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A review by romination
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I'm honestly not super sure what I expected to get from reading this. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser">What A Woman Will Do For A Good Fuck</a> already seemed like the perfect version of this story, and I guess I just wanted to see what the bones of it were that could be adapted into such an interesting and classic movie. But I suppose when the author of a book writes the screenplay based on it and then directs said screenplay himself, it's not too surprising that there isn't much difference in adaptation vs original work, huh?
Adaptation aside, this really is a good read, the kind of thing that if I were around at the time I'd also be saying shit like "I've seen the future of horror and it is Clive Barker." Reading <i>The Books of Blood</i> can of ten feel like it's a tease, something where you can see parts of the author peeking out with each story, but that you never see the whole of him. I think <i>Hellbound Heart</i>'s strongest feature is that it does feel like the whole of Clive Barker coming into play; a strange and dark humor, a focus on the physical and sexual, and ability to look beyond that into realms of the sensual and further sensory, a perversion of humanity and human desire. In reading it there's a part of me that wishes to see him further unleashed, to read a hundred extra pages of what the cenobites do to Frank, but even the little bits we see compel. That they show up smelling of vanilla but also something rotten further beneath, that they flood him with simple sensory pleasures that even then become torture before playing their further skills on him, that they keep him locked away with a view of the room he first summoned them in, showing how desolate and empty it is so he can only wile away the millennia watching as no one comes and nothing happens in there, is good. I also think it's really funny that Frank expects the Cenobites to arrive with what's essentially a straight person's view of hedonism and pleasure: a carpet of writhing, oiled, scented nude virgins for him to throw himself into. It's such a cliched version of straight male sexuality in that he thinks he's a freak living on the edge of society and his greatest fantasy is "naked ladies... and LOTS of 'em!" Yeah Frank I bet you think spanking is the kind of thing that lets you mark yourself as "kinky" on your dating profile.
The story's tightness really works for it too, making us want to see more of the Cenobites et al but only giving us enough as a sampler. In a way reading this turns us all into Franks in some way - we want to know more but we're left out of that "more"-ness, unable to access the further reaches as told here. And yet it's still a pleasure to read this story - a kinky haunting that puts straight desire to the task and reveals it for how empty it is in comparison to the queer offerings being made available to the Cenobites. I think that's always something that's stuck with me with this story: that it's less that the Cenobites are doing something particularly out there, and more that, Frank came in expecting one thing, got another, and acted the victim over the fact that this ideas of pleasure and sexuality were lacking in comparison to the Cenobites. My brother in Christ, YOU opened the box, and they came.
Changing Kirsty from a like lovesick friend to Larry/Rory's daughter is probably the strongest move the movie does in comparison to the book. Here she's kind of a sadsack who just somehow manages to escape a bad fate where in the movie she's much stronger as her own person, feeling like she's visiting parents she's not quite fond of instead of constantly pining for the dude's attention while feeling an unceasing jealousy over Julia. I think the added semi-incestuous nature of Frank's desire for her is much more boundary pushing than his frankly extremely lame "come to daddy" stuff that's here in the book. Like the narration says, some men never grow up to be daddy. Here it meant it about Rory; but like, Frank's kind of flat himself, and I don't think it would take much to go "hey wait... is this man... like a tumblr whipping the bed daddy dom type lamer?"
Cool to have read and I'm sure this would mean a lot more to me if the movie didn't exist! It's too close to call! I think it's funny that the end of the book is a man bumping into Kirsty and her being like "Whoa he sleight-of-handed me the puzzle box and also his head was on fire???" but still better than the movie's "Three Stooges routine with trying to get the puzzle box away from the engineer!" that goes on for like a minute. Love the idea of Kirsty being cursed to be the puzzle box's carrier now though! Somehow this pays off in like the 6th movie?
Adaptation aside, this really is a good read, the kind of thing that if I were around at the time I'd also be saying shit like "I've seen the future of horror and it is Clive Barker." Reading <i>The Books of Blood</i> can of ten feel like it's a tease, something where you can see parts of the author peeking out with each story, but that you never see the whole of him. I think <i>Hellbound Heart</i>'s strongest feature is that it does feel like the whole of Clive Barker coming into play; a strange and dark humor, a focus on the physical and sexual, and ability to look beyond that into realms of the sensual and further sensory, a perversion of humanity and human desire. In reading it there's a part of me that wishes to see him further unleashed, to read a hundred extra pages of what the cenobites do to Frank, but even the little bits we see compel. That they show up smelling of vanilla but also something rotten further beneath, that they flood him with simple sensory pleasures that even then become torture before playing their further skills on him, that they keep him locked away with a view of the room he first summoned them in, showing how desolate and empty it is so he can only wile away the millennia watching as no one comes and nothing happens in there, is good. I also think it's really funny that Frank expects the Cenobites to arrive with what's essentially a straight person's view of hedonism and pleasure: a carpet of writhing, oiled, scented nude virgins for him to throw himself into. It's such a cliched version of straight male sexuality in that he thinks he's a freak living on the edge of society and his greatest fantasy is "naked ladies... and LOTS of 'em!" Yeah Frank I bet you think spanking is the kind of thing that lets you mark yourself as "kinky" on your dating profile.
The story's tightness really works for it too, making us want to see more of the Cenobites et al but only giving us enough as a sampler. In a way reading this turns us all into Franks in some way - we want to know more but we're left out of that "more"-ness, unable to access the further reaches as told here. And yet it's still a pleasure to read this story - a kinky haunting that puts straight desire to the task and reveals it for how empty it is in comparison to the queer offerings being made available to the Cenobites. I think that's always something that's stuck with me with this story: that it's less that the Cenobites are doing something particularly out there, and more that, Frank came in expecting one thing, got another, and acted the victim over the fact that this ideas of pleasure and sexuality were lacking in comparison to the Cenobites. My brother in Christ, YOU opened the box, and they came.
Changing Kirsty from a like lovesick friend to Larry/Rory's daughter is probably the strongest move the movie does in comparison to the book. Here she's kind of a sadsack who just somehow manages to escape a bad fate where in the movie she's much stronger as her own person, feeling like she's visiting parents she's not quite fond of instead of constantly pining for the dude's attention while feeling an unceasing jealousy over Julia. I think the added semi-incestuous nature of Frank's desire for her is much more boundary pushing than his frankly extremely lame "come to daddy" stuff that's here in the book. Like the narration says, some men never grow up to be daddy. Here it meant it about Rory; but like, Frank's kind of flat himself, and I don't think it would take much to go "hey wait... is this man... like a tumblr whipping the bed daddy dom type lamer?"
Cool to have read and I'm sure this would mean a lot more to me if the movie didn't exist! It's too close to call! I think it's funny that the end of the book is a man bumping into Kirsty and her being like "Whoa he sleight-of-handed me the puzzle box and also his head was on fire???" but still better than the movie's "Three Stooges routine with trying to get the puzzle box away from the engineer!" that goes on for like a minute. Love the idea of Kirsty being cursed to be the puzzle box's carrier now though! Somehow this pays off in like the 6th movie?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence