Hellraiser (Directed by Clive Barker) 1987

A truly original British horror movie from the man who at the time was being labelled as the saviour of horror, and indeed, for a time, Clive Barker was. 'Hellraiser' is a nasty horror movie that revolves around a chap named Frank who purchases an intriguing puzzle box from a market in Morocco completely unaware that by the time he's solved the object, he'd have opened the gates of Hell and his flesh would have been torn by steely hooks that worm from the box. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Frank's completion of the puzzle means that he is also due a visit from a group of grotesque beings, fronted by the sinister Pinhead, and so begins a series of evil events involving Frank's brother Larry who, along with his wife (who once had an affair with Frank), move into an empty house where Larry had grown up. Although Larry's daughter Kirsty doesn't want to move in with the couple, and chooses to get her own place, things take on a very sinister turn when Larry cuts his hand on a nail...the blood dripping to the floor, and being soaked up by the building, in turn feeding the gored remains of Frank's hidden corpse which, in all good time, comes back to life, but weirder still, Larry's wife, Julia, then stumbles upon the partly reanimated carcass of Frank in the attic, and as you do, decides to feed him blood in order to bring him back to his normal state!

'Hellraiser' is a truly dark and twisted film that gets stranger the more it runs, with Kirsty realising that Julia is taking men back to the house, possibly to have sex with them, but Kirsty's curiosity gets the better of her and she enters the house just in time to see Julia murdering someone for the benefit of Frank's regeneration process! In the commotion, Kirsty finds the puzzle box, runs from the house, takes the box with her, solves the puzzle and then ends up getting a visit from the Cenobites - the dreaded clan of eerie humanoids with Pinhead at the helm. From here on there are more twists and turns as one could imagine as Kirsty strikes up a deal with the Cenobites by promising to return Frank to their fiery Hell, only to realise that the walking corpse has now inhabited the skin of her father, Larry and posing as him!

Sure, it all sounds rather daft, but by watching 'Hellraiser' only then can you appreciate the pure genius of Barker and the overwhelming darkness of this hideous, hellish movie. An acquired taste for some, but hell, even the sequels were okay!