Tina) There are 2 films that I’ve always dreaded having to write about; Blade Runner and Hellraiser. The reason I’m adverse to discussing these particular films is because they have such a deep emotional meaning to me that I am incapable of being objective about either of them, as I regard them both equally as films elevated above all other movies and works of true genius. High praise indeed! Below are the thought of Chris and Ramrod on Hellraiser 2&3 (Dave was due to write about #4, but bless him he’s been both poorly AND worked off his feet.

Newly uncovered extended Epk interviews with Clive Barker and stars Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, and effects artist Bob Keen, shot during the making of Hellraiser, with a new introduction by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman Unboxing Hellraiser – brand new visual essay celebrating the Lament Configuration by genre author Alexandra Benedict (The Beauty of Murder)Loaded with special features, Hellraiser Quartet of Torment is released on 4K blu-ray on 23rd October and will surely thrill genre horror completionists.

The Hellraiserseries has a history that is unlike most long running horror franchises. Originally released in the late 1980s, when the slasher genre reigned supreme and audiences had been fed a steady diet of movies like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween, Hellraisercame along and did something completely different. The film delves into hell, taking the audience and characters there, and shows us that the Cenobites were once humans themselves; a fact that would play heavily into subsequent movies. The inclusion of the Escher inspired hell-world, the unknowable god Leviathan, and the further machinations of Julia, expand the story and setting in ways that most horror sequels simply didn’t do. But it’s by no means perfect, and the over-designed nature of the Channard Cenobite and the destruction he wreaks feels like a foreshadowing of the third movie, and leads the final act of the film to be the weakest part of the movie. Joey ( Terry Farrell) is a frustrated reporter and during a seemingly boring night reporting at a local hospital she witnesses a victim literally get torn apart. A chance meeting with the victims friend leads her to a nightclub called The Boiler Room. Horror, Thriller | UK/USA 1987, 1988, 1992, 1996 | 18 | 23rd October 2023 (UK) | 4K UHD | Arrow VideoThe Pursuit of Possibilities, a brand new 60-minute discussion between acclaimed horror authors Paula D. Ashe (We Are Here To Hurt Each Other) and Eric LaRocca (Everything the Dark Eats) celebrating the queerness of Hellraiser and the importance of Clive Barker as a queer writer Newly uncovered workprint version of the film, providing a fascinating insight into how it changed during post production A more contained story than what was to come, it followed a family; Larry ( Andrew Robinson), his wife, Julia ( Clare Higgins) and their daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) as their family gets torn apart (quite literally in some cases) by lust, obsession and murder. It was of course the first appearance of Pinhead ( Doug Bradley) who was to become a horror icon, standing alongside the likes of Jason Voorhes and Freddy Kreuger.