: (Christopher Young) Although horror
franchises were all the rage in the 1980's, few audiences had seen the
outrageous gore and erotic sadomasochism of the likes filmmaker Clove
Barker brought to the
franchise starting in 1987. The
supernatural horror concept postulated that a parallel dimension of
undead, torture obsessed freaks called the Cenobites achieve pleasure
from the pain of others, and a mystical puzzle box in our world can open
a portal to that hell-like realm. When one rather unlikeable fellow,
Frank Cotton, obtains and solves the puzzle, he is torn apart and left
to assemble his own body via the blood of others in a purgatory-like
state. His not-so-innocent family investigates his fate and battles the
Cenobites as everyone associated seeks more and more blood. The
existence of the puzzle box and the Cenobites, and particularly their
leader, Pinhead (notable for nails coming out of his head in a grid
pattern), is the glue that holds the whole franchise of films together.
The first two
movies were a self-contained narrative
featuring mostly the same characters whereas the countless sequels, most
of which failing to achieve theatrical releases, explored separate
parades of doomed flesh. The gore fetish element is matched by the
extreme sexuality of the concept, Barker obtaining X ratings on the
first two movies before removing some of the sexual and violent
depictions. One of his famous complaints about working with the censors
included the hilarious line: "The MPAA told me I was allowed two
consecutive buttock thrusts from Frank but three is deemed obscene!" The
movie was initially banned in parts of Canada because of the same
depravity, mainly the glorification of dismemberment. Barker had seen
the success of electronic film scores in horror movies earlier in the
decade and originally hired English industrial electronic music duo Coil
to provide the music for
, and they wrote a substantial
amount of material as a demo for the project. Before long, however, both
the filmmakers and Coil realized that the band's music was unlikely to
fit well with the feel of the movie, and they parted amicably.
A few years after the film's debut, Coil released their
rejected demos for
Hellraiser, largely consisting of 17 minutes
of thematic ideas and packaged as "The Unreleased Themes for
Hellraiser." The dark electronic keyboarding with driving rhythmic
movement was built upon simplistic, repetitive themes with pop-like
hints and groaning sound design for the villains. If Barker had applied
that music to the movie, the tone of the picture would have been far
less melodramatic and conventionally contemporary. Based on the
recommendation of his editor, Barker then hired fresh composer
Christopher Young, who had broken into the horror genre a couple of
years earlier and had the capability to write music that blended
orchestral fantasy with the challenging, dissonant soundscapes that
electronics had typically supplied to such films during that era. Young,
interestingly, was not initially sold on the idea of composing a
massively gothic and strikingly tonal score for
Hellraiser, but
Barker insisted that the core of his concept was built upon a love
story, albeit demented, and that the horror elements would stand well
without an overbearingly dissonant mass of noise defining it. Once Young
was pointed back to a more organic musical solution for the project, he
openly embraced the use of the ensemble to yield the same kind of
dissonance for the outright horror aspects of the story that
synthesizers could have provided just as well. But, despite plenty of
unpleasant bombast and atmospheres, his music for
Hellraiser and
its first sequel will always be known for its utterly massive gothic
expressions of grandeur for the sick romanticism of Barker's vision. His
music for these two movies became iconic almost immediately and
redefined the genre of horror music in ways that afforded the composer
steady work for decades. While the singularly impressive immensity of
the highlights of the sequel score,
Hellbound: Hellraiser II,
remains more memorable for common fans and had the bigger direct impact
on the genre, Young's music for
Hellraiser is no less effective.
In fact, the first score is arguably the more satisfyingly consistent
listening experience from start to finish, even if its recording is a
bit smaller and more archival in scope.
Young's approach for
Hellraiser is largely
perfect, modulating his tonalities and the intensity of the orchestra to
yield a gripping blend of intrigue, sorrow, and terror. The instrumental
balance is highly metallic, significant amounts of such percussion
struck frequently. The composer's use of extremely high violin lines and
low brass blasts provides the full soundscape with plenty of depth. The
score hides none of its intentions, pounding on key without remorse.
