Good special effects and makeup. Most likely helped start the body piercing craze.

No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering.

I'm not the biggest Clive Barker fan; he often has interesting ideas, but is not always adept at forming them into a linear, coherent storyline. "Hellraiser" wasn't startlingly original...there's a lot of Lovecraft here...but I enjoyed it immensely, particularly since there was such a depressing paucity of horror-movies during the 1980's (slasher movies don't count, in my opinion). The Cenobites were visually intense, and disquieting, and SCARY. I'm not familiar with any other cinematic work she's done, but Claire Higgins was chillingly wonderful as the frustrated wife, and it's always a pleasure to see the underrated Andy Robinson (Clint Eastwood's nemesis in "Dirty Harry"--- he stole that picture) in anything. Very well done, and it's a shame they felt compelled to not just end things with this picture, as each sequel became progressively more ridiculous and pointless. (As an aside, I saw "Hellraiser II" at a seedy theatre in Philadelphia with a friend and was astonished to note a couple that had brought their near-infant children with them for a "family outing". All of the "Hellraiser" films are extremely violent, and I couldn't help but feel that bringing such young children to such a film constituted a form of child abuse. At the time, I was less confrontational than I am now, and didn't say anything. I've always regretted that, and always wondered how those children fared.).

predictable.

Original movie that was greusome and fascinating, and better than most of its 7 sequels. 4 and a half stars.

One of the better Clive Barker movies, the first three are good, the rest are ok.

Top shelf horror!

brilliant

the best horror of the 80's. what the storylines lacks, the movie makes up for in sheer horror.

I'm glad I stumbled across this listing. Hellraiser might be the best horror film of the 80's. . .creepy, gory, and it is a film with an actual plot. It isn't for the squeamish, and Pinhead is one of the most memorable characters in cinema. You'll never forget it- love it or hate it. . .

What a trend setter

Mildly scary at times, but not very creative. After all, I know quite a few people with pins stuck in their head (or at least they act that way).

Scary Movie....Hellraiser is awesome in all the above.

This is the most frightening concept imaginable! This is looking into Hell on film. Top 5 best ever.

geezes this was scary holy crap i find it hard to rent it man the guy coming out of the floor god

a classic gem of 80's gothic horror nastalgia. What a great concept. A puzzle box that could either open the door to a land of eternal pleasures or to a land of eternal suffering and torture. Guess where everyone ends up? Anyway, a great concept executed only slightly crappy. The visual stylings of Clive Barker hadn't quit developed all the way yet and with the excepyion of the cenobites(the nasty looking bad guys,Demon to some, Angel to others) all the actors were horrible. It almost hurt to watch a couple of them. Most of the effects are truely well done and give off a cool tone. The editing is a bit sloppy at times especially in the psych ward. But Pinhead, The Chutterer(My personal favorite), Female Cenobite and Butterball make up for all of this films short comeings. Watching Pinhead and his crew and listening to their dialouge is great. They have some very nifty one loners. This is recommended viewing for those of us who like the essence of evil creatures from parellel deminsions that look cool as sh*t. This is such a cute a bloody movie."Come to daaddddy." "I am God here."

Hellrasier is another good horror film, that has been made into a bit too many sequels. I belive that it went up to 5, and stopped there. The doings of pinhead and his victims may be sick, but it works for me.

The series was very interesting. It was scary, but then became more comedic. Pinhead rules.

Dope gore with a good plot. Every movie in the story is great. Who doesn't love Clive Barker? See this movie and see all four. Bloodline is the best.

Scary.

This is probably one of the greatest horror movies ever, and this is not an exaggeration. Not only does it have an intelligent story and some of the most gruesome horror effects, but well worked-out characters on both sides, which makes it superior to mere splatter movies like Friday the 13th series or films like Dawn of the Dead. That's what makes this film very recommendable to watch even more than once.

Repeat after me, "SPECIAL EFFECTS DO NOT MAKE A GREAT MOVIE". They should enhance the script, the direction, performances etc. Like Poltergeist, this movie relys on F/X too much. Nice atmosphere though.

Hellraiser used to scare me so much when I was younger that I refused to watch the whole thing. As I've gotten older, it has become harder to scare me, so now I watch it all the time. In fact, I've watched them all except the last one in the series, which I'm going to do as soon as school is out. Hellraiser isn't really scary to me anymore, it's just really gross. It's especially gross during the parts where the guy gets suspended by all the hooks tearing into his flesh. Another gross part is when the leader Igreess the Devil, mutates people to be used as one of his followers. I think the original Hellraiser is the best because it explains the story behind it, which is very intruiging on its own.

i like all of the hellraisers except the last one.

Wes Craven has one hell of an imagination. The first one was O.K. but then they (Hellraiser sequels)began to get sort of corny. I don't like it when the evil "character" turns good. If they start out evil...and it works, keep it that way.