everyday is halloween

hellraiser infomercial [1987]

once upon a time i was a very rabid reader of horror fiction.  i haunted the horror section of bookstores.  read lots of stephen king, but my man at the time was clive barker.  his short story collections books of blood are the good shit.  then, i found barker's novella the hellbound heart published in the horror anthology series night visions guest edited by george r.r. martin.  i found this tale so terrifying i was not able to finish reading it.  but when i watched clive barker's first film hellraiser based on his novella i fell in love with barker's visions of damaged glamor, revulsion, desire, carnality, & the darkest desires created by the human heart.  i've seen this pic many many many times over the 35 years since its release.  but what i just discovered was this cheap ass infomercial embedded in the first printing of the VHS & Betamax videocassettes.  either the tapes that i rented back then didn't have this extra or i simply didn't pay that much attention once the movie was over.  the silliness of the voice actor hawking generic stuff, like a thermos with the word hellraiser affixed to it, & the old lady who introduces the informercial, is both the stuff of nightmares & material fit for a cartoon.  from what i've read about this goofy gag that it was real.  you could actually buy the goods for sale.  what an artifact from the good ol' 1980s, an era that saw the birth of late-night TV informercials [first infomercial i watched on late night TV was selling ant farms] & cable TV home shopping channels.  what's a little blood, flesh & chains between seller & customer?  as Pinhead would say, this shit will tear your soul apart! 

boo!