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Hellraiser [Blu-ray]

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The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers and TV spots; two audio commentaries; archival featrettes; video interview with actor Doug Bradley; video interview with former Coil member Stephen Thrower; and more. Here presented in brand new 2k restorations, Arrow Films is proud to present the first three instalments in one of the most fiercely original horror franchises of all time. However, there is something that can’t help but resonate with the public’s consciousness about the film’s antagonists and what they stand for – at once terrifyingly evil and wholly unknowable, yet rooted in what it means to be human, their being angels to some and devils to others is a notion we seem unable to shake. simply baffles rather than intrigues – the power of those visions that seemed spewed from…not even hell but somewhere else, somewhere we hadn’t, couldn’t even have thought of, remains. During the short prologue, Frank (Sean Chapman, Made in Britain), who is addicted to pain and looking for the ultimate experience, purchases the box and summons the cenobites.

Blu-ray Review: Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Gets New Arrow Blu-ray Review: Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Gets New Arrow

Hellraiser was released by New World Pictures in 1987, putting its creator Clive Barker on the map as one of horror cinema’s and horror literature’s major icons, particularly with the help of a quote from Stephen King: “I have seen the future of horror, and his name is Clive Barker. owners of previous discs will be more than pleased with the picture improvements of this new 4K release. For the most part, it’s much more noticeable and ‘sharper’ in appearance, but only because it’s now able to be resolved much closer to its original resolution. For more about Hellraiser and the Hellraiser Blu-ray release, see Hellraiser Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on November 6, 2011 where this Blu-ray release scored 2. Obviously, the above synopsis isn't exactly what Hellraiser is about… I just wanted to see if I could make this grim and dark pain-focused horror film sound like a heartfelt family drama you just might see on the Hallmark Channel.

Now his former lover Julia (Clare Higgins) must kill to make him whole again; but the Cenobites want Frank back, and there’ll be hell to pay when they find him. They all utilise 10-bit video depth, have WCG and both main HDR grades (HDR10 and Dolby Vision) applied and have been encoded using the HEVC/H.

Hellraiser Blu-ray | Arrow Video US Hellraiser Blu-ray | Arrow Video US

And so the sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, was rushed into production during the finalisation of the first film and released barely twelve months after. A variety of other odds and ends round out an excellent package, including a trailer and TV spots, an image gallery, a vintage featurette, and even drafts of the film’s screenplay via BD-ROM. In this featurette, former Coil member Stephen Thrower discusses the type of music that was initially recorded (apparently with qualities that resembled those of Wayne Bell and Tobe Hooper's soundtrack for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Pino Donaggio's soundtrack for Carrie).In this reimagining of Clive Barker's seminal Hellraiser franchise, a young woman must confront the sadistic, supernatural forces behind an enigmatic puzzlebox responsible for her brother's disappearance. But a mysterious puzzle box will take him further than he can possibly imagine, opening the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible and summoning the Cenobites, whose experiments in the higher reaches of experience will tear his soul apart.

Hellraiser (2022) - Blu-ray

We reviewed the region free UK Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment on a JVC-DLA N5 Ultra HD 4K projector and a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K UHD player . The track never sounds perfectly full and rich, something achieved to a greater degree by Anchor Bay's Dolby TrueHD track. Commentary with Clive Barker and Ashley Laurence - like the previous audio commentary has also appeared on previous DVD and Blu-ray release of Hellraiser. And whilst not listened to in their entirety, the new commentaries with Newman and Jones appear to be a really fun listen that lets them both bring a wealth of horror history and experience to the fore, again giving a great new perspective on the films and their supplements. With so many churn and burn direct to video sequels, this original film's reputation remains strong.Elvira, Horrorland’s hostess with the mostest, finally busts out on Arrow Video Blu-ray on 3rd December 2018 with this long-awaited, positively-bursting-at-the-seams special edition of her big screen debut, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark! The surround track has a bit more bass to it, but doesn’t offer an enormous upgrade in terms of dynamics or spatial activity.

Hellraiser Blu-ray - Arrow Films UK Hellraiser Blu-ray - Arrow Films UK

Yet by the time the newly formed Dimension Films had green-lit the third entry, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, with bigger funding comes bigger ‘market considerations’ and likely bigger creative constraint sensibilities…gone is the bizarre trans-Atlantic hinterworld of the previous entries, gone is the warped and twisted psycho-sexual notions of pleasure merging with pain and back again, and sadly gone too is both the visual and narrative stylings that made the previous films so memorable. The DTS surround mix is quite good - especially in the last act when everything literally goes to hell - but that 2. Clive Barker is notably missing from “Leviathan,” but he has two audio commentary tracks here, one by himself and the other with actress Ashley Laurence. Frank eventually took his pain-as-pleasure ethos to supernatural levels, hence his present existence as an ectoplasm in the attic of his and Larry’s family estate—a place which Barker pointedly sprinkles with gaudy religious iconography (as well as clichéd haunted-house motifs).Those script problems plague the first act of the film, lazy exposition dumps and flashbacks are seemingly used solely to enable the film to resurrect Julia. For my taste, the fact that you can take this film over another Clive Barker adaptation such as Rawhead Rex for example and be able to explore it intelligently is what makes it a terrific horror film. In addition to the two sequels there are a few direct-to-video Hellraiser films, but they essentially borrow a few of the original characters and veer off in completely different directions. The second track is unsurprisingly looser and more conversational, but both abound in juicy details about the film’s construction, symbolism, use of sets, and evolution of effects.

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