The Hellbound Heart: Classic Horror?


In The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker introduces the world that would become his Hellraiser series. A search through the book’s online legacy reveals how groundbreaking horror fans consider it.

A first time reader (and non-horror fan) can expect a gruesome story, stereotypes, and cringe-worthy writing.

The main character Frank pursues hedonistic satisfaction through Lemarchand’s box, a puzzle that summons the Cenobites, pleasure giving creatures from another dimension. The Cenobites trap Frank in their world, but he comes up with a plan to escape. Using his sister-in-law Julie, Frank makes her fall in love with him from beyond, and makes her bring him human sacrifices so that he may drink their blood and grow strong. Eventually Frank turns on his brother, Julie, and anyone whose blood he can drink. I get it: Barker is showing us how we can become overcome by our own desires.

Imagine a very bro-y bro writing a book about a beast who takes what he wants, rapes when he wants, and destroys what he wants. The bro-y bro writes the way you might expect a very bro-y bro to, probably while high or between rounds of a video game. That’s how the writing feels in The Hellbound Heart—clunky at best. Barker could just write someone “can’t move” instead he writes “unable to advance another millimeter.” It’s that kind of writing, written with such pomposity, I could practically see Barker congratulating himself as a genius for re-envisioning how to write, “can’t move.” Ugh. 

Julia, Frank’s brother Rory, and the heroine Kirsty, all play important parts, but we never get to know them beyond how they fulfill a role in Frank’s journey. By the time Frank calls Kirsty “whore,” “bitch,” and “cheating fucking bitch,” I was expecting the embodiment of negative masculine juju to call her (or Julia) a whore. What else would a very bro-y bro have his main character yell at the women around him when they aren’t doing what he wants? Yuck.

Thanks for my Oberlin buddy Rossana Rossi for suggesting The Hellbound Heart.

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