10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Hellraiser
3. The Studio Didn't Cut What You Would Think
Hellraiser has some of the most unsettling imagery seen in a movie during the 1980s. It depicts people being ripped to pieces, a skinless corpse consuming its victims, a woman making out with that very same skinless corpse, etc.
If you thought those moments were gruesome, could you imagine what was left on the cutting room floor? However, the film made some cuts you wouldn't expect.
Obviously, there were a couple of scenes that were carefully edited to avoid an X rating including shots of fingers penetrating a body and a character being bludgeoned to death. However, the censor board were more concerned with the sex scenes, forcing the removal of a spanking shot and limiting the amount of "thrusts" Julia performed while getting down to business with Frank.
Unfortunately, the producers thought the film had another problem - they couldn't understand the actors' British accents. When it was decided Hellraiser would be released internationally, the studio had half the cast redubbed with American dialects, so viewers in the US could understand them better. Sadly, there is no cut available with the actors speaking in their original accents.