The Imagination of Clive Barker and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth?👺🔥👹

I heard Ryan Bledsoe talking up the Hellraiser movies on one of his current podcasts, so I gave the first three movies and the 2022 remake a watch, since I could view them at no extra charge on Amazon Prime and the Binge streaming services, as I had current subscriptions and was cutting them both off at the end of this month.

The Hellbound Heart

I hadn't read (and still haven't read) any Clive Barker novels, but my youngest son tells me that Barker's 'The Hellbound Heart' is one of his favourite horror novels, and he has read every Stephen King novel ever published.

While I have read a handful of Stephen King novels, like 'The Shining', 'IT', 'Pet Semetry' and a book of short stories, I am not that big a fan of King's works.

I find it interesting that the big horror/alien/demon novelists that would emerge from the 80s, like Barker, King and Strieber had similar themed books come out in the mid 80s, with Strieber claiming his was a true story about visitors.

Communion (book)

All of those novels were made into feature films/TV series for the 80s horror movie fans, with Barker even directing the first 'Hellraiser' movie.

Communion (1989 film)

Hellraiser (1987)

IT (1986 novel)

ID1OT Podcast:
Episode 590 – Clive Barker

I didn't really know much about Clive Barker, only that he was a big selling horror novelist who wrote the Hellraiser novels/movies, so I did a search to listen to any podcasts about him and the Hellraiser movies and found that his life story would make for an interesting movie in and of itself. 

OVERDUE PODCAST: EP 555 -
THE HELLBOUND HEART, BY CLIVE BARKER

I forgot that Clive was the author who inspired the 'Candyman' movies until stumbling across this podcast episode below.

Clive Barker promoted 'Hellraiser 3' alongside 'Candyman' (1992).

THE NIGHTMARISH LOVE STORY
BEHIND CLIVE BARKER’S CANDYMAN

Listening to that 'Weird Darkness' podcast episode reminds me of the subject of my last post -

The 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is One of the Books I Must Read Before I Die?📚💀👻

DID MARK TWAIN WRITE A NOVEL
... FROM HIS GRAVE?

Post Mortem podcast with Mick Garris:
 Clive Barker 

 Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

Watching 'Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth', which was released in the USA on 9/11 in 1992 seems eerily prophetic, considering the Twin Towers are displayed on the movie poster and in the film itself, with illusions that the building which appears at the end on the movie is meant to be a hellish version of the World Trade Centre.

Scenes from 'Hellraiser 3'

SPOILER ALERT: The main character in Hellraiser 3 (apart from Pinhead) is a New York TV reporter who battles Pinhead at the end of the movie, burying the cube in the freshly laid foundations of the WTC like building, which is shown with the cube's artwork in the building's foyer in the closing shots.

Pinhead spends most of the movie trapped inside a pillar, while his personality is split in two, too;-)

Runtime approx. 93 minutes?!

And it is written on the video cassette cover ^ that the film runs for approximately 93 minutes, which seems a very Thelemic run time to me, considering also that there was a Flight 93 involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Plus, in the first 'Hellraiser' movie there is a picture of Crowley on the bedroom wall.

Kenneth Anger is a Thelemite and is well past 93, as far as birth years go at least:-)

Kenneth Anger Was Born in the Year of the Rabbit ... Just?🐇🎬🐰🌑🌞

Bad Taste (1987)

Communion (book) 1987

And let's not forget Peter Jackson (who was born on October 31st) wrote and made a movie about aliens released in 1987:-)

And according to the Hellraiser 3 IMDB triva -

"Peter Jackson was asked to direct [Hellraiser3], but declined because he couldn't see himself directing such a serious horror movie. He liked the final product, but added that "if I made a Hellraiser film, I'd like Pinhead to be whacked against a wall and have all the pins flattened into his face. I immediately start thinking of funny things and gags - that's just the way I am.""

What Are the Eyes Actually Seeing?