jmcd7910

When Clive Barker first burst on the literary scene, I was enthralled. I went out and spent hundreds of dollars on first editions of the six "Books of Blood", which were individual volumes of Barker's short stories. "The Hellbound Heart" was in one of them. That's the story the movie is based on. I bought all his output, in first editions, as it came out. The man is a spectacularly talented writer, though probably insane. But the films- oh, the films. I just rewatched this thing, and it definitely hasn't aged well. Reading the reviews, it's obvious most of the praise heaped upon this is because of the subject matter (which doesn't say a lot about the reviewers), not the film itself. The acting, such as it is, is atrocious. The dialog is juvenile, the characters unbelievable. Andrew Robinson is as sleazy and cringe-inducing as ever, and the special; effects are laughable. It's amazing to me that this piece of trash spawned more than a half dozen sequels. I guess for some, pleasure comes only with a lot of pain. At having to sit through "Hellraiser".

Here's the big tip-off, right in the credits; it's made by a company called Little Jeremy Productions, the producer is Jeremy Ansdorfer, and the star is one Jeremy Ansdorfer. Now, I suppose it could be another "Rocky". Ummmm, no. It's just another piece of crap made on a shoestring, with no appeal to anyone but a 14-year old wannabe gangbanger. I watched 20 minutes of it before my stomach started telling me it couldn't take any more without heaving. The "acting", such as it is, is a few steps below what you'd see in a high school drama class. When "Julia" completely breaks down in tears after seeing a completely unlikeable British teen she's only just met 5 minutes earlier get thrown into the back of a van driven by her boyfriend's business partner, without any idea of what 's going on, the lack of anything resembling talent was made crystal clear. And that goes for everyone else in the cast. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that anyone giving this stinker any more than two stars is undoubtedly a friend or family member of Mr. Ansdorfer or one of the cast. Or maybe Mr. Ansdorfer himself, under an assumed name. Pay no attention whatsoever to the 7 rating on IMdb. This is one example of the perils inherent in watching movies Amazon gives you with Prime.