Anyone who Reads this could tell this would make a Great Movie. (Updated 8/13/01)

"The Hellbound Heart" is a great short story turned into a very good movie. This could almost be a short story stuck inside of Clive Barker's "Books of Blood", like "Cabal" was. The first "Hellraiser" movie was a very literal translation of this novella, and it the best of the Hellraiser series, probably because it follows the book so well. The rest were original pieces, more influenced by standard Hollywood dreck, then Barker's original story.

The story is about a petty thief named Frank, a life-long loser, who hears whispers and rumors about magic puzzle boxes that when solved give the owner great gifts. The legends seem to vary, he finds out, as he searches them out. Some say it gives the solver great power, some say great riches, and still others say great pleasure. When Frank finds the boxes, he discovers that the gift is none of the above. He is horrified to find out that these puzzle boxes are really entranceways into a particular part of hell, run by the Cenobites. He will now spend eternity under their care.

Barker's Cenobites are masters of pleasure and pain, but instead of being an exploitive example of sado-masochism, are instead truly horrifying because of their casual nature about both sensations. A large part of the story involves Frank's trying to escape their dimension. He, through an unusual accident, devises a possible means of escaping. He realizes he must get help from a woman in our world, whom he convinces to steal blood from various victims, a few quarts at a time. Like Anthony Perkins in Psycho we almost want to help them along, even though we know what could be at stake.

Frank is initially powerless except for a barely audible voice in which to contact Julia. Frank learned his lessons from the Cenobites very well. He knows how to cajole another mortal into doing his bidding from the dimension he is trapped in. Julia plays a character that is not quite as evil as Frank. However, like Lady Macbeth, once she realizes she has a chance to achieve power, allows nothing to get in her way. Not even multiple homicides.

The story has many characters, many of whom we root for at different times for different reasons. Barker is clever with his story line, detailed with the characters, and his dialogue is witty. There are so many great lines I've never been able to forget like "She always looked at me as if she couldn't understand why I wasn't smothered at birth.".

If I have any complaints with the book, it might be that the main 'good' character, Kristy, isn't written with as much detail as the two lead villains. These are the people we almost care about more than her, simply because we get to know them so much better. Kristy is just an innocent victim under attack, whereas we really get to understand the motives behind the villain's actions.

I can imagine how anyone reading this would say that this would make a great movie, and thus was Clive's first major translation to film. It is only 164 pages long, and is just the right length. Most 500 page books tend to make bad movies, since they can never contain as much as the author would want to. As good as it is, if this novella were stretched out a little longer, it would lose its perfect pacing.

Thank god the absurd ending from the film version with a bum becoming a flying demon for no reason at all was not in the original story.

"The Hellbound Heart", and the movie "Hellraiser", contain many original themes that we have not seen in a horror movie before. The biggest shame to me, is how bad the majority of the sequels turned out to be. The producers of those films should have turned to any other of Barker's very large libraries of short stories as inspiration for their next movie.


See my review of Barker's "Books of Blood" as prime examples of what other stories could easily become classic horror films.

Clive Barker's "Books of Blood"
http://www.epinions.com/content_30465691268