Director: Clive Barker
Year Released: 1987
Rating: 1.0
A husband and wife move into the husband's old rotted house, not realizing that the husband's estranged brother's semi-mutilated corpse is living in the attic and in need of human hosts to feed on. Did I mention that there's also a box the brother obtained that opens the gates to Hell, populated by pale S&M addicts called Cenobites who look like they're victims of some horrendous accident at Home Depot? Plodding and tacky for the first hour, Barker really ramps up the violence in the last third, when the creepy-looking Cenobites come in demanding their (actual) pound of flesh - say what you must about the movie's lack of intelligence, but when it comes to character design Barker's a wiz (he's also a much better novelist than filmmaker). Like the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies - among other horror pictures - there is a blatant connection in this between casual sex and punishment, as the promiscuous and the adulterers get targeted for elimination: stay celibate, kids!
