31 Days of Horror: Hellraiser

Hellraiser (1987)

There are some movies that despite their age - never stop being nasty pieces of work. After several failed adaptations of his stories into film - Clive Barker decided to adapted his own novella The Hellbound Heart into this film which he also directed.

Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) is a sick and twisted fellow who finds and opens up the Lament Configuration - a puzzle box that links this world with another dimension filled with demons called Cenobites whose specialty is pleasure and pain. Your pain - their pleasure. Frank's skin is ripped off with chains and he is torn apart as a result of opening the box.

Later Frank's brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his new wife Julia (Clare Higgins) move into Frank's house. Larry's daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) dislikes Julia. When blood is spilled on where Frank died - it brings him back - well mostly. Julia who has had an affair with Frank finds him and helps him. Frank needs blood to become whole. A lot of blood. And then Kirsty discovers what Frank and Julia have been up to along with finding the box.

Hellraiser is just one nasty gory movie. It's great to watch it with a large group of people who are all squeamish. As bad as all the chains and all the hooks and all the skin removing -that doesn't seem nearly as bad as when Julia whips out a simple hammer and goes to town on a victim for Frank.

Like all popular horror movies - this film spawned eight sequels. Part two wasn't bad but the rest are all a waste of film. And now there is rumours of a remake. It's to be expected I suppose but why bother when there's a perfect film right here that will tough to top. You can't really make it any more suspenseful, more terrifying and more gorier than it already is.

Alternate Pick of the Day: LeE HARVeY OsMOND

Don't feel like hanging with Greg at Garnet Rogers? Come with me instead to see LeE HARVey OsMOND, and remember the good old days when the Cowboy Junkies played at the BeeBop Cafe every other weekend. At the Abbey, 8:30p.m., proceeds to the Regina Food Bank. Come for dinner and get in for free. See Bim. Remember the BeeBop again. It's the prairie dog office now. Regina is so weird.

Ward 3 Candidates Debate Tonight

At the risk of being accused -- again -- of being too Cathedral focused, thought it worth mentioning the second Ward 3 All Candidates Forum takes place tonight. The fun starts at 7:30 and is happening at the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre, 2900 13th Ave. (Apologies to the Heritage Community Association. They held the first Ward 3 forum last Thursday and I didn't announce it. My only defense is I forgot.)

For those with questions for incumbent Fred Clipsham or who want to see what the other candidates -- Don Young, Shirley Dixon and John Conway -- are made of, this is your chance.

I suspect there are other all candidates forums out there in buildings I don't pass everyday on my way to get groceries. If anyone wants to pass details along, please do.

While I'm on the subject, I was speaking to one councillor last week (who didn't know I'd use this on the blog so I'll leave his name out of it) about why there was no debate in his ward. He pointed out that generally it's up to the local community associations to organize such events and the one in his ward wasn't going to this time around.

But, he also talked about how such forums can be really unfair to challengers as the incumbent has a serious advantage by dint of having at least one term in city politics. He said that at the municipal level, for some candidates it's their first time running for any kind of public office and while they may prove a capable councillor once they're in the job, they're not always aware of the details of how municipal government works or even the minutiae of what council's been up to lately -- and that can make them look very bad in a debate.

Interesting points, I thought.

Probably not going to be a problem in the Ward 3 debate tonight as all four seem pretty seasoned at politicking. Fred's been a long-term councillor, Don Young's run for his job twice before, Shirley Dixon has experience in union campaigning, and, John Conway has long served as the squeaky wheel on Regina's Public School Board.

All in all, should be a good chance to hear some of the more divisive election issues get fleshed out and argued over.

Rosie LaRose's Top Six on Tuesday

1. CANADA’S TEAM, EH? The nearest I have been able to figure out, the Saskatchewan Roughriders set, if not a record, something noteworthy during Sunday’s 44-44 tie against the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium. All the Riders' points were scored by Canadians. Fullback and Regina city councilor wanna-be Chris Szarka scored three touchdowns, Chris Getzlaf scored one and Andy Fantuz scored the other. Placekicker Luca Congi kicked four extra points and two field goals. (cfl.ca)

2. YOUR CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT IN ACTION The fact that someone installed a doorknob at a Charlottetown RCMP detachment is proof that Stephen Harper’s stimulus plan works (cbc.ca). Well, there are a lot of doorknobs on that side of the House of Commons, you have to admit.

3. UP, UP AND AWAY Arianna Huffington pwons American celebrity culture and Balloon Boy’s parents. (Huffington Post) Oh yeah, these parents look like real winners. (CNN)

4. CHINESE DEMOCRACY CANADIAN STYLE My money’s on Axl not showing up (Leader-Post).

5. GETTING THE VOTE OUT Here’s an idea – instead of begging people to vote, why not have a political system where people’s voices are more important than businesses and self-appointed don’t-tax-me-don’t-tax-thee groups? (cbc.ca)

6. I WAS OLNY FOLLOWING ORDERS! When the Second World War ended, there was a host of surviving German generals who wrote their memoirs, blaming the loss on Hitler and the Nazis’ incompetence. Admittedly, such books are more interesting than hearing from the winners (Winston Churchill’s six-volume History of the Second World War notwithstanding). But at the risk of invoking Godwin’s law, former Canadian top soldier Rick Hillier is starting the same blame-the-politicians campaign in today’s Toronto star (Toronto Star). After spending $10 billion and losing nearly 140 men in an unwinnable war, he’s now doing what I was doing in 2003 – questioning why Canada has troops there in the first place.

Pick of the Day: Garnet Rogers

This gig by Garnet Rogers tonight at the Exchange is presented by Grassroots Regina. They've been around for a couple of years now, and seem interested in more traditional forms of folk music than what the Regina Folk Festival's been serving up for the last decade or so. That's not to say that the RFF never presents an old school singer-songwriter. But the bulk of the performers at its annual summer festival, and the RFF's companion concert series, tend to favour a more robust (and eclectic) approach to music-making.

Younger brother of Canadian folk legend Stan Rogers, who perished in a fire aboard an Air Canada jet in Cincinnati in 1983 at the age of 33, Garnet Rogers has carved his own niche in the pantheon of Canadian folk artists. Here's video of him performing "All That Is" at the Rose Garden Coffeehouse in Massachusetts in 2008. (YouTube)