Clive Barker’s directorial debut, an adaptation of his own novella, is quite simply a stunning vision. There just isn’t another film quite like HELLRAISER. Tapping into all sorts of primal archetypes that resonate powerfully, this is a film that is beautiful and terrifying at the same time, a sort of cinematic equivalent to the works of H.R. Giger, and equally fascinating in the same way that graphic violence is intertwined with sexuality.

Released at the height of the horror craze of the 1980’s, when endless slasher knockoffs finally turned the public off the horror genre for a good decade, HELLRAISER differentiated itself in that it told a human story with characters front and center. In fact, though this film spawned many sequels and made an icon out of the “Pinhead” character, such that he became a featured badguy such as Jason Voorhees or Freddy Kruger, not only is he nameless and unimportant to this film, he has only mere minutes of screentime–because the story is not about him nor his fellow “cenobite” hell-creatures. The film is about people, and the villain of the story is a human being named Frank. HELLRAISER was about all the darkness inside people and what we will do for our own selfish pursuits. The story is about young Kirsty, who moves into a decrepid house with her father and step-mother. Her shadey uncle Frank used to live there, and unbeknownst to them has met a cruel fate in his pursuit of pleasure–obtaining a puzzle-box while in the far east, he unknowingly unleashed the Cenobites upon himself, who tore his flesh apart and held prisoner his soul. An accidental drop of his brother’s blood in the very room where he was killed is enough to begin the resurrection of his body. Frank returns, but without his flesh, explaining that he escaped the cenobites. As Kirsty is horrified to discover, Frank and her new step-mother share a secret past together, and Frank begins the horrific process of re-gaining his flesh by taking it from others, while the cenobites ascend upon the household to finally bring him back to their domain.

Filled with marvelous–and gory–visuals, inventive writing and a fascinating story, HELLRAISER continues to remain as a landmark horror film. Although its low-budget shines through here and there, it is surprising how much this film has held up over the years while other movies released at the same time–NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5, FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH PART VIII–are almost unwatchable. I suppose that is why twenty years later we continue to watch the film and be drawn into its story of seduction and death.

The Video: The original HELLRAISER DVD from Anchor Bay was released around 1999 or so and carried a great transfer for its time. It is unfortunate that the transfer on this DVD appears to be the same one. While not bad in any sense of the word, it is a bit dissapointing that there are still shots with compression artifacting and softness in them, and the print used is imperfect as well, with more grain than should be normal and some contrast issues. For sure though, this is still the best HELLRAISER has ever looked, and you will scarecely notice any flaws when you are distracted by the story itself, but for those hoping for a remastering or a chance to improve upon the previous release it is somewhat dissapointing to learn that the video is only adequet.

 The Audio: Again the same as the previous release. The film is old and somewhat crude, so the mix sounds appropriately low-tech, though surrounds are made use of. Overall its a decent soundtrack.

The Extras: This is the real reason to buy this disk. Porting over everything from the previous release, such as a commentary track with Clive Barker, there are a few new featurettes for this DVD. No-frills and simplistically made, they nontheless are a welcome addition and will be valued by HELLRAISER fans I am sure. Interviews with actors, such as Andrew Robinson, Ashley Lawrence and Doug Bradley, and composer Christopher Young, are quite in-depth and informative, and not five-minute fluff pieces. “Hellrasier: Resurrection” is a lengthy featurette on the making of the film, examining the genesis and production of the film through interviews (although I believe this may have been on the previous release). Additionally, there is also a very interesting rarity of a DVD-rom feature which allows viewers to read the final draft screenplay and the original first draft screenplay. Finally, the usual assortment of stills, trailers and TV-spots round out the disk.

While not overflowing with extras, there are enough additions to entice fans to take a look at this release. The lack of improvement in the video, however, as well as half the extras being ported over from before, will limit this release only to the more devoted HELLRAISER fans or those who haven’t yet purchased the film on DVD.