And then there are the times where a headline is chosen for me that I simply don’t agree with or even understand. Look: If it gets people reading my work, I can’t complain. But Hellraiser isn’t sci-fi. Or a thriller. It is sexy, if you’re into S&M, but it is also gross, because it applies kink to an extreme pursuit of pleasures that fall outside of most tastes, even Christian Grey’s.
I can’t do a better job here explaining what makes Hellraiser ’87 classic, though I spend a bit of my forthcoming Hellraiser ’22* getting at exactly that subject. Here, I just celebrate what makes Hellraiser ’87 horny. (I don’t agree with the edited line about horror being sexy today – it isn’t. In fact contemporary horror is coquettish when it comes to sex. I’d even call X, the movie everyone reviewing it, whether or positively or negatively, has declared “horny” as conservative. Another subject for another time, though.)
You can read my retrospective of Hellraiser ’87 over at Inverse.
*You have been teased, folks.
A Constant Visual Feast 