Fear of Films: Hellraiser & Candyman

Adventures in Poor Taste says, "And yet, despite hardly being in the film at all, the Cenobites practically steal the show.”

These film adaptations of stories by Clive Barker explore fear through monsters. Like a lot of Barker's stories, both of these films rely on esoteric legend or myth to illustrate negative human traits.

In Hellraiser, a smarmy man brings back a strange puzzle box that, after he pushes his curiosity and determination, traps him in a world of pain. His once lover vows to bring him back, and in a way she's committing adultery against her current husband, the rather dopey father of the movie's heroine. And none of those characters are the well-known "monsters" of the film franchise. "Pinhead" and his gang are actually mysterious wardens of the world within the puzzle. They only give you want you desire, are only prompted by those who push their curiosity. In the end, it's greed and lust that plays into the demise of the lovers, who are the true monsters.

Candyman, meanwhile is a more modern tale about an urban legend who consumes the consciousness of the main character. Against pushed by her own curiosity, she probes the proverbial walls of the "Candyman" myth within the projects of Chicago. What starts out as a promising look at socioeconomic positions in relation to urban legends, turns into a thin psychological horror tale.

Despite any shortcomings or highlights each of these stories have, each of them comment on the fact that humans attempt to explain true horrors as a result of human action with unexplainable forces, such as strange magic or urban legend. It's a fear of the truth, a fear of the real evil inside ourselves.