![]() The idea that Cenobites were ever earthly seems intentionally distant. They’re no longer wearing leather, which is both very human and very sexual now their bodies are bio-mechanical, more like Xenomorphs than people. Instead of pulling away out of revulsion, and then letting myself peek again, with every new Cenobite I leaned in to appreciate the really fine handiwork. He tried to get all pleasure and no pain, and the Cenobites gave him the reversal he deserved.Ĭontinuing the simplification trend, the makeup effects in 2022 are much sleeker, more intricate and beautiful - impressive. We ultimately learn that the Cenobites didn’t give him what he wanted - “I sought pleasure, and all they had to give was pain.” But Voight never made himself vulnerable in his pursuit, never opened himself up to the risk inherent in opening the box in the first place. He sends an employee to get the puzzle box, and has her send him victims to unlock each of the box’s configurations. The one character who seeks pleasure is the villain, Voight, who works primarily through intermediaries. Now, the Google summary of the 2022 Hellraiser :Ī young woman must confront the sadistic, supernatural forces behind an enigmatic puzzle box responsible for her brother's disappearance.Ģ022’s Hellraiser does away with the heavy musing on pleasure and pain, because it effectively does away with pleasure as a legitimate possibility. Pain and pleasure, indivisible.” His appetites are what bring danger into everyone’s world. He pursued a sensation he had never felt before, and got “an experience beyond limits. Cotton?įrank and the grimiest fingernails you’ve ever seen: The box. The movie opens with the following exchange: She chooses pleasure that makes her feel alive over a life with the impossibly boring man who blames her for being attractive to other men, and who faints at the sight of blood.įor his part, big bad Frank makes a lot of knowingly destructive choices as well. Specifically, she chooses to kill for him. And when she find her lover’s completely flayed but still living body in the attic, she chooses to help him. She chooses to cheat on her husband with his brother. (People will tell you Kristy is the protagonist she is the hero, but Julia gets more screen time, more backstory, more personality, and more action.) Julia’s desires-for sex, for passion, for the man who liberated her from a stifling existence-drive every decision she makes. When he says “we’ll tear your soul apart,” I believe him.ġ987’s protagonist, Julia, is also one of the villains. The creatures are both otherworldly and somehow very tangible in this world. The Cenobites’ various wounds bleed-their pain and its attendant pleasure are eternally fresh. You could reach out and touch these bodies and their wounds, and that thought alone is terrifying. Even if they don’t always look ~realistic~ (what an annoying word when you’re talking about art), they look real, as in physical, believable. The practical effects in 1987’s original are my favourite kind - extremely gooey and fleshy. Frank then convinces Julia, his one-time lover, to lure men back to the house so he can use their blood to reconstruct himself. When Frank's brother and his wife, Julia, move into Frank's old house, they accidentally bring what is left of Frank back to life. The act unleashes gruesome beings called Cenobites, who tear Frank's body apart. Sexual deviant Frank inadvertently opens a portal to hell when he tinkers with a box he bought while abroad. ![]() Barker takes all of that sticky, complicated mess and stitches it throughout his gothic fairytale about pain, pleasure, and transcendence. Leaders talked about and treated AIDS as a disease born of sin, punishment for unnatural and excessive appetites. You were warned.Ĭreator Clive Barker pulled from his own passions-including S&M clubs, which inspire the Cenobites’ leather fetishwear-and fears, especially the plague that was consuming so many queer men like Barker. Spoilers for both movies absolutely abound from here on out. The stickiest example in my mind right now is the new Hellraiser movie, especially when you hang it up next to the 1987 original. And because we’re obsessed with repeating the past, it feels to me like we’re headed back in a Hays Code direction. It truly took off because enough powerful people were loud enough in their fear that Hollywood was a cesspool of immorality (accurate), and that movies would corrupt susceptible-minded folks and bring about the downfall of decent society. It’s an interesting example of self-censorship: the Code came from Hollywood’s attempts to regulate themselves before the government did. The Code laid out morality guidelines for movies to follow, lest they be deemed too inappropriate. The infamous Hays Code enjoyed its reign of terror from roughly 1934 to roughly 1968.
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