Review of Hellraiser by Mr Nizin Lopez.

July 16th of 2013 (Tisha Beav)

Review of Hellraiser by Mr Nizin Lopez.

Hellraiser is a British film released on September 18th of 1987. It was written & directed by the absolute genius Clive Barker. Well, let’s see…where shall I begin? Hellraiser ladies & gentlemen is not a movie, it is a beyond majestic work of art. It is a daring voyage into the human subconscious. This film is beyond a doubt a sincere approach that explores the hidden mansions of the mind.

Hellraiser shows how spiritual entities can be summoned through opened portals. These gates are nothing but low vibratory frequencies that activate potent energies. The foundation of a society is family & Hellraiser shows how a family can be destroyed through non-elevated vibratory frequencies.

The cast goes as follows:

•          A certain individual named Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) purchases a mystical cube somewhere in India & he unleashes the Cenobites. Frank is a “Ravana” type, he is a violent scumbag & a sexual deviant, he has some spiritual characteristics but he is certainly no man of the light. He commits sexual immorality with his brother’s wife & he traumatizes his brother’s daughter as well. The tantric Frank of dirty nails has nothing to do with cotton even though Cotton happens to be his Last name.

•          Frank’s partner in crime is an un-emotional woman named Julia (Clare Higgins). She is a cold blooded hyena that likes wearing makeup & looking elegant. She cares about her physique, she is a being of the physical plane. The cigarette smoking Julia does not believe in family values & is only interested in self gratification. She immerses herself into the lowest bowels of repugnance when she cohabits with the ravenous Frank. So, the filth that inhabits Frank’s body is transferred unto her enhancing her already not so luminous qualities.

•          Kirsty is a benevolent young flower who stands for what’s right (Ashley Laurence). She is an empathic individual who loves her father. Though her soul is pure like white feathers, dark entities have access to her because she was profaned by the monster named Frank. Kirsty foresees her father’s death in a dream.

•          Larry is a good man who loves his daughter (Andrew Robinson) & who tries to please his new wife in every way he can. He does not have the “porn star aroma” of his masculine brother; he lacks those animalistic-fleshy traits that attract females. Julia does not feel any sexual passion for him, in fact; she embarrasses him in front of dinner guests. Larry is weak to the point that he throws up at the sight of blood. He is an obedient lamb, definitely not a predator. Frank describes him as “a man that has been dead way before he died physically”.

Larry speaks about his mother (apparently the owner of the house) but his father is never mentioned, this suggests that Larry & Frank had no significant paternal figure in their lives. The father figure represents God, therefore this could imply that this is a family without God’s presence (when there is no authority all “limits” are crossed). Larry is a socially functional man who loves his daughter yet his life with Julia is a failure. Julia is a cold blooded reptilian who dislikes Kirsty plus, she betrayed her husband. Kirsty was abused by Larry’s brother during her childhood. Frank is a mad dog attached to the house; he is an immoral man that crossed pretty much all the limits. It is because of all this that the Cotton family is symbolically speaking a cursed family though Larry & Kirsty are good human beings. It is interesting that the number of the house is 55. The number 55 stands for speed limit & this therefore brings the issue of respect for authority (authority is a symbol of God). Frank says in the movie that the dark entities gave him an experience “beyond the limits”. He slept with his brother’s wife & he traumatized Kirsty so he crossed all the limits. The Cenobites actually describe themselves as “explorers in the further regions of experience”, meaning that they are beyond good & evil, they have no limits.

It is important to dwell into the character of Frank. He is a prana-sucker, a psychic vampire. He died yet because of his viciousness he is attached to the physical plane. Frank represents the type of disincarnate spirit that is attached to mundane sensations. His vibration level is connected to sex, to alcohol, to cigarettes, to uncleanness, to homelessness, to bad smells, & to murder. The house had been abandoned for 10 years (it had no running water when Larry & Julia move in) yet Frank’s essence was still there attached to the filth that was found in it. The roaches, the worms, & the cigarettes are symbols of Frank’s low vibrations (Julia captures her prey in a bar). At the end of the movie the enigmatic box appears accompanied by two cigarettes & by two roaches.
The first manifestations of Frank’s presence are mental, Julia perceives them the minute she enters the house. Larry employs some folks from a moving company. One of them shares Frank’s characteristics: he resembles him physically, he requests beer, he checks out Julia, & he checks out Kirsty as well (he ends up semi-swallowed by this mattress in Hellraiser II). The minute this happens Larry’s hand is wounded & blood is spilled on the floor of the house.
Frank’s revival begins when blood appears in the scene. Larry’s blood is spilled on the floor & since Frank is his brother, he begins to take physical shape again. Julia assists Frank by bringing him victims, every human that he nourishes from means more flesh on his bones. Frank ends up murdering his own brother in order to complete his physical human appearance. Basically, if we make the math we can see that low entities like Frank nourish from sexual energy & from human blood.

