The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

bathed in light like an angel. During the Argentoesque dream sequence, too, with white feathers floating around her, Kirsty resembles the Madonna from a painting by an Italian master. Even her name is Christ-like. Kirsty also wears a white T-shirt throughout the film, in line with the basic iconographic symbolism of color clothing schemes. 11 This follows if we also examine Julia’s choice of outfits: she begins with white blouses, then switches to orange, then finally to dark blue, thus reflecting her journey through passion to the dark side.
    However, Kirsty does not adhere to the moral codes of a Heavenly heroine, or even a heroine from previous horror films. Most noticeably, she does not remain virginal. Whether or not anything happened after her kiss with Steve, it is still insinuated that she has slept with him. In slasher films this is usually the grounds for punishment by the killer, as Carol Clover elucidates in her groundbreaking book, Men, Women and Chainsaws . The Final Girl, as she calls the Stalk and Slash heroine, is usually a “spunky enquirer into the terrible place,” 12 but never sexually active. Secondly, when Kirsty first arrives at the house on Lodovico Street, she sees statues of saints and Christ on the doorstep, cast out ready for Hell to enter. Her reaction is simply to smile, shrug, and walk in through the door. Such ignorance of the portent leads to terrible heartache later. Perhaps this is why the statue that falls out and scares Kirsty as she is being chased by Frank has to be Christ—in retaliation for her apathy? But given this, Kirsty still turns her back on the power of faith and uses her own mettle instead.
    There was even a deleted scene where an evangelist spoke to Kirsty directly through the radio to warn her, which would have highlighted her rejection yet further:
INT: KIRSTY’S ROOM. NIGHT
Music from the radio: a love song. The radio is badly tuned: the song sounds tinny. It fades, then comes back into focus again. We move around the room, over an unfinished puzzle, left on the bed; over a few pictures of LARRY, set lovingly beside the bed, and finally, onto KIRSTY, who is drying her hair after a shower.
The radio channel slips. The radio whines. Then, an evangelist’s voice on the air-waves.
EVANGELIST: The Devil is watching you. That’s the message I came here tonight to bring you. The Devil is watching you and he sees the corruption in your hearts. He hears you! He sees you! Every night, every day.
KIRSTY has got up now and is trying to change channels, but the controls defeat her. She gets more and more annoyed.
KIRSTY: C’mon, damn you. C’mon.
EVANGELIST: The Devil knows your soul.
KIRSTY: No he doesn’t! Damn thing!
Eventually she pulls the back off the radio. The batteries fall out.
KIRSTY (to herself): Nice going.
Thunder. 13
    In addition, Kirsty swears, she fights dirty, and to save herself she negotiates with the Cenobites, offering up Frank. Because Frank is such a morally bankrupt character, we can forgive this behavior, but it blurs the line between right and wrong even more. If there hadn’t been a scapegoat around to give the demons, would she have offered up an innocent? Possibly not, but Kirsty’s strong streak of self-preservation is what makes her such a tough heroine in the first place, and her complexity is what makes her an enduring screen champion.
     

    Ashley Laurence publicity shot (photograph credit: Tom Collins).
    By the same token, Julia, for all the terrible things she does, has a compassionate side—evidenced by her response to Larry after he cuts himself. The act of kindness can be viewed as pity, of course, for an inferior person, or—more logically—it can be seen as a natural reaction to anybody in pain. Remember, this is before she has the motivation to kill for “love.” When she first enters the house and climbs the stairs, she, too, sees the statue of Christ on the windowsill. Another warning, this time for her not to go any