As the first-ever full-cast audio adaptation of Clive Barker’s novella, which was translated to the big screen as the original Hellraiser movie, Bafflegab’s drama has to confront the ‘inevitable comparison’ that will be made with Barker’s own big screen version. With its fresh but authentic take on the source material, Bafflegab rises to the challenge with admirable self-confidence and conviction.
The visuals, icons, characters and voices of the 1987 Hellraiser film are so ingrained in collective genre consciousness that ‘taking a different approach’ to bringing the story to life could be seen as highly risky. But while, for the most part, Paul Kane’s adaptation stays faithful to the novella’s narrative, both the script and the audio realisation are determined to be neither a pastiche of nor a homage to, the franchise’s first film.
Central to Kane’s drama is the different life experience of two brothers. Rory has chosen the settled and staid life of work and marriage, a normality he is comfortable with. Frank has embraced the reckless pursuit of carnal pleasures and of indulgence and excess, always wanting to push things to new extremes. After Frank brokers a deal with the hellish Cenobites, the punishment is cruel and overwhelming. When the brothers inherit their parents’ home fiancé Julia finds her world torn apart when a blood spill revives Frank’s atrophied remains.
Bafflegab has assembled a uniformly strong cast. Neve McIntosh channels the venal selfishness and moral torpor of Julia, but finds her more human side too; Tom Meeten is doubly fantastic, as both the risk-averse everyman Roy (arguably the hardest role of the piece); and as the seductive and merciless Frank; while Alice Lowe brings the right mix of naivety and toughness to the role of Kirsty.
The distinctive sounds of the Cenobites do take some adjusting to. Evie Dawnay’s vocalisation highlights their chilling and ruthless nature over out-and-out horror. But the creatures’ unwavering certainty works in the context of this version. Sound design is top notch throughout, with Frank’s reanimation, the visceral hands-on killings, and the sticky, nasty couplings all invested with just the right kind of disturbing squelches, rips and thwacks. As events darken, there are several full-on gruesome turns; and with its brutal depictions of violence, sexual scenes, gory themes and ‘coarse’ language, The Hellbound Heart is unashamedly for adults’ ears only.
This is a very impressive audio presentation that more than does justice to Barker’s vision, imagining just where ‘desire’ that breaches the limits of reason and moral constraint might lead.
THE HELLBOUND HEART / WRITER: CLIVE BARKER / ADAPTER: PAUL KANE / DIRECTOR: SIMON BARNARD / PUBLISHER: BAFFLEGAB / STARRING: ALICE LOWE, TOM MEETEN, NEVE MCINTOSH, EVIE DAWNAY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
