originally posted on tumblr, Mar 30th 2026 

Movie-A-Day-Thon #34: Hellraiser (1987)

Enough Cold War downers, back to the 80s horrors where I belong!!!!! >:D

Yknow, over the years I think I’ve heard like three different summaries for this movie. They all get the important bits, Cenobites, torment nexus rubix cube, gore and pleasure, but otherwise they all seemed to differ on what the movie is actually about. I’m sure at least one of these summaries is incorrect or taking the wrong contexts for the story, thus making it wrong by default, but the fact this happened three different times in my whole damn life, is kind of crazy to think about.

Like. Frozen (yeah the disney movie) is about an older daughter finding herself once leaving home and then returning a new woman. It’s about a younger daughter staying true to herself and helping her sister with her depression. It’s about a royal family being broken by outside and inner forces beyond their control, and that they must overcome. None of these are wrong, but none of them are entirely– you get what I mean now, right?

I certainly didn’t know about a final girl trope in this movie. Nobody ever told me about Kristy! What the hell!

Also this is gonna be a bit weird but, there’s something about pre-digital movies that just make blue eyes so…. entrancing? I can’t put my finger of why the color most blue eyes get on non-digital film looks so good to me, but it does, and everytime I see them I just go <3333 about it. They are stark, yes, but somehow softer??

Anyway maybe watching this movie on an empty stomach was a worse idea than with a full one. Not that’s realistic or anything, it’s 80s gore after all, but the goopiness of it all mixed with the obvious silicone and plaster is making me a bit queasy, not gonna lie. Speaking of, some of the other practical effects in this movie are so, tangible and engaging, it’s actually enthralling to watch. Set design is off the fucking charts and I’m thriving. And the reconstitution scene?? Damn!

This movie sadly suffers from “it’s very boring in between the really fun and visually interesting parts of the gore”, not because the plot or the themes aren’t interesting, they really are, but the way it’s shot and acted simply don’t grip me and it’s a damn shame. Getting through it was a bit of a struggle, I kept getting distracted with other stuff. ADHD strikes my ass again….

That said though, I have to be honest and say that daddy kink is a bit too comical for me, I can’t take it seriously at the best of times. But the phrase “come to Daddy” feels ominous more than funny to me now. Phenomenal movie and definitely worth a watch if you haven’t. No don’t look at the franchise list, those sequels don’t exist.