Common to all the main thematic performances is a repeated throbbing on
key by bass brass with thrashing metallic percussion sometimes joining,
as at the start of "Reunion." A piano is paired with elegant waltz
formations for one theme, suggesting timeless sophistication, especially
with bloated, fully tonal expressions for each instrumental line. The
style of
Hellraiser's score is where Young carries the most
consistency between his two efforts in the franchise. While he concocts
attractive themes for the two movies, their direct carryovers are not as
prominent as one might desire. This issue is more of a nagging annoyance
in
Hellbound: Hellraiser II, as there was really nothing wrong
with the original set of themes that Young provided for
Hellraiser. The score is supported by three primary themes and a
bevy of secondary ideas, but the stage for the franchise is ultimately
established best by Young's main theme for the puzzle box that doubles
as the overarching
Hellraiser identity. With its probing,
three-note phrasing in a pyramid formation before falling from grace in
secondary lines, this theme is Young's method of addressing the creepy
but alluring intrigue element. Often performed by very high violins with
plucking lower strings and winds below, this idea is delicate, romantic,
and mysterious before taking an ominous stance in "Hellraiser." It's
deconstructed slightly on flutes at the outset of "Hellbound Heart"
before reforming on violins, and the theme is carried by horns and
woodwinds briefly at 1:20 into "The Lament Configuration" in between
more threatening dissonance and rattling chains for the box's
implications. The theme is reduced to a shell of itself in the middle of
"Reunion" amongst fragments of the supporting sadness theme and vaguely
guides the early stewing in "Brought On by Night." This main theme
stomps with power at the start of "Another Puzzle," yielding a big
violin and brass combination, though most of the cue returns to the more
pensive version of the idea on string layers from the opening cue.
While Young briefly revisits his main theme for
Hellraiser a few times in the sequel score, his secondary idea
for this film only briefly returns again for the composer. The
resurrection theme is the composer's representation of dark fantasies in
the concept, the elegant waltz of focused force guided mostly by
curiously demented, two-note formations. Introduced immediately in
"Resurrection" and building to a magnificently tonal statement, this
theme slows to a monumental unfinished phrase at the cue's end. A
demented music box performance in "Seduction and Pursuit" is distorted
to dissonance, though the idea returns to original form in
"Re-Resurrection" for a heavy crescendo of power and another fanfare at
the end that once again remains unresolved. The third major theme in
Hellraiser represents sadness and desperation, and not always in
a likeable fashion. This theme consists of yearning, rising,
melodramatic string figures in the latter half of "Hellbound Heart" but
is quickly twisted into a dark variant in the first minute of "Reunion."
Eerie and aimless violins guide the idea in the middle of "In Love's
Name," with solo horn taking the descending secondary lines prominently.
It opens "The Rat Slice Quartet" in quiet desperation on strings and
informs the rest of the cue before taking a threatening stance at the
outset of "Uncle Frank," where strings force its figures to an agonizing
frenzy in the cue's latter half. The sadness theme finally supplies a
dissonant conclusion to "Brought On by Night" and would live on in a
pair of cues in
Hellbound: Hellraiser II as this set of
characters resolves their purposes. The secondary themes in
Hellraiser are not as prominent, but they suffice. Young doesn't
do as much in this score for the villains as he could have, adapting the
descending parts of the sadness theme for a muscular passage on brass at
0:19 into "A Quick Death" that could suffice for the role. This material
was taken in a different direction in the sequel, as was the composer's
more general Cenobite material. This less accessible music is a
cacophony of mostly organic sound in the first half of "The Lament
Configuration" that matures during of "The Cenobites." Related is a
menace motif consisting of rising pair of notes to key in the bass as
heard on low strings at the end of "A Quick Death" and start of "In
Love's Name." A chase motif is explored in the latter half of "Seduction
and Pursuit" but never really matures. Overall, despite its outright
horror passages of harrowing dissonance,
Hellraiser is an
engaging and memorably dramatic score. It came to define Young's
trademark sound and remains a very fine entry in the genre. All its
album releases offer the same presentation and make an excellent
companion to the sequel score.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 10,918 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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