#kirsty cotton icons

[circuscenobite]

KIRSTY COTTON ICONS [2/2]

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[nightistbeauty]

We have eternity to know your flesh.

[last-of-the-independents]

ANDY ROBINSON as Larry Cotton in HELLRAISER (1987)

[chaoticdesertdweller]

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Hellraiser (1987)

Hellraiser (1987)

Rated R

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/10/review-hellraiser-1987.html>

Score: 4 out of 5

Hellraiser, written and directed by Clive Barker and based on his novella "The Hellbound Heart", is perhaps best described as an '80s version of a Hammer horror movie. On one hand, it's got gothic British atmosphere in spades, between its setting, its characters, its eroticism, and the twisted family drama at the center of its story, and on the other, it's got an archetypal final girl heroine and all the gnarly gore and creature effects of any proper '80s splatter flick. It's a movie that starts slow (though that could just have been me trying to watch it late at night when I was already getting tired) but closes strong, a journey into depravity that's filled with psychosexual overtones beneath its fleshy exterior while still leaving much to the imagination. The cast is stellar, the score by Christopher Young is perfect at setting the mood, and the makeup effects on its villains are grisly and grotesque, even if I do think it held off on showing off its now-iconic demons for too long. There's a reason why this is a classic, one of the (at least superficially) classier creature features of the '80s, and one that set a high bar that its many sequels were never able to match.

The film starts with a hedonistic degenerate named Frank Cotton purchasing a strange puzzle box at a bazaar in Morocco. Upon taking it back home, he solves the puzzle and winds up opening a portal to another dimension, where he is promptly taken and torn apart by monstrous, vaguely human-looking figures. Shortly after, Frank's brother Larry moves into his old house with his new wife Julia and his teenage daughter Kirsty in tow, and after injuring himself moving some furniture and bleeding all over the floor of the attic, accidentally brings Frank's soul back into our world and revives him, albeit in an incomplete manner (for instance, he's missing his skin). Julia, who it turns out had been having an affair with Frank behind Larry's back while he was still alive, discovers him in the attic and learns that he needs more flesh in order to regain his strength and stay one step ahead of the Cenobites, the demons and monsters who had tortured his soul beyond the grave and aren't too pleased that he escaped. Julia is understandably troubled by this, but she always did love Frank more than Larry, and so she, at first reluctantly but eventually quite enthusiastically, starts stalking bars and picking up various men looking for some loving in order to deliver them to Frank, who kills them and drains their life energy to rebuild his body. Julia can't keep her secret forever, though, especially once Kirsty catches her bringing a strange man into their home.

This is largely Clare Higgins' movie as she plays Julie, one half of its main villainous duo and the one who gets a lot of the heavy lifting in the story. Watching her, you can tell that what Frank is asking Julia to do for him is tearing her apart inside, as she feels sick to her stomach the first time she murders a man. However, each subsequent time sees it come easier and easier to her, causing her to slowly turn from a sympathetic adulterer to a classy villainess who comes to dominate the screen, losing her humanity piece by piece as she eventually realizes that she'll have to do something about Larry if she wants to be with her true love Frank. Frank himself, meanwhile, is not only a freakish special effects showcase between the horrifying scene of his resurrection (his body rematerializing, organ by organ and bone by bone, done completely practically) and his skinless appearance for most of the film, but Oliver Smith, who plays him for most of the movie (barring the prologue of him alive and in human form), also makes him a great corrupting presence slowly leading Julia down the road to becoming a killer in order to bring him back. Together, they feel like a wicked stepmother and her dark secret kept in the attic, a duo who I wanted to see get their justly deserved punishment. As for the rest of the cast, it was fun seeing Andrew Robinson, the Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry, play a good-hearted but clueless father who doesn't realize the danger he's in until it's too late, and while I would've liked to see Ashley Laurence's Kirsty a bit more earlier in the film, once she became the clear protagonist in the latter half she did a fantastic job.

