In 1987, Hellraiser was released to an unsuspecting public, and the horror genre was never the same again. The story began with a man constantly craving more — from trips to exotic lands to an ever-deepening hunger for intense sexual pleasure. After acquiring a strange puzzle box, the Lament Configuration, he inadvertently summons demons from hell … the now-iconic Cenobites.
However, in 1987, the genre was petering out and the endless line of terrible sequels had tainted the reputation of horror as a whole. By the time Hellraiser hit theaters, Halloween had released three films , Friday the 13th had released seven films, and Nightmare had released three . With each passing sequel, the movies were getting worse and worse reviews, and the box-office returns per film were dwindling quickly.
Barker’s original story, The Hellbound Heart, was heavily inspired by his own experiences with sex. In the same Guardian interview, Barker talked about how he used to be a hustler, sometimes even fooling around with the biggest names in Hollywood. He also frequented the BDSM scene, noting one New York fetish club in particular, Cellblock 28.
In 1981, otherwise healthy gay men started coming down with very rare diseases normally seen only in patients with severely compromised immune systems. By the end of that year, the term “gay cancer” had established itself and over the next decade, the HIV/AIDS outbreak spiraled into a global health crisis.
On top of that, Barker has had a somewhat bizarre health record that, for someone with a normal immune system, would be very unlikely. At one point, Barker even slipped into a two-week coma, telling Nightmare Magazine it was “due to some toxic problem I had at the dentist.” He also told the publication that he’s never fully recovered from it.
Like those men in the 1980s, having what they thought was a fun Friday night, not knowing that some of them would be dead shortly thereafter by a disease that ravaged their community. A box was opened that they couldn’t close, even though it was a mistake.
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