Hellraiser on DVD (Fullscreen)

• Cat.no: VCD 0005
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 90 minutes
• Year: 1987
• Pressing: 1998
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 21 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Presented in Fullscreen
• Price: £DELETED
• Extras : Scene index, Sub-plots, Theatrical trailers, Interviews, Photo Library.
  

  ---

  Director:

  Clive Barker

Producer:

Screenplay:

Clive Barker

Music:

Cast:

Larry: Andrew Robinson (Dirty Harry, Into the Badlands, The Last Days Of Paradise)
Julia: Clare Higgins (Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Small Faces, Bad Behaviour)
Kirsty: Ashley Laurence
Frank: Sean Chapman (Made In Britain)
Frank the Monster: Oliver Smith
Pinhead (Lead Cenobite): Doug Bradley (Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth, Hellraiser 4: Bloodline, Clive Barker’s Salome And The Forbidden, Proteus)
Chattering Cenobite: Nicholas Vince
‘Butterball’ Cenobite: Simon Bamford
Female Cenobite: Grace Kirby

Hellraiser begins with Frank Cotton solving the mystery of a Chinese puzzle box, which releases the Cenobites, led by the notorious Pinhead who features on the cover, whose world is ruled by cruel sadists who thrive on pain.

Frank’s brother – Larry – and his wife Julia move into the same house, but removal day causes problems for Larry as he catches his hand on a nail in the process, spilling blood in the process. Julia takes Larry into the empty room where Frank met his death and the split blood brings Frank back to the land of the living…almost.

There’s just one thing that Frank needs to become whole again – more bodies to feast upon, so Julia, who once had an affair with Frank, pretends to go out seeking possible suitors, takes them back to the room, renders them powerless with a hammer-blow to the head and it’s chow-time.

Possibly the only one keeping their head together – literally in the cases of some people – in the whole fiasco is Larry’s daughter, Kirsty, although there’s enough freaky goings on to make anyone lose their sanity.

Each of the cast does a fine job, but the best performance comes from Andrew Robinson as Larry, who also portrayed the killer in Dirty Harry, especially when his character becomes just as crazy.

What this release needed was a crisp, widescreen 1.85:1 remastered transfer with pixel-perfect compression. Alas, we get none of these things here. The print itself is average at best, occasionally getting grainy as it is the same transfer used for the original pan-and-scan video release, so also loses 28% of the original picture ratio.

Also, there are a lot of artifacts which really show up on any areas of black, grey and brown. Since there is plenty of space available on a DVD one wonders why both picture formats haven’t been included. A widescreen PAL master clearly exists as a widescreen video was released a few years ago, so are VCI’s DVD division anti-widescreen?

The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound downmixes to Dolby Surround when played through the PC soundcard and is very effectively used mainly to set the ambience, be it eerie music just before something nasty happens, or the thud of hammer hits when certainly people suddenly aren’t feeling well.

Extras :

Chapters/Trailer : There are 21 chapters spread throughout the film and being 90 minutes long, it could have used more. Interestingly, the menu selection and the insert only mentions the first 19, but chapters 20 and 21 can be still be accessed manually. Chapter 20 lasts 15 minutes and brings the film to an end, while the last one is reserved for the end credits. The disc also contains four theatrical trailers.

Interviews and Photo Library : The disc contains a 6-minute item containing interviews with Clive Barker, Bob Keen (Special Effects), Andrew Robinson (Larry), Clare Higgins (Julia) and Ashley Laurence (Kirsty). It would also have been nice to have included the thirty-minute special feature on Clive Barker, The Art of Horror which featured on the widescreen video release, especially since there was plenty of space available on the disc.

The photo library is rather good showing publicity stills for Frank, Julia, Kirsty, the Cenobites, Behind-the-scenes material and various publicity pieces.

Also Available : This option brings up a small list of other DVD titles available now or coming soon.

Languages :

There’s just the one language on this disc – English – and there are no subtitles, nor is there a commentary track.

Menu :

The interactive menu is disappointing. Sometimes you can click on what’s on the screen, while at other times you need to use the onscreen remote control. Once you get used to this it’s not too bad, but is a pain to get to grips with.

Also, there’s another intriguing extra to this disc called “Sub-Plots”. Click on this brings up a menu with three headings :