Throughout the movie we see the symbolism of the flower again & again. This symbol stands for something that is used in certain Occult rituals: Sex.

•          If we examine Larry’s house carefully we will see that all the windows & the front door have flower designs.
•          The stairs & some of the walls of Larry’s house have flower designs.
•          Flowers are seen in the scene where Kirsty sleeps with her boyfriend; the walls, the pillowcases, & the sheets have flower designs.
•          The movie makes a subliminal connection between a blossoming red flower & between Kirsty’s reddish hair.
•          A white flower appears on the TV when Kirsty is in the hospital.
•          The box that summons the dark entities is arranged as a flower sometimes.

On top of this, the sexual symbol of the flower is channeled in terms of psychic energy. There are plenty of subliminal references made here in connection with the blossoming Kirsty. The flower that appears in the TV when Kirsty is in the presence of a nurse is white like cotton. Yet it turns red & there is a visual connection to the blood in the intravenous transfusion. I believe this might represent the virginity that the pathological Frank took from Kirsty. Notice that Frank summons the Cenobites by arranging the box in the shape of a flower (some side of the box is divided into “16” parts).  It is also interesting that Frank uses a knife to intimidate Kirsty. It could be possible that this blade is used here as a phallic symbol (an allegory to Frank’s pathological behavior towards Kirsty). The monster that Kirsty faces in the tunnel has an interesting particularity; it has a scorpion-like tail that stings. This could also be perceived as a seed-injecting/phallic symbol equivalent to Frank’s knife. Kirsty is the flower that represents purity.
In Hellraiser II a mute girl named Tiffany is associated with flowers as well, mostly white flowers. In Hellraiser III J.P. Monroe gives flowers to his sexual targets.

The box that was acquired in the highly spiritual India is a symbol of our dense-physical reality, it is a representation of matter (it could easily remind us of the Kaaba in Mecca). The 6 sided / 8 cornered cube operates as an inter-dimensional portal that summons entities from beyond. It is an abstract map of the human psyche. The square is described in Hellraiser II as a symbol of the 4th dimension, meaning of death.
Yet, this is not the only box that appears in this film. When the box first appears in the movie we see that the dirty nailed fellow who was doing business with Frank had two sugar cubes (Frank gave him two stacks of money). Frank invokes the cenobites surrounded by candles in the shape of a box. The mattress that caused Larry to bleed is a symbolic box. The TV that shows the flowers in the hospital is also a box. The door in the room of the hospital is symbolic of the box; even the glass window in it is circular like the circle in the box.

The dark entities, meaning the Cenobites that Frank was so interested in contacting initially, they seem to somehow possess a spark related to the W.W II era. If we really look at them carefully we can see that the main colors that come out of them are black, red, and white. From a visual perspective this could remind us of the red, black, & white swastika flag used on the third Reich. Incredibly enough, if we scrutinize this banner we can see that it is pretty much a rectangle (a box) with a circle in it (the swastika inside of the circle). The Cenobites are dressed with long leather coats like the elite of the third Reich. Actually, the Nazi doctor “Joseph Mengele” is mentioned by Larry when he has dinner with his friends (the Dr Channard of Hellraiser II is a Nazi in disguise). The inquisitional experiments of the cenobites could have a connection with the scientific research conducted by fellows like Mengele (a guy who crossed “all” the limits).
A certain poster in Larry’s house spells “William Carlos Williams”. Obviously this American fellow is not Mengele yet he was involved in the medical field plus he did poetry as well. Some of his writings are considered dark & some possess sexual connotations. Hellraiser was released on September 18th of 1987, one day after William’s birthday (he was born on September 17th of 1883).

One of the most enigmatic characters in the movie is a hairy & bearded homeless man who looks something like a “John the Baptist”, he even eats insects. This mysterious figure shows himself to Kirsty several times. When Kirsty & her boyfriend try to get rid of the box in some open field (they try to burn it), he shows up. He grabs the box & burns in flames until he becomes a dragon looking demon that flies away. For some reason, it seems like this cursed-homeless man is the mirroring of the man who sells the cube in India. Then again, the guy who puts the box into the hands of J.P. Monroe in Hellraiser III is a homeless looking folk.

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life & peace”.
(Romans 8:6)

Hellraiser is without a doubt a masterpiece produced by extremely intelligent people who understand paranormal phenomena very well. I do not have enough words to praise this film.