And behind the camera, Barker proves that he's just as good a filmmaker as he is a novelist. This film endured a very troubled production that saw Barker stretch his budget to the breaking point, using every trick in the book to get the most out of what he had, and it paid off remarkably well. An old, creepy mansion is one of the oldest and most cliched horror settings possible, but Barker leaned into it by giving the film a creepy, gothic tone, updating classic Hammer horror iconography for the '80s with only minor changes to the aesthetics. He also injected the film with the kind of raw sexuality that Hammer was famous for, never showing actual nudity (though by all accounts Barker wanted to go further) but always making it very clear that, whether human or monster, these characters fuck. And when that got into the relationship between Frank and his niece Kirsty, or the design of the Cenobites that resembled bondage gear and gave very clear implications of what exactly they mean by "pain and pleasure," that only added an extra layer of "ick" atop the proceedings as it was obvious that the torture being inflicted on these characters was, in no small part, sexual in nature.

That brings me to the Cenobites, the trademark demons of this film (well, "demons to some, angels to others") and the series in general. You may notice that, as iconic as they are, I haven't really talked about them all that much, and that's because they're only minor characters, albeit important ones who have a key role in the plot behind the scenes. As with the rest of the effects here, their creature design is outstanding, resembling humans who have been badly mutilated but in a fairly artistic manner more reminiscent of extreme body modification than anything. The lead Cenobite, retroactively named Pinhead in later films, is the only one who gets much of any characterization, and Doug Bradley makes him a hell of a monster, a figure who speaks in an affect that manages to be both flat and brimming with emotion and whose lack of explicitly ill intent (he and his fellow Cenobites just want to "explore the outer reaches of experience") makes him that much creepier, like the Cenobites' concerns are so far above those of us mere mortals that our lives don't even matter to them except as part of a purely transactional arrangement. If there was one big problem I had with this movie, in fact, it's that we don't get enough of the Cenobites. They take over as the main antagonists in the third act, but while Frank discusses them earlier in the film, they barely have any presence in the film before they make their grand introduction to Kirsty. I would've done something more with the mysterious vagrant who's seen stalking Kirsty, revealing him early on to be working for the Cenobites instead of making that a big twist at the end and simply implying before then that he's up to no good, because while the final scene did work as a nice closer, the tonal shift from having Frank as the villain trying to kill Kirsty to having her and her boyfriend running away from the Cenobites was pretty sudden and jarring, like I'd started watching a completely different movie out of nowhere.

The Bottom Line

Hellraiser is a combination of old-school gothic chills and modern creature and gore effects that still holds up, a film dripping with creepiness and some great monsters of both the human and otherworldly sort. A must-see for fans of '80s horror -- and hey, fingers crossed, maybe the sequels aren't all terrible either.

[horror-thriller-brackets]

Propaganda:

Wendy: Girl was in the most horrific situation and came out the other side. She is so close to the horror that she can touch it, she can see Jack’s descent into madness when she rifles through his papers, she’s part of one of the most iconic chase sequences and most quoted horror movie moments. Additionally, she’s the rare final girl who *did* get to have sex and be a little less “pure”

[mediamixs]

10 most popular final girls in horror movies

Here are the 10 most popular final girls in horror movies, according to various sources:

Laurie Strode (Halloween)

Sidney Prescott (Scream)

Ellen Ripley (Alien)

Nancy Thompson (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

Kirsty Cotton (Hellraiser)

Alice Hardy (Friday the 13th)

Jess Bradford (Black Christmas)

Sally Hardesty (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)

Marybeth Dunstan (Hatchet)

Erin Hardesty (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

It's worth noting that different sources may have different rankings and include different characters. However, these 10 final girls are generally considered to be among the most iconic and memorable in horror movie history.

