The kinky BDSM qualities of Clive Barker’s ‘Hellraiser’
While the names Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, and John Carpenter ring true in the world of American horror cinema, in Britain, there is the brilliance of novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker. He first came to the public’s attention with his Books of Blood before establishing himself with 1987’s supernatural horror movie Hellraiser.
Based on Barker’s 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, Barker’s directorial debut has at the core of its narrative the Lament Configuration, a mystical puzzle box that, when solved, summons extradimensional beings called the Cenobites, who invite the puzzle solver into a world where pain and pleasure are “indivisible”.
The hedonistic Frank Cotton comes across the Lament Configuration in Morocco and is transported to the Cenobites’ world when he returns home. Years later, Frank’s brother, Larry, moves into Frank’s former home with his wife, Julia, who previously had an affair with Frank. Eventually, Julia is convinced by a partially resurrected Frank to restore him to full power by bringing him dead bodies so they can run away together.
That’s the general narrative of Hellraiser, but what’s far more interesting on an aesthetic and thematic level is the way it explores BDSM, a sexual culture of power play, pain as an erotic facet, and fetishist pleasure. Speaking with The Guardian, Barker had once noted how Hellraiser had been influenced by visiting S&M clubs, writing, “The look of the Cenobites, such as the pins in their leader’s head, was inspired by S&M clubs [like] Cellblock 28 in New York. I was emotionally inspired by them, too. It was the first time I ever saw people pierced for fun. It was the first time I saw blood spilt.”
The “austere atmosphere” of the hardest kind of S&M nights inspired Pinhead, the leader of the Cenobites, as well as the broader collection of the extradimensional beings. The Cenobites are, after all, clad in leather outfits much like the attire found in sex and fetish shops and the hooks and chains they use on Frank are equally aligned to the bondage and sadomasochism of BDSM culture.
Beyond their mere aesthetic, though, the Cenobites’ very existence seems to be dominated by the indistinguishable qualities of pain and pleasure when combined. As Pinhead tells Frank’s niece Kirsty, who also solves the Lament Configuration, “We have such sights to show you”, a line that arguably possesses more sexual allure than terror-instilling aggression, showing that their world is not one solely of pain, unlike many other horror movie antagonists, but one with just as much pleasure on offer.
After all, Frank, who had first found the Lament Configuration in Morocco and seemed to know of its purpose, is a hedonist who sought out the kind of personally transformative qualities that engagement in BDSM can offer, shown by his literal rebirth in his brother and ex-lover’s attic. Julia is no stranger to the kind of power play on offer in Hellraiser either, seeing as she serves a submissive role to Frank’s ghoulish dominance, even going to great lengths of murder to serve her master/lover’s wishes.
The confined and claustrophobic domestic setting of Hellraiser can also occasionally resemble a sex dungeon, though it ultimately pales in comparison to the sadomasochistic world of the Cenobites. With his directorial debut, Clive Barker doused the horror genre with an unbridled exploration of BDSM culture and the fusion of sexual pain and pleasure and delved into the darker side of human sexuality. Hellraiser is not just a terrifying horror movie but also one that invites its audience to consider the potential sexual allure of their deepest physical fears.
