Phantasmagoria Magazine Hellraiser Special

[David A. Riley]

For anyone with a fondness for Clive Barker's groundbreaking movie Hellraiser and its sometimes less than epic sequels, the latest issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine is a Hellraiser Special, with loads of fascinating features about this movie and its creator, Clive Barker, not to mention all the writers, stars, directors, special effects and musical score to go with it.

I have one small item in this issue, which came with the unenviable task of reviewing what is undoubtedly the worst of all the many sequels!

To order it from amazon follow this link: Phantasmagoria Magazine Hellraiser Special

[andydecker]

Thank you for bringing this up. Sigh. Every time I want to cut down ... I even bought the Puzzle Box last year :-) Unfortunately it didn't work.

Hm, the worst of the many sequels ... Now that's a wide field. :-)  I can't wait to read it, David. Somehow I missed the last two or three and still haven't seen the remake.

Of course Hellraiser is a difficult and controversial topic. So many,many missed opportunities. What a marvelous movie #4 could have been if they had done it as period piece in Revolutionary France with the toymaker.  I still hate Hellraiser 3 because of its lame Cenobites and flat direction. A generic low budget show like Highlander got better and more convincing WWI footage together than this crap did. What could they have done with Captain Elliott! But didn't! The mind boggles.

I have a soft spot for Deader. I know, it is a terrible Hellraiser movie, no argument there, but I am a big fan of Kari Wuhrer  and as a horror movie this was pretty intense in places.

[David A. Riley]

Mar 13, 2024 16:36:03 GMT andydecker said:

... I even bought the Puzzle Box last year :-) Unfortunately it didn't work.

I bought one too - and mine doesn't work either.

Though it's perhaps for the best.

[andydecker]

This is an impressive work. So much work done, exhaustive interviews, fotos, illustrations, trivia.

Here on the continent I got a PoD edition, which is diappointing, to put it mildly.  Copy center quality which you have to handle very, very careful.

Due to one of those coincidences both Hellraiser: Revelations and Judgement were on tv this week, so I watched them both for the first time.

You were kind in your review, David. Take a random episode of Supernatural, and it will be better produced, directed and written than Revelations. A waste of time, this movie.

As with other Phantasmagoria Special Editions I thought the reviews the weak point, though. With a few exceptions as noted I thought them mediocre to pretty bad. Also I missed a comics section. From Marvel's Epic Comic to Seraphim.

[David A. Riley]

I received my contributor's copy of the Phantasmagoria Magazine Hellraiser Special this morning. My only contribution is a critical review of Hellraiser: Revelations (2011), which must surely rank as the worst entry in the whole franchise - at least I definitely hope so!

This is another beautufully produced issue, over 370 pages of stills, drawing, articles, interviews, reviews, etc., with entries by Trevor Kennedy, Peter Atkins, Adrian Baldwin, Simon Bamford, Clive Barker, Imogen Boorman, Tori Borne, Doug Bradley, David Brilliance, Mike Chinn, Malachy Coney, Con Connolly, Kenneth Cranham, Dean M. Drinkel, Kelly Dunn, Terry Farrell, Christopher Figg, John Gilbert, Christopher Gray, Anthony Hickox, Clare Higgins, Dave Jeffery, Carl R. Jennings, Stephen Jones, Paul Kane, Bob Keen, Ashley Laurence, Ivan McCann, Kim Newman, Barnaby Page, Evangelia Papanikou, Geoff Portass, Owen Quinn, Tony Randel, David A. Riley, Andrew Robinson, Helen Scott, Michael Marshall Smith, Jessica Stevens, Nicholas Vance, Nat Whiston, Cliff Wallace, Allison Weir, Sarah Graven Weir, Barbie Wilde, Ciaran Woods and Christopher Young, plus artists Clive Barker, Jonny Boyle, Randy Broecker, Dave Carson, Les Edwards, Graham Humphreys, Allen Koszowski, Ivan McCann, Jim Pitts, Steph Sciullo and Andrew Smith.

[andydecker]

I treated myself to the new Arrow BD edition Quartet of Torment after reading about it in the issue. Indeed recommandable. The four movies have a new and fun AC by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, in Bloodline the two have screen writer Atkins on board. I guess one of the most interesting of the hours of extras is a newly uncovered workprint version of Bloodline. It is taken from a VHS video and some scenes are missing the SFX.