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Review of Hellraiser (Christopher Young)

1987 Cinedisc

1987 Silva Screen

2012 BSX

2017 Lakeshore

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you admire gothic horror scores and Christopher Young's heralded definition of them, the original Hellraiser offering an early glimpse of the majesty to come from the composer over the following decades.

Avoid it... if you'd prefer to sacrifice the stronger narrative of this score for the choral immensity and improved sound of Young's wilder, rowdy sequel score in the franchise.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Hellraiser: (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 Hellraiser 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 Hellraiser 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 Hellraiser, 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.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

All Albums:
Total Time: 74:27

• 1. Hellraiser (1:43) • 2. Resurrection (2:32) • 3. Hellbound Heart (5:05) • 4. The Lament Configuration (3:31) • 5. Reunion (3:11) • 6. A Quick Death (1:16) • 7. Seduction and Pursuit (3:01)

• 8. In Love's Name (2:56) • 9. The Cenobites (4:13) • 10. The Rat Slice Quartet (3:15) • 11. Re-resurrection (2:34) • 12. Uncle Frank (2:59) • 13. Brought On by Night (2:18) • 14. Another Puzzle (4:06)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert of the 2012 BSX album includes details about the score and film.

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