Hellraiser tortures the box office in September 1987


We're talking about movies, specifically horror movies, and I got to thinking about September of '87. You remember '87? Hair metal, calculator watches...good times. And in that glorious month, something rather...unique arrived on the scene. We're talking about a little film called Hellraiser.

Hellraiser. Good Lord - who came up with that? Well, some guy named Clive Barker. What's he doing? He's got a puzzle box. A little square thing, like a Rubik's Cube for Satanists. 

You open it up, and next thing you know, you've got these...well, let's just say a group of very enthusiastic individuals show up. And they're not there to fix your plumbing.  

Folks, when Doug Bradley stepped onto the screen as Pinhead, it was like someone took a Goth nightclub bouncer and gave him a PhD in pain. This guy wasn’t just a villain; he was a Cenobite with a capital “C,” delivering lines like “We have such sights to show you” with the gravitas of a Shakespearean actor who moonlights at Hot Topic. 

Clive Barker didn’t just write the novella The Hellbound Heart; he said, “Hold my chains, I’m directing this thing too!” And boy, did he deliver. September ’87 marked Barker’s directorial debut, and he brought a vision so twisted, it made your Aunt Edna’s fruitcake look normal.

Let’s give a shout-out to Clare Higgins as Julia, the stepmom who makes Cinderella’s look like Mother Teresa. Her obsession with bringing back her lover Frank was so twisted, it made Dynasty drama look tame. When Hellraiser dropped in September ’87, Julia became the villain we loved to hate—and secretly rooted for, because who hasn’t wanted to renovate a creepy attic with a little blood magic?

That September release in ’87 wasn’t just a movie premiere; it was the birth of a franchise, a mythology, and a whole lotta nightmares. Whether it’s Pinhead’s creepy one-liners, or that puzzle box you’re still too scared to touch, Hellraiser proved horror could be weird - but also original again.

Location: London, UK

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