Unique Backstory

It's difficult to determine which final girl has the most unique backstory, as many of them have interesting and complex backgrounds. However, here are a few final girls with unique backstories:

Sidney Prescott (Scream) - Sidney's mother was brutally murdered when she was a teenager, and she has been targeted by various killers throughout the Scream franchise due to her connection to the original murders.

Kirsty Cotton (Hellraiser) - Kirsty is the daughter of a man who becomes obsessed with a mysterious puzzle box that unleashes demonic creatures. She must navigate the dangerous world of the Cenobites and their leader, Pinhead, in order to survive.

Alice Hardy (Friday the 13th) - Alice is a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake who becomes the sole survivor of a massacre committed by the vengeful mother of a drowned boy. She must use her wits and resourcefulness to outsmart the killer and stay alive.

Erin Hardesty (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) - Erin is a college student on a road trip with her friends when they stumble upon a family of cannibals. She must fight for survival against Leatherface and his twisted relatives.

While these final girls all have unique backstories, it's worth noting that many other final girls also have interesting and compelling histories that contribute to their character development and overall impact on the horror genre.

[phoenixwatchesmovies]

What I'm Watching: October 2024

Keeping my thoughts simple this time around. Again, three sentences or less, as that seemed to work pretty well last time. Under the cut, I've got the House On Haunted Hill remake, the Beetlejuice animated series, Hellraiser 1 and 2, the original Suspiria, and the entire Terrifier franchise. Let's go.

Terrifier (2016)

A maniac named Art the Clown terrorizes two friends on Halloween and everyone who gets in his way.

Honestly not as outrageous as I'd been led to believe. Less gory overall than, say, the Saw franchise, so I don't get the controversy. I'm more impressed at how much the makers accomplished on their budget, and now that I've seen David Howard Thornton's performance, I understand how Art got to be so iconic.

House On Haunted Hill (1999)

An amusement park mogul offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.

Figured I might as well watch this one again having finally seen the original. It's still not scary and almost takes itself too seriously, but it's at least having fun with itself (none more so than Geoffrey Rush). It's cozy in a way only schlock can be.

Beetlejuice (1989-1991)

Adventures of the ghostly con-artist and his 12-year-old pal, Lydia.

I have only the haziest of memories of watching this on Cartoon Network as a kid, and since Tubi added it recently, etc etc. It's fun, and the humor leans heavy on punny visual gags, so I obviously find it hilarious. And I love Lydia's spider web poncho. ❤️

Terrifier 2 (2022)

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.

Ok, a little bit more gnarly, but also a step up from the original overall. Lauren Lavera as Sienna owns my heart and immediately made it onto my list of favorite Final Girls. And regarding DHT in this go round, as I said to my sister, "You know you shouldn't be laughing, but you can't help it because the bit he's doing alongside the awful shit is genuinely funny."

Hellraiser (1987)

A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.

I'm telling you, if you took the Cenobites out of this, you'd have a Lifetime movie...a cozy, gory Lifetime movie. I've said before that Frank's resurrection scene is one of the coolest nasty things I've seen in a movie, and the Cenobites are awesome in an equally gnarly way, but my favorite part of this is Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton. 😍🥰

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)

Kirsty is brought to an institution after the horrible events of Hellraiser, where the occult-obsessive head doctor resurrects Julia and unleashes the Cenobites and their demonic underworld.

Resurrected!Julia can get it. I'm still in love with Kirsty, but dayum, I wish we lived in the alternate timeline where Julia was the antagonist of the franchise. Can't decide if I prefer the expanded world building and epic feel of this one to the cozy if perverse melodrama of the OG, but I treat them as a double feature anyway so it doesn't matter.

Suspiria (1977)

An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.

I've heard so much about this over the years that I was really excited to finally watch it...and then I watched it. Not that it was bad, just that I was underwhelmed. It's gorgeous to look at, don't get me wrong, but it might be one of those that needs another watch before I get what the big deal is.

