Another old movie I went to see at the cinema, thanks to Cineworld running a ‘month of horror’ in the buildup to Halloween.
Similar to The Exorcist, I hadn’t seen this movie before, but I knew about it – mostly thanks to the easily recognisable figure of Pinhead. What was kind of a surprise, at least to me, was that he and the rest of his gang (the Cenobites) didn’t appear until at least halfway through the movie.
The movie starts out fairly typically for a horror movie, with a man (Frank) purchasing a puzzle box that turns out to be a gateway to hell. After he solves the puzzle, he gets ripped apart and that’s the end of him…right?
Well, actually, not. Frank’s brother and sister-in-law (Larry and Julia) move into the same house where Frank solved the puzzle box. And in a scene that blows the whole idea of foreshadowing out of the window and makes a huge deal about what’s about to happen, Larry impales his hand on a nail…and his dripping blood somehow brings his brother back to some semblance of life. I say some semblance, because he’s basically only muscle and bone until Julia (who he had an affair with and somehow still finds him attractive) starts seducing men and bringing them back to the house…all so Frank can consume them and start growing the rest of his body back.
I have to say, throughout this movie, I felt a strong disconnect to most of the characters. Julia wasn’t a likable person to start with…and just got even worse as the movie went on. Frank was unlikable for obvious reasons. And Larry and his daughter, Kirsty, just weren’t interesting enough for me to care about. Kirsty just seemed like a damsel in distress most of the time, even when she was confronting the Cenobites and trying to ‘bargain’ with them. I did find the constant appearance of the homeless man who aeemed to be following her a suitably creepy aspect of the movie…particularly when he was in the pet shop and eating insects. That was actually a really good creepy scene without being over the top.
All told, this movie was good to watch. I found the Cenobites intriguing and would have liked a bit more detail about them. But I didn’t really think much of the main characters in the movie…and by the end, I thought Kirsty was making a lot of really stupid choices. Then again, it is an older horror movie, and many of the cliches of horror movies now come from the older horror movies.
Anyway, this movie was somewhat entertaining to watch, but I don’t think I’d gain anything from watching it a second time. I can’t really say I feel much interest in watching other movies in this franchise, either.
Ink of Blood 