10 Bizarre Horror Movie Choices (& Why They Happened)
2. The Ambiguous Setting - Hellraiser
The original Clive Barker novella on which Hellraiser is based, The Hellbound Heart, was set in England, and it's incredibly obvious that the first film was also shot in the UK, going by the architecture of the central house and the glimpses of the surrounding area.
Still, the film keeps its actual setting peculiarly ambiguous, never fully committing to a country, and muddying the waters further by having its cast speak with a variety of British and American accents. Some have argued that this ultimately detracts from the quintessential Britishness of Barker's story, because it's distracting to watch a film clearly shot in the UK, which makes reference to English villain Julia (Clare Higgins) being "back on her home turf," and yet features a weird, unexplained mish-mash of accents.
Ultimately, this wasn't Barker's original intent, but financier New World Pictures convinced him to give the movie a more vague, transatlantic setting in post-production, downplaying the British architecture in editing and even having several British accents re-dubbed into an American twang.
It's certainly a strange choice, albeit one that arguably only heightens Hellraiser's already profoundly "off" vibe from the jump.