Hellraiser 20th Anniversary Edition (as we hit its 30th anniversary). Still groundbreaking in so many ways, but many things stood out on this viewing. It's entirely unclear where the movie is supposed to be set. It was filmed in London, the Cotton home looks like a British home, and Julia and her friends, as well as Kirsty's boyfriend all have British accents. The Cottons all sound very American, and it's never clear why they're there. There are odd shots where Kirsty is wandering around some dock, looking up at cargo cranes; no explanation or context are shown. The sound is absolutely horrible throughout the production.
Also re-watched Nightbreed for the first time since its video release. I never saw this in theaters, and have not felt compelled to revisit it, but my awesome brother-in-law suggested it as a follow-up to Barker's directorial debut of Hellraiser. This movie is an incoherent mess. I read Cabal a ways back and enjoyed it, but can't remember how it ties in, so I'll be re-reading that soon. This movie has an identity crisis: it's supposed to be a horror movie where the monsters are the sympathetic ones, existing in secret alongside humanity. But the monsters are living in the cemetery, digging up corpses and playing with them, eating humans – or each other, or both – so when the Yee Haw Revival crowd shows up in 4X4s and have shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and rockets, it's still kinda hard to root for the sapiophages.
Barker's a good novelist and excellent short story author, but I'm happy he didn't continue directing films.
