One Good Scare - Hellraiser (1987)
what's that living underneath the floorboards, it's A SKINLESS MAN
Come to Daddy (*/menacingly).
As we learned way back in issue 3 of The Horror The Horror, if there’s one thing I love yapping about more than anything it’s my undying love for Hellraiser so this week I am once again making it everyone’s problem!
Spoilers, as per. Also this is Hellraiser so be warned because it gets very Hellraiser.
In the very broadly defined space that is One Good Scare, I am on record as saying that my preference lies towards the more “crawling dread” end of the spectrum rather than the “BOOM JUMPSCARE” end (although we will be covering some in the future). This particular moment adds to that dread just a great big soup ladle of sinewy (literally!), gross (very!) body horror and it stands out as probably one of my top five favourite horror moments overall.
Everyone, meet Frank!
the set-up
Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman), aka the hedonist brother of Larry Cotton (Andrew Robinson) and brother in law of Julia Cotton (Clare Higgins), is a bit of a wrong-un, but in a sexy way as you can see demonstrated by the picture above, quite possibly the most devastatingly handsome anyone has ever looked. At the beginning of Hellraiser, Frank is in Morocco, eagerly and desperately purchasing a mysterious puzzle box from a vendor who sounds like he’s anywhere between eighty and two-hundred years old.
Back in his attic (relevant shortly), stripped bare of any worldly possessions (including a shirt), he solves said puzzle box - which he has been told will open the door to a realm of otherworldly pleasure. Having exhausted all sensory experiences possible, he is hoping that the box will unlock new kinds of carnal enjoyment (because Frank FUCKS). What he instead gets is ripped apart by hooked chains emerging out of nowhere, flesh torn to shreds and blood spilled all over the floor. Out of nowhere, a quartet of black-robed, inhuman figures materialize, and as one of them (you know him, you love him, it’s bestie PINHEAD!) resets the box, the attic appears to reset too, taking with it any trace of Frank…
Or so it seems.
the scare
Larry and Julia - who we as the audience are aware by now had a spectacularly erotic affair with Frank before her marriage to Larry - are in the middle of moving in to the house that once belonged to Frank (implied heavily to be a family home). Larry’s daughter, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) is paying a visit as the movers struggle to maneuver a piece of furniture up the stairs. Larry assists, in the process quite gruesomely cutting his hand on a stray nail.
Larry stumbles up the stairs to the attic, where Julia has been wistfully thinking about Frank. As Larry walks in, clutching his hand, she briefly but visibly recoils before helping him. As she’s trying to reassure Larry that he will be fine, blood (the kind of vivid red blood Argento would be proud of) drips onto the floor and is seemingly… absorbed by the floor boards (almost like something is drinking it up).
Larry and Julia leave the attic, and speak to Kirsty in the hallway.
But in the attic, something is stirring. Underneath those floor boards (in what I assume was rather the oversight on the part of Pinhead and Co.) lie the very scant remains of Frank Cotton. They are not recognizable as anything but something is still living, breathing. The camera pans to the floor boards shaking, almost like they’re beating. Something is breaking out. Rebuilding.
And scaring the shit out of the many (MANY) rats scuttling about the place.
why it works
I don’t even know how to describe the mechanics of Frank’s resurrection other than utterly fucking disgusting (/complimentary). Blocky (almost Harryhausen-esque) movements, organic and squelchy sounds, just a solid near two minutes of the remains of Frank Cotton quite literally stitching and fusing themselves back together and even then he’s not back to his full self, he’s just a skeleton and sinew and it’s just so beautifully dreadful to watch, especially because none of Larry, Julia or Kirsty are aware in that moment that Frank is both alive and still in the house.
It’s such a stunning marriage of dread and body horror, the dread of watching this body remake itself with a bone crunching fury, truly hammering home that Frank is not to be trusted. When he reveals himself to a terrified Julia, begging her to find a way to very literally make him whole again, it’s a chilling testament to just how much this man lives under Julia’s skin.
Everyone, meet OTHER FRANK! He’s just… let him cook, give him a moment, he’ll be right with you as soon as possible.
Classic!
Easily the best teaser for Hellraiser that I've ever seen.