Barkercast Presents: Coil’s Pleasure and Pain

As many “Hellraiser” fans know the experimental/post industrial band Coil was originally set to compose the score for the first film. They actually composed some interesting cues and I’ve always wanted to hear their music edited over the movie in some capacity to hear how their music would’ve driven the film’s themes of pleasure and pain. YouTube subscriber Roman Pictures has taken their music and put it over some of the scenes that they scored and the final results are very interesting. Also, keep in mind that this isn’t how the music would’ve been mixed into the final movie. This is only a rough idea. After all they never finished a complete score.

While watching their music play over the clips, I was definitely taken to a different world. The opening titles have a more hypnotic feeling like you’re being put in a trance. The Lament Configuration is given a more traditional toy box theme, but what makes it effective is how the music rises in pitch as Frank tries to solve it. There’s a dark underlying sense of dread that seems to be urging the character on to finish this insidious act of curiosity. Frank’s resurrection feels more like a painful rebirth of a tortured soul that wants to live again. As the flesh reforms around Frank’s skeleton the music seems to celebrate in his return to life.  Also, the music seems to transform Julia from a typical house wife into a ruthless killer. The mundane quality of the sounds seem to make this apparent as she carries out these horrible acts with such pleasure. I also love the buzzing sounds which I think show her slow descent into madness. And finally,  the ending with Kirsty fighting with the Cenobites definitely has a more sinister and otherworldly quality to it. It feels like the house on 55 Ludovico Place has literally gone to hell.

After watching this video everyday for the past week, I’ve come to find Coil’s themes to be more creepy and in line with the strangeness of Clive Barker’s works. I also believe this is what worked against them for not getting the job. Their experimental style was probably something that New World didn’t care about. Which is a shame because I believe Clive wanted a non-traditional score for the film. In the end we’ll never know what the final results of Coil’s labors would’ve been. I think they were onto something, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Unfortunately, Coil’s album The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser is out of print, but can still be found on sites like Discogs and eBay. Though be prepared to come across some high prices if you want to buy a copy. If anyone is interested I’ve attached some links below:

https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=18968&ev=mb

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=coil+hellraier+themes&_sacat=0

I also wanted to share the link to their official Wikipedia page where you can find out more about the band.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_(band)

And to end this article checkout our podcast co-creator José Leitao Tuesday Tunes that he did a couple of years ago on the album:

https://clivebarkercast.com/2015/02/03/tuesday-tunes-unreleased-themes-for-hellraiser-by-coil/

Thanks to Clive Barker, Roman Pictures, Wikipedia, and José Leitao.