Yes, indeed! Following on from last year’s “free” “Doctor Who” DVD giveaway, The Sun “newspaper”, for want of a more choice word, are now giving away what they term seven horror classics. Some are, some aren’t, in my opinion. I’m not that keen on recommending Rupert Murdoch product but it’s worth purchasing a copy of said tabloid this coming Saturday, and also News of the World on Sunday, in order to obtain a DVD of Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser”, and its first sequel “Hellbound: Hellraiser II”, assuming you don’t already own either of them.
If you weren’t previously aware of the offer then I’m afraid you’ve missed out on John Carpenter’s “Halloween”, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance, which was “given away” yesterday. It’s generally regarded as a classic horror movie but, personally speaking, I think it’s a little overrated but shows what you can achieve, even in America, on a small budget. Psycho Michael Myers is locked away at the age of six for killing his sister with a big knife on Halloween. Fifteen years later, armed with another big knife on Halloween, he sets out for revenge. It does boast a very memorable music score, composed by the director himself, which helps drive the film along, considerably, giving it that all-important claustrophobic feel.
Today, it’s the turn of “Spiderman” director Sam Raimi’s cult classic “The Evil Dead” in which five holidaying students unwittingly wake forest demons, as you do! Tomorrow, you can pick up a copy of Stephen King’s “Children of the Corn” which stars “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Terminator” actress Linda Hamilton. On Thursday, it’s exploding head time with Canadian director David Cronenberg’s low-budget “Scanners”. On Friday, you can find “Flowers in the Attic”, of all places, but it’s the weekend which truly delivers a gore fest of unimaginable horrors, and a British one at that!
“Hellraiser” stars Clare Higgins, best known to me at the time from A J Cronin’s “The Citadel”, as an unfaithful wife with “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” actor Andrew Robinson, also of “Dirty Harry” fame, playing her husband. A Chinese puzzle box is purchased by her former lover, solved, and opens the gates of Hell unleashing all manner of sado-masochistic monsters ready and willing to inflict pain on mankind for all eternity! It introduces Doug Bradley as (Lead Cenobite) Pinhead to an unsuspecting audience although he’s not referred to by that name until the sequel, “Hellbound: Hellraiser II”.
Joining the cast in the second film are Kenneth Cranham, recently heard but not seen in “Blood of the Daleks”, and beautiful actress Imogen Boorman as Tiffany. I’d love to know what became of her. She also appeared in the feature version of Dennis Potter’s “Alice”, “Dreamchild”, as well as having recurring roles in both “Coronation Street” and “Casualty”. Not for the squeamish, “Hellbound” features one of the grisliest sequences I’ve ever seen committed to celluloid. Not usually affected by such things, I have to admit the scene in question did make me feel somewhat queasy! “What is your pleasure?”