Terrifier 3 (2024)

Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Made it all the way through this franchise without getting terrified once (hahahahahahaha) but I admit this one had me sweating in a few key scenes. Even more of a step up from 2 and not just in terms of gore. Not writing an essay on it, but anyone saying the gore is all this franchise has to offer is selling themselves short.

Woo hoo! I did it! See you in a month!

[riottrabbit]

Kirsty Cotton Icons

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[circuscenobite]

KIRSTY COTTON ICONS [1/2]

people seemed to like the other icons i've posted so!! here r a few of my fave final girl <33 i'll be posting a few more from hellbound later on.

like/reblog if saving :•]]

[dalekofchaos]

Concept. Horrorverse

Imagine if we got a Horrorverse in the 90's-early 2000s and we got to see all the horror icons come together.

Leviathan, the god of the Hellraiser world is essentially the Horrorverse’s Thanos.  It would be implied that The Cenobites are pretty much the masterminds pulling the strings in every movie.

Freddy solved the Lament Configuration and because of this, he was able to become a Cenobite, eventually he became rogue and became the dream demon we all know and love/dread

The Necronomicon Ex Mortis was written by the god Leviathan, hence why the Deadites exist and Jason was brought back by the book.

One Halloween, Michael solved the puzzle box and the spirit of Samhain possessed Michael,  since then he has become the Shape and the Lord Of The Dead.(ironically this was the plot of the cancelled Helloween movie)

Leatherface and his family are the products of those who solved the box and have went slowly insane. and resorted to cannibalism, mutilation and torture to find the pleasure in life

Charles Lee Ray is a worshiper of Leviathan, learned his Vodu magic from the Cenobites and this is why he keeps coming back as Chucky, eventually Tiffany would be back as well.

The goal is for Pinhead to find new Cenobites and an ultimate crossover would end with Freddy, Jason, Michael, Leatherface and Chucky and Tiffany becoming Cenobites and to overthrow Leviathan. But what happens when Leviathan is overthrown. Can Pinhead control them or would they regain control and kill each other and life as we know it?

The heroes of this franchise would be Ash Williams, Jacob Johnson, Tommy Jarvis and Stephanie Kimble, Laurie Strode and Jamie Lloyd, Andy Barclay and Kyle, Kirsty and Tiffany and Sally Hardesty and must stop the monsters that plagued their lives before they destroy all of reality. 

[last-of-the-independents]

ANDY ROBINSON as Larry Cotton in HELLRAISER (1987)

[deflvwered-a]

kirsty cotton final girl era: “ill have your daughter home by 8 <3”

kirsty cotton hell priestess era: “your daughter is suffering eternal torment for her sins <3”

[polyghoul]

♡ ♡ Demigirl final girl icons (please reblog if you save)! ♡ ♡

[dailyhorrorfilms]

Requested: Icons of Kirsty Cotton from Hellraiser

Please like/reblog if using/saving

Please do not claim as your own

Request icons here

[acapelladitty]

for the Hang With Me -opinion: what do you think about the hellraiser sequels?

Hellraiser - Iconic. The blueprint. A genuine and delightful mix of horror and eroticism. Also, Kirsty Cotton is absolutely gorgeous.

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 - This film gave Julia Cotton the role of being the bad bitch we knew her to be. Dr. Channard is a drama king. Good film.

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth - The beginning of the end lmao. This is enjoyable shite.

Hellraiser: Bloodline - So much potential but so badly butchered by the editing.

Hellraiser: Inferno - I actually quite like this one ngl. Feels shoehorned into being a Hellraiser film.

Hellraiser: Hellseeker - The return of Kirsty Cotton. Icon. Legend. Not a great film but not terrible either.

Hellraiser: Deader - SHITE.

Hellraiser: Hellworld - SHITE. BUT has a young and attractive Henry Cavill in it.

Hellraiser: Revelations - Also SHITE.

Haven't seen Judgement yet so I'll miss that one out.