Hellraiser (partially found original cut of body horror film; 1987)

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This article has been tagged as NSFW and NSFL due to its discussion of extreme violence, gore and sexual content.
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The film's original American release poster.

Status: Partially Found

Hellraiser is a 1987 body horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart. The film centers on the Cotton family, specifically that of the matriarch Julia attempting to resurrect her dead lover Frank through the killing of others and the teenage daughter Kristy - all the while the Lament Configuration plays a part in their lives, accompanied by the demonic Cenobites headed up by Pinhead, one of the horror genre's most iconic and recognisable villains.

While controversial upon initial release due its strong violence and gore - so much so that it was banned in several areas, including the Canadian province of Ontario[1] - it was a big hit at the box office (opening at number 3 in the UK alone) and was critically acclaimed, with Melody Maker calling it 'the best horror film ever to be made in Britain'[2] and renowned horror writer Stephen King calling Barker 'the future of horror fiction'.[3] As of today, it still has much critical acclaim with a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[4] has become a cult film and has spawned many sequels, as well as inspiring other films from Cube to Event Horizon.

It is because of this extreme gore and violence however that led to much censorship of the film back upon its original release, most notably by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), of who demanded cuts to the film's violent and sexual scenes in order to secure an R rating. In turn, this has led to the original cut of the film becoming lost media, although parts of it have been recovered over the years.

Original Cut

The scenes cut in the original version by the MPAA include the following:

  • A flashback sex scene between Julia and her other lover Frank in order to reduce the amount of explicit sexual activity, including anal sex and spanking.
  • A scene whereby a victim of Julia's was wearing no underwear, with a alternate scene where he was being used instead.
  • The murder of Julia's first victim, whereby the amount of times Julia beat him with a hammer was reduced.
  • Kirsty's encounter with Frank, whereby a shot of her sticking her hand into Frank's gut was removed to tone down the explicit gore.
  • Frank being ripped apart with chains at the end of the film by the Cenobites.


In a later DVD commentary, Barker admitted to approving of some of the edits, including the hammer murder and Kirsty's encounter, feeling as though it made such scenes more effective, explaining that was why he kept such edits in the former scene, despite the MPAA offering to restore such changes later on. He also however lamented the edits to the Frank ripping apart scene, as well as finding it odd about the changes to the aforementioned sex scene, claiming that '[the MPAA] told me I was allowed two consecutive buttock thrusts from Frank but a third would be deemed obscene.'[5]

Availability

To this day, much of the cut material has yet to surface, with Barker confessing that he is unaware of where it is.[6] This, coupled with the fact that he approved of some of the edits, indicates that a full uncut version of Hellraiser is unlikely to be released in the near future.

However in 2017, the German label Tribune released a slightly extended version of Hellraiser on Blu-Ray, of which included a slightly longer scene of Frank being ripped to shreds, allegedly being the first home video release anywhere to include the uncut version of the scene.[7] Such a process was said to have come about due to using footage from the sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II to fill in the gaps.[8]

Other films in the franchise

Hellraiser wasn't the final film in the series to be trimmed to appease either censors or studio demands however. The aforementioned Hellbound had similar censorship issues concerning the violent nature of the film, albeit the uncut version eventually saw release on home video, and has since become the standard version available to fans and general audiences.[9]

The fourth film in the series Hellraiser IV: Bloodline went through a heavily troubled production, with it being so heavily edited by the studio Miramax that one of the film's co-directors Kevin Yagher had his name taken off the movie (changing it to the infamous Alan Smithee pseudonym).[10] His original version has never seen the light of day.

Gallery

The original trailer for the film.

A video from GNC Films' Cutting Edge series, examining the censorship of the first two Hellraiser movies

The film's original UK release poster.

References