12 - Hellraiser (1987) by Clive Barker

Explicit content warning

06/21/21 • 74 min

General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast

Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker based on his 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart. The film marked Barker's directorial debut. Its plot involves a mystical puzzle box which summons the Cenobites, a religious sect in Hell known as the ‘Order of the Gash’, describing themselves as "explorers in the further regions of experience", and granting sadomasochistic pleasures to those who call upon them. The leader of the Cenobites is portrayed by Doug Bradley, and identified in the sequels as "Pinhead".

Filmed in late 1986. Barker originally wanted the electronic music group Coil to perform the music for the film, but on insistence from producers the film was re-scored by Christopher Young. Some of Coil's themes were reworked by Young into the final score.

Since its release in September 1987, the film has divided critics but generally received praise; initial reviews ranged from Melody Maker calling it the greatest horror film made in Britain, to Roger Ebert decrying its "bankruptcy of imagination". It was followed by nine sequels, the first seven of which featured Bradley reprising his role as Pinhead. A remake is currently in the works

Something Horrific

PJ Harvey

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6v3zljSKKxioPywlGXs3-Q

Housebound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji8Tsuj3u0c

Blood on Satans Claw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RMySPyhMUY

https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/film/the-demonic-in-british-horror-cinema/

https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review-devils-advocates-the-blood-on-satans-claw/

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Something Horrific

PJ Harvey

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6v3zljSKKxioPywlGXs3-Q

Housebound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji8Tsuj3u0c

Blood on Satans Claw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RMySPyhMUY

https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/film/the-demonic-in-british-horror-cinema/

https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review-devils-advocates-the-blood-on-satans-claw/

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

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Previous Episode

11 - Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock (1977)

Horror of Fang Rock is the first serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 September 1977.

The TARDIS lands on the island of Fang Rock off the south coast of England in the early 20th century. Noticing that the lighthouse isn't functioning properly, the Doctor, in his fourth incarnation (or infinity+4 by today's reckoning) played by Tom Baker, decides to investigate.

Upon arrival at the lighthouse, the Doctor discovers the dead body of one of the keepers. The other two keepers, old superstitious Reuben and the keen young Vince Hawkins, report that a light fell from the sky near the island. They also explain the electricity flow to the lamp on the lighthouse has become erratic and the Doctor deduces something is feeding on the flow.

Reuben does not help matters with his constant references to the mythical Beast of Fang Rock, which reputedly once terrorised the lighthouse. As the Doctor and and his companion, Leela (played by Louise Jameson) explore, something moves Ben's body out of the lighthouse and onto the island, and they witness a curious electric crackling which seems to have killed fish nearby.

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Next Episode

13 - Dead of Night (1945)

Dead of Night is a 1945 black and white British anthology horror film, made by Ealing Studios, was their sole attempt at making a horror movie.

It Featured the following stories

The Hearse Driver, based on "The Bus-Conductor" by E. F. Benson
The Christmas Party
The Haunted Mirror
The Golfer's Story, based on "The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost" by H. G. Wells

and

The Ventriloquist's Dummy

The individual segments were directed by by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer.

The film is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Michael Redgrave and an insane ventriloquist's malevolent dummy.

Dead of Night is a rare British horror film of the 1940s; horror films were banned from production in Britain during the war. It had an influence on subsequent British films in the genre. Both of John Baines' stories were reused for later films and the possessed ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted into the pilot episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape.

The circular plot of Dead of Night inspired Fred Hoyle's steady state model of the universe, developed in 1948.

Mario Livio in Brilliant Blunders cites the impact of a viewing of Dead of Night had on astrophysicists Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold. "Gold asked suddenly, "What if the universe is like that?' meaning that the universe could be eternally circling on itself without beginning or end. Unable to dismiss this conjecture, they started to think seriously of an unchanging universe, a steady state universe.

In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. Dead of Night placed at number 35 on their top 100 list. Director Martin Scorsese placed Dead of Night 5th on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.

Writer/director Christopher Smith was inspired by the circular narrative in Dead of Night when making his 2009 film Triangle.

Something Horrific:

Censor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRrhXjH1M70

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR The Mark of Satan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTKjizivKRU

Help my House is Haunted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpZOb0svC0

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Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

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