it but had eventually decided against it as id never been a fan of Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 or Hellraiser 3. All i can say is that this is one of the best DVD boxsets in my collection. All three movies are presented in beautiful widescreen with fully remastered picture and sound and in the case of the first two completely uncut for the first time. Each of the disks is jampacked with featurettes, trailers, honest interviews (its clear that series creator Clive Barker has no love for the later sequels!) and extremely entertaining commentaries for each movie. However like all DVDs great features do not make a great package but thankfully 2 out of 3 of these movies are dark, inventive masterpieces. If all you know about these movies are that it has some guy with nails in his head then you are in for a shock. Hellraiser plays almost like some weird family drama at times and has a claustrophobic feel with the action never really leaving the inside of a house but i dont want to spoil it for you because the first time i saw it it was not at all what i expected. Pinhead is merely a supporting character in the first two and it is these few breathtaking scenes that give him a kind of regal nobility. The original is still the best but having re-evaluated Hellbound, i found it almost as amazing as the classic original and it certainly does a brilliant job of following up plot strands left from the first movie. It is extremely stylish looking and has some fantastically surreal imagery contained within. Although the gore factor does take things a little too far in places and i aint squeamish so thats really saying something! Unfortunately by Hellraiser 3 Hollywood had come calling and had clearly decided it was time to turn Pinhead into a wisecracking Freddy Krueger style franchise spewer. Dont get me wrong its ok but too much money and a lack of originality give this movie no identity of its own, still its a lot better than the later movies! So two classic movies, one so-so and a more extras than you could shake a meat hook at and at the current price you should snap this baby up, believe me if youre a fan of horror movies this is darn near essential.
52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The ultimate Hellraiser set from Clive Barker.,
By the great amphibian "Ruthenphelphs" (Hampshire, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hellraiser Puzzle Box [1987] [DVD] (DVD)
In this box are enclosed 4 disks, containing the first three Hellraiser movies, (the only three that Clive Barker really had any part in the making of), and these are in my opinion all excellent films, and at least the first two are classics, (the third isn't really stylised in the right way to make it a classic like the first two, but it is still a great movie). The reason I bought this box was to have the audio commentary on all three movies, and having had these movies on video for years I recognize that the movies in this DVD set are totally uncut, (and in the commentary this is confirmed), with some particularly gory parts of scenes which were edited out in the [American I think] version of the movies that I have on VHS. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there are two different commentaries for the first movie, (one with Barker, Ashley Lawrence, and the screenplay writer of the next two movies who adds eruditely to the discussion), and one solo one by Barker that I have yet to watch but that I'm looking forward to. There are two commentaries for Hellbound, and one entertaining commentary for hellraiser three with Doug Bradley and the director, (who seems like a really nice guy). I would have jumped at the chance of buying this box if each movie just had one commentary and no other extras. Not only do you get two commentaries for two movies and one for the other, but each of the three disks that I am discussing have an extras section which contains at least two documentaries, and one with Doug Bradley on all three disks, (as well as on-set interviews with the directors of the first two movies and an up to date interview with Clive Barker on the Hellraiser disk). So there are loads of commentaries and documentaries. Could this be augmented? Well yes, because there is yet another disk which contains the arty short movies made by Barker and his long term friends who were involved in the Hellraiser movies in some way (one of them wrote the scripts to the second and third Hellraiser movies). Both of these short films are introduced with interviews with Clive and the script writer, Pete Atkins, and also on the disk is another version of Hellraiser 3, (though I don't know what is different from the version on the third disk, but I haven't watched it yet and assume the difference must be substantial or it wouldn't be there). This box set, (quite literally a box), gives Hellraiser fans like me everything they could ask for from the first three movies, including the totally uncut version if ever they were censored in any ways, (the amusing director to the third movie showed appreciation when a head exploded, as this was previous cut out of the video version; I must note that the goriest parts of the films are quite a bit more disturbing now that they are uncut.. particularly in the second movie, with at least two obviously uncut versions of scenes). Anything you could ever need to know about the first three movies, (let's face it, the only three that most Hellraiser fans could care less about), is all here, with ample commentary and interviews, and uncut movies. The box is also extremely good value for money, given that the first three disks at least are more/much more feature-packed than most other standalone dvd's are, and even for three great dvd's this would be excellent value for money, but then there is the fourth disk with even more stuff on it).
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pain and pleasure...indivisible,
This review is from: Hellraiser [DVD] [1987] (DVD)
Hellraiser is a visual array of menacing sado-masochistic imagery and gore galore. There's nothing nice in this film - cockroaches, filth, hooks, pins, skin-ripping, fleshless bodies and gallons of blood are just some of the things on the menu.The film is no stranger to most people. Based on Clive Barker's brilliant novella The Hellbound Heart, it is a simple story of selling your soul to the Devil - or in this case the Cenobites who are masters in body reconfiguration and refined pain and pleasure. But it goes deeper than those things but I'll let you watch it yourself. Visually, I'm convinced it's one of the greatest films ever made - the image of the lead Cenobite, whose head is a geometric network of squares intersected at each apex by a nicely driven pin, is just brilliant stuff. He represents pain and pleasure. No other film possesses such a unique vision. You'll really see nothing else like it, and for that reason alone you need to get it. Unfortunately, Hellraiser fails in storyline and acting. Clive Barker is a brilliant writer - anyone who's read his books knows that - but as a scriptwriter he's lame. The dialogue is horrible in this and even more horribly delivered by actors who are unbelievably wooden (with the exception of the excellent Kirsty and Pinhead). There are some unforgettable one-liners from Pinhead but the script otherwise is annoyingly bad. It just doesn't seem to flow. What's more, the last fifteen minutes of the film are just plain terrible. Like the house, the story just completely falls apart into mindless oblivion. When Kirsy's friend (or is it boyfriend?) comes into the house and suddenly becomes part of the fight without blinking an eyelid. I hate stuff like that. It's like they've worked hard on the first hour of the film but got incredibly lazy which is why we're ill-rewarded with a really crap ending. That's why it only gets four stars in my books, but I can put those things aside because it's visually amazing, especially on a large screen and on DVD. Just a shame about the ending, script and acting. I nearly gave three stars cos of that but I didn't have the heart to. If you haven't seen it,then do cos you'll be missing out. For those who want more of the Cenobites (who don't feature a great deal in this), then check out Hellbound: Hellraiser 2. But please don't watch the third one because it's a joke.
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