People have described this movie in various different ways, but I doubt many have called it a feminist flick. The story adaptation of a box that opens to another dimension – to beings who can no longer tell the difference between pain & pleasure – is more known for the practical effects and the gore on screen. While it might not go as far as some of the sequels, the original does indeed have it’s fair share of blood and torture. However, many seem to overlook the subtle ideas planted in the movie that elevate it above other films from the same era. In fact, it’s one of the few Horror films that has a genuinely well-executed feminist message.

Before we get into that, we need to understand what Horror was like in the 1980s. Due to the massive success of the 1978 film Halloween, the following decade has an increase in Slasher films. These movies tend to focus on recurring traits and characteristics. A group of people, usually teenagers or young adults, are being stalked by a killer using some sort of bladed weapon. Characters who use drugs like marijuana, who partake in pre-marital sex, or have aggressive personalities usually get killed. The last character is a female, one who typically doesn’t partake in the previously mentioned activities and isn’t aggressive. Referred to as The Final Girl, she fights the killer who is typically a male and will likely use the killer’s weapon against the. The bladed weapon used by killers are usually interpreted as a stand-in for their genitalia, the idea connected to how real life serial killers usually have some sort of sexual motivation for their murders. And the Final Girl using that weapon against them is seen as them taking on male characteristics and using them against them. While various Slasher films switch it up a bit, these traits can usually be found in most of them.

And nothing is inherently wrong with that. Many people watch and enjoy these films for those very things. The point being made is that this type of film dominated the genre at the time. Even if it wasn’t a Slasher flick, most Horror movies tend to focus on a mainly physical threat. There were other Horror films that focused on something more abstract. For example, the 1989 movie Pet Sematary was an exploration of how Death can affect and ruin families/relationships. But these films tend to be the exception and not the norm for the genre for most of the decade. That’s not to say A Nightmare on Elm Street didn’t incorporate interesting ideas or the previously mentioned Pet Sematary didn’t have it’s share of physical violence. But your not exactly looking for something thought provoking in something like Friday the 13th.

This is where the 1987 film Hellraiser becomes unique. First of all, the monsters of the movie – Cenobites, supernatural beings who view pain & pleasure as one and the same – don’t actually play a major role in the movie. The story is mainly focused on two humans. There’s Frank, a man who lived a Hedonistic life that lead him to open up a box that allowed the Cenobites to take him to their dimension. And there’s Julia, a woman married to Frank’s brother that had a brief affair with Frank around the time she got married. She had been carrying around thoughts and feelings for Frank since then. So when Frank finds a way to escape the Cenobites, he is able to manipulate Julia into helping him regain full strength as well as regain new skin.

That’s right, this movie has a major focus on a love story. But it’s not a healthy one. While Frank doesn’t want to live with Cenobites, he clearly no longer has the same human thoughts and emotions you and I would have regarding sex and relationships. He sees Julia as just someone he can use for the time being. We even see him have clear sexual feelings for his niece, Kirsty. Frank is a villain in the movie – he is actively doing wrong and going through on actions to accomplish his own agenda. The Cenobites – despite being inhuman in appearance and feelings – aren’t actually seeking out victims. They only take those who open the box, people who seek them out to experience new pleasure and sensations. Are they antagonists? Certainly. But they aren’t the ones that Kirsty is trying to stop.

As previously mentioned, the box is very important in the movie. And it’s at the heart of the movie’s feminist message. Some of you have probably heard cliched lines from TV and movies about how women are impossible to figure out. That they are something like living puzzles. Coincidentally, the box in Hellraiser is a puzzle box. We’ve seen people in various shows and movies try and figure out how to get lucky with a woman. It might take them a while to do so. But if and when they do, they end up indulging in physical pleasures and lust. Believe it or not, the same can be applied to the puzzle box. Once you solve it, the box will open and you can’t to experience what your looking for – one could say the same thing about a woman opening up her legs for a man. Women can be seen by some as a source of pain for many people, whether it be due to arguments or physical altercations or something else. But they are also a source of pleasure.

This brings us to the climax of the film. The Cenobites aren’t really slashers and they weren’t actively seeking out Kirsty, the Final Girl of the movie. But they still have to face-off against her in the end. Kirsty doesn’t actually use a weapon against them. Instead, she finds a way to close the puzzle box and send them back to where they come from. If solving the puzzle box can be compared to a woman opening her legs, then this acts is the equivalent of a woman closing her legs and denying satisfaction. The puzzle box – the woman – holds the power. And when permission is denied, everything must come to an end. There is a phrase that basically says that everything is about sex except for sex – that is about power. So if most Horror movies had subtle themes and messages regarding sex, then Hellraiser subverts that by making it one of the main themes. And by doing that, it is actually an exploration on relationships and the power a person has in that dynamic. The movie even turned the main Cenobite, a character with no clearly defined gender or portrayed strong stereotypical gender traits, and made them clearly male. Thus adding strength to the movie’s message of how much power woman have with their bodies.

A movie that’s well known for gore and blood ends up having clever ideas on topics not discussed enough in the US and subverts most expectations of the genre. It’s a movie that remains engaging with every viewing, with so much that can be discussed and interpreted. Plus, it’s a genuinely creepy and moody flick. It’s time you either revisit it or watch it for the first time. It has such sights to show you…