Hellraiser - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Hellraiser or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Hellraiser

[linda]

Clive Barker spoke about filming fondly in the Hellraiser Chronicles, stating that his memories on production where of "unalloyed fondness... the cast treated my ineptitudes kindly, and the crew were no less forgiving." Barker admitted his own lack of knowledge on filmmaking, stating that he "didn't know the difference between a 10mm lens and a 35mm lens, if you'd show me a plate of spaghetti and said that was a lens, I might have believed you".

[kristina]

The scene where Frank is being spun around upside-down covered in blood was a camera test and the very first thing shot of the film. Afterwards, Sean Chapman (Frank) couldn't help from vomiting.

[wallace]

Sean Chapman's entire dialogue was dubbed by another actor.

[bernice]

The concept of a cube being used as a portal to hell has its basis in the urban legend of The Devil's Toy Box, which concerns a six-sided cube constructed of inward-facing mirrors. According to legend, individuals who enter the structure and then close it will undergo surreal, disturbing phenomenon that will simultaneously grant them a revelatory experience and permanently warp their mind.

[phyllis]

Doug Bradley revealed in an interview that he asked Clive Barker how he should play Pinhead Barker told him "to think of him as a cross between an administrator and a surgeon who's responsible for running a hospital where there are no wards, only operating theatres as well as being the man who wields the knife, he's the man who has to keep the timetable going" he also revealed that the two also decided early on that Pinhead was formerly human " a line from one of Clive's plays swam into my mind: "I am in mourning for my Humanity'. At this point there was no backstory for the character, but I discussed this with Clive and we had agreed that he had once been human. But whether this was yesterday, last week, last year, ten, a hundred, a thousand years ago, I didn't know. I didn't need to. Sufficient to have that idea lodged into my brain. A perpetual, unconscious grieving for the man he had once been, for a life and a face he couldn't even remember. And a frozen grief. I felt now that Pinhead existed in an emotional limbo were neither pain nor pleasure could touch him. A pretty good definition of Hell for me."

[kristen]

Many viewers have commented about the poor quality of the FX at the end of the movie. Clive Barker has explained that, due to a very limited budget, there was no money left to have the FX done professionally after the primary filming. Instead, Barker and a "Greek guy" animated these scenes by hand over a single weekend. Barker has also commented that he thinks the FX turned out very well considering the amount of alcohol the two consumed that weekend.

[jessica]

Lament Configuration (infamous six-sided box) was conceived and designed by Simon Sayce.

[jessie]

Nicholas Vince lived near Clive Barker, who liked his work. Barker suggested they work together, resulting in a collaboration on Hellraiser, Nicholas Vince (Chatterer) wore a one-piece mask that rendered him blind. The fake set of chattering teeth were fitted in his mouth and we're triggered when he bit down because of the difficulty in eating and the drooling associated with the design the chattering teeth were redesigned to be removable. The design was changed in the sequel to give Chatterer eyes so Vince could see.

[camila]

When Clive Barker first showed the film to his mother, she cried tears of joy upon seeing her son's name in the opening credits. He leaned over and whispered that that would be the happiest she would be for the next two hours.

[aaron]

The Female Cenobite was inspired by scarification and body-piercing in National Geographic articles. The makeup took 3 hours to apply, caused her discomfort and prevented Grace Kirby from sitting. When Kirby refused to return Barbie Wilde took over the role,Wilde speculated that the producers were interested in her because of her background in mime, which was commonly believed in the industry to help with performing under prosthetic make-up.

[frances]

Clare Higgins hates horror movies. When she saw this movie for the first time at the premiere, she had to leave after 10 minutes because it freaked her out so much. She has never seen the whole movie.

[gerald]

One of the film's taglines, "He'll tear your soul apart" on the original poster may be a reference to the 1975 film adaptation of Tommy, which features the same poster tagline in exactly the same font.

[willard]

In his DVD commentary, Clive Barker explained that filming the movie in an actual house forced him to be creative in his cinematography. There was often only room for a single camera and this explains why many of the shots are from only one angle. In particular, vertical movement was often the only movement available to the camera operators, which explains many of the overhead and zoom shots. Only one room in the house, the attic, was shot on a soundstage, but only the FX shots used this attic set.

[wesley]

Originally, the opening sequence featured the Butterball cenobite reassembling Frank's mutilated face on the attic floor, using actual eyes, a tongue, and pulped flesh from a butcher's shop. Once the decision was made to emphasize Pinhead in press material (and after Barker decided he didn't like the special effects), Doug Bradley was brought back and a new scene was shot featuring Pinhead reassembling a prosthetic face. Simon Bamford (who plays the Butterball cenobite) was never informed. Consequently, for years, Bamford told fans at horror conventions that the brief shot included in the film of a hand piecing Frank's face together was taken from the scene he filmed. It wasn't until the 2010s, during the making of documentary on the Hellraiser series, that Bamford learned his scene had been entirely cut and that it was, in fact, Bradley's hand.

[addison]

Shock Till You Drop ranked Butterball number seven in their list of the ten best Cenobites, calling him "infamously creepy and mysterious.

[marc]

The film was originally supposed to be called "The Hellbound Heart," after the novella upon which it was based. The studio decided the title sounded too much like a romance and asked Clive Barker to change it. Barker offered "Sadomasochists from Beyond the Grave," which was rejected for the overtly sexual content. He ultimately opened the floor to the production team to offer up their own suggestions, prompting a 60-year-old female crew member to offer up "What a Woman Will do for a Good Fuck."