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Hellbound Heart Cassette

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I first came across this book hesitant and unsure of what to expect. I had already seen the Hellraiser movie and I thought I might have been disappointed because I already knew the storyline. However, after reading this book I realized that Clive Barker tells things better on ink and paper than on a movie screen. Even with all the guts and gore in the book the reason why the book captures me so much is the fact that Barker tries to show us what is inside the hearts of people. The actual theme of the book is what makes this book fascinating not the blood and suspense. This is a true horror story if there ever was one. The Cenobites also add to the intrigue and horror to the book. The Cenobites are demons who offer limitless pleasure to all the senses only to realize afterwards that they are only interested in pain and suffering. The introduction of the book gets the mood going and afterwards it will want to make you want to read more. The interaction between Frank and Julia also adds to the fascination of the story. Frank's character you could say depicts the restless and ceaseless anguish of mankind looking for something "beyond" what this world offers. Frank shows us that human beings are beings that are driven for the need for lust, pleasure, and sensory satisfaction. That people will even go beyond moral imperatives to satisfy their carnal passions and live life as if it was one sensory experience. Though this view of man presented by Barker seems dismal and discouraging, he does teach us the unfortunate condition of man on earth. Barker does a good job showing us the horrors contained within man's heart and where it can lead us if our desires are not contained.

Clive Barker crafted one of the best pieces of modern horror to come along in quite some time with this shocker novella. The Hellbound Heart tells the tale of the human heart and all of it's pain and ecstasy contained within. When Frank solves the puzzle of the Lemarchand box, he discovers the vastness, and the cost, of pleasure and pain. Upon his encounter with otherworldly creatures called the Cenobites, Frank is left as quite a mess to say the least, and when his ex-lover Julia and her husband Rory move in to Frank's old home, that's when we see Barker at his best. Despite the lack of character development and the novel itself is way too short; The Hellbound Heart is some of the most compelling horror stories I have ever read, and it helped cement Barker as one of the genre's true masters. In 1987 Barker would take this story to the big screen (and would also serve as screen writer and director) re-naming it Hellraiser; which would go down as one of the best horror films in the past few decades. All in all, if your into horror literature but have never entered the world of Clive Barker, this is one of the best places to start.

From the twisted imagination of Clive Barker comes the chilling inspiration for his film "Hellraiser." The story goes something like this: a sexual adventurer named Frank, in search of new pleasures, obtains a puzzle box said to give him the kind of experiences he desires in a third-world country. He brings it back to his London home and, after a time, solves it, unleashing sadomasochistic demons from Hell known as the Cenobites.

Some time later, Frank's brother Rory and his wife Julia move into the house. When Rory's blood drops onto the floor of the attic where the Cenobites took Frank, Frank manages to escape the Cenobites and come back, albeit as a very weak and fleshless creature. When Julia discovers him, he convinces her to lure men into the house and spill their blood so that he can fully come back as a human before the Cenobites track him down and bring him back for good.

While the book is rather short (I read it it one day, actually, but I'm a fast reader), it's endlessly entertaining - I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended, and then after you've read this, watch Hellraiser (if you have a strong stomach). It's just as good as the book.

This book leaves little doubt that Clive Barker has an incredible imagination linked and obviously influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft often wrote of alternate dimensions, realms, in which foul denizens wait, hatching diabolical intentions and torturous ideas about harming Mankind. "The Hellbound Heart" is a book with such a scenario at its center. Demons, known here as Cenobites, who are summoned through the opening of a unique artifact called Lemarchand's box. In fact, the entire first chapter reads more like Lovecraft than at any other point in this novella. This book is very short, a little over 160 pages in length, and the margins are narrow with fairly large print. This is a quick read, the modernized style of writing leaving no room for catching your breath. It is entertaining, albeit very naive. I have little doubt that Clive Barker looks back on this book and thinks about how little he knew about characterization and their driving motivations. His writing is clearly ambitious, but the characters are so thinly drawn, their reasons for their actions so tenuously wrought, that I just waited around for another paragraph of straight creative description. I longed for the return of the malevolent Cenobites on many occasions. Kirsty is never fully explained. Is she somebody's daughter, as it is shown in the film version, "Hellraiser"? Is she Julia's daughter? Frank's? It is never directly stated. As for Julia, it seems unlikely that a fleeting love/lust affair would drive her to commit murders. Perhaps it was the affect of the demons lurking upstairs, but that is never suggested. Just all of a sudden she goes out and brings home her first victim/sacrifice. The most interesting character is Frank who aches for new and intense experiences beyond human understanding. So much so that he opens Lemarchand's box and is generously given his requests, to horrifying effect. The first chapter is worth reading again and again, but the film version of this story has much better dialogue and the actors give such splendid performances that it is unlikely I will ever want to read this book cover to cover again. This book shows a very young Clive Barker creatively conjuring the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft, oftentimes matching that master's ideas, but the characterization needs fleshing out(pun intended). The dialogue is rarely passionate or loaded with emotional depth, leaving the reader with a hollow feeling of what could have been. There are many fine ideas here, many inspired moments, but the end result, the overall effect, is one of ambitious youth and ignorant technique.

I read Barker's WEAVEWORLD several years ago and loved it. I was also aware that this book was what the HELLRAISER movies were based on. I'd seen bits and pieces of them and found them interesting. Needless to say, I had high expectations for this book. I was a bit disappointed to find that there wasn't much meat to it. The main impetus behind this book was the dichotomy between pleasure and pain. Unfortunately, this intriguing concept, along with the Cenobites (those purveyors of pain as pleasure), was never threshed out to my satisfaction. Yes, the book is full of disturbing images and Barker provides just enough detail and forces the reader to fill in the blanks with their own imagination. Unfortunately, I finished the book feeling a bit empty as far as his ideas behind the concepts he introduced.

In addition to this, the characters that populated the book seemed interesting, but they were not developed enough in order for me to care about them. Each character's individuality was roughly outlined and their interrelationships were hinted at, but not enough to fully realize them in the reader's imagination. Yes, the book weighs in at less than 200 pages, but I've seen Stephen King fully flesh out a character, their motivations and desires, and their relationship with other characters in a story in only a couple of pages. Barker fails to do this almost completely.

I don't mean to bash this book completely. It was interesting and had some intriguing concepts and characters, but, unfortunately, Barker does not do enough with them to get me to care. I finished the book and wished there had been another 200 pages so that he could have filled in what was missing. Maybe I should just write this off to one of his early attempts at structuring a story and pick up another of his books. I don't regret reading it, but, aside from the imagery of the Cenobites and the idea of the box, it's pretty forgettable.

Barker plays with the english language as if it were his own personal toy in this short novel that cuts all the bs and pointless insipid dross and gets straight to the point with gruesomely poignant detail. story focusses around Frank who tires of earth's trivialities and decides to experiment w/a puzzle box which can unleash pleasures greater than any experiencable in our dimension. he is greeted by a quartet of demonic heirophants who bring unto him excruciating pain + pleasure: indivisible; then rip him apart. later revived by his brother's (Rory's) spilt blood (and transforming into a skinless monstrosity) he coaxes Rory's wife and his own ex-lover Julia into killing for him, so they can be together again. i have only read 2 of his books so far (this and The Theif of Always) and i am currently reading Cabal and i must confess to not reading that often (almost never!!) until being turned on to Barker through Hellraiser, i liked it so much that when i found it was based on his book i had to read it. and beleive me i was anything but disappointed. his style of writing is so entrancing i just couldn't put it down i couldn't wait to read more. the first chapter is a tour de force, the last is almost as good. bottom line: anyone who wants to read an explicit novel that's not afraid to cross the boundries of conservativeness and deliver horror in its __true__ form read this.

This novel is definetily Mr. Barker's most brilliant excursuion into terror. The plot was well constructed, the narrative was beutifully written, and the characters were interesting and very real. However I think the Cenobites were the most facinating aspect of this novel. Clive Barker has created a set of very intriguing demons whose mannerisms are very consistent with standard Christian theology. Not only does the nature of these creatures have a very apealing familiarty but Clive Barker has also interjected his own nightmarish visions into the appearence and behavior of these hellspawn thus creatring demons that are very traditoinal yet unique and original as well. Overall this novel is profoundly disturbing and overwhelmingly macabre It is also very poetic and morbidly entertaing.I particuraly enjoyed the idea of foolish humans like the character of uncle Frank who seek a release from the daily mediocrity of their lives by searching for the ultimate experience. but upon opening the forbidden box and unleashing the Cenobites into their earthly realm they do not encounter boundless pleasures and untold fortunes as they had expected, but are instead greeted by 5 hideous monstosities that have crawled forth from the blackest infernoes of hell. It is then that these creatures grant the mortal's wish by allowing them to experience a sensation that is not in any way pleasurable as they had anticipated but is so overwhelming that it is excruciatengly painful and maddeningly terrifying. Then this person must pay for the unholy experience with their very soul. It is then that they come to the horrible realizattion of hell's forgotten promises and the unbridled pain and suffering of the abyss. Not only is this novel absolutely mindblowing in the ferocity of it's horror but throughout the course of it's intricate plot the author explores some of the darker aspects of humanity such as lust, betrayl, temptation, and, suffering. I strongly reccomend this novel and the films that it inspired to anyone who t! houghroly enjoys exellence in horror fiction . This next section is adressed to the author himself. Dear Mr. Barker as an aspiring novelist and filmmaker as well as a devoted fan I certainly hope that you are able to take time from your grueling schedule so that you may look at these reviews periodically to see what your fans think. It would also bring me great pleasure to know that you have seen my appreciation for your work. - Steven Peluso age 14

From Clive Barker's novella 'The Hellbound Heart' was born the movies series of 'Hellraiser'. Here is where it all began. The book can be purchased separately or sometimes as part of an anthology, but either way, if you love 'Hellraiser' you need to read the story that started it all.

Rory and Julia Cotton move into the house left to Rory and his brother Frank. Rory calls on his old friend Kirsty to help with the move, an old friend with nothing in common with the icy, elegant Julia. Julia senses something is wrong with the master bedroom, she calls it the "damp" room, and refuses to move into it, choosing a smaller bedroom instead.

Its not long before Julia discovers something is lurking inside the damp room. After Rory cuts his hand and bleeds onto the floor, she finds a disfigured shell of a man lurking in the shadows, all cut flesh and raw nerve endings. It's Frank, and Frank wants Julia to help him become whole again through sacrifices of blood.

Frank had been experimenting with a dangerous item called Lemarchand's Box, a cross between a music box and a rubic's cube, which supposedly was the gateway to ultimate pleasure. What Frank found were the Cenobites, of the Order Of The Gash, eager to take his flesh and twist it.

Frank's plan runs awry when Kirsty goes to visit Julia and finds a man in the house, torn apart, and being mutilated by Frank. Kirsty frees herself from Frank, taking the box with her, and winds out in an asylum. At the asylum, she solves the box and inadvertently summons the Cenobites. Not wanting to become a victim of the Cenobites, Kirsty offers up a deal ... Frank's life for hers.

Though this is a novella (only 164 pages in large font) it is worth the price of a full sized book. The novella can also be found in some older anthologies if you look through the used book sections, but you won't be disappointed by paying full price. This novella is one of Barker's masterpieces. Enjoy!

I watched "Hellraiser" (the film this novella ended up being) several years ago, and I vividly remember the hideous graphic quality of the violence described on film. In the book, it's just as graphic if not more. Barker dabbles in hellacious imagery, torture, eroticism. It's a very short book but shockingly effective in its purpose of leaving the reader disturbed throughout the story's development, but at the same time anxious to see what will happen. For fans of horror written with style, this is the kind of book that needs to be on their bookshelf.

I wasn't sure what to expect with a Clive Barker novella, to be honest I had seen movies with his name attached and had more often than not been let down. I picked this book up from a paperback swap site and was surprised at how short it was. Although and avid horror fan, I was never able to truly enjoy the original Hellraiser film, so I did not expect to be thrilled with it's source material.

I was pleasantly surprised. Although it is obvious that the original Hellraiser film follows this story almost exactly, the daytime soap opera acting kept the movie from realizing the horror of this book. I found "Hellbound Heart" to be a surprisingly quick read, easy to follow and descriptive enough to see what is being said without being overly wordy. I would have to agree with the other readers that the concept is very Lovecraftian, the style however is very different.

The story follows Frank, a disturbing man who has sought out pleasure of the senses his entire life. Viewed by others as a wastrel, he spends his time committing petty crimes and seeking to fill his lustful desires. He learns of a special puzzle box, which is supposed to open a door to the Cenobites who will show him a new realm of pleasure. Our journey starts as Frank opens the box, meeting the Cenobites and discovering the reality of their being.

What follows is a tale of lust, pain and pleasure. To what lengths will someone to go fulfill their fantasy? What are they willing to believe, to do, and to suffer through? The book is well written and can be taken at just face value as a horror tale. However it also begs to discuss the reality and strength of ones desire and fantasy. With this being one of his first novels, there are some writing flaws to be found throughout the book, but none are distracting enough to jump out at you. My main irritant was not having any background or understanding of the relationship Kristy had with the rest of the characters. At first I assumed her to be a sister, I recalled from the movie she was a daughter, and then finally settled on the idea that she was an old friend of Rory's. Her relationship is never laid out for us. I think knowing that bond would have strengthened her position in the story since she is so vital to the finale. All in all this is a wonderful quick read for any horror fan. I f it had been about 20 pages longer I think it may have even made it to 5 stars for me. As it stands in the version I read it's a 4 out of 5 star book.