Review - Hellraiser pt 4: Hellraiser V-VIII (SPOILERS) | ryuuzaki's Blog

 

Hello, and welcome to the final part of my Halloween special Hellraiser review.  To recap on the previous few weeks, I first focused on the novella on which the series was based - The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker – which I truly think is a modern horror masterpiece.  From this, I moved onto the four films of the franchise that earned a cinematic release.  The first two of these – Hellraiser and Hellraiser II:  Hellbound were both very original and highly entertaining films that were very enjoyable to watch.  Although Hellraiser III:  Hell on Earth and Hellraiser IV:  Bloodline did further develop the plot threads of the first two films, they were particularly bad films.  The ideas that seemed to make sense in Hellbound became very confused and it seemed that the Cenobites were much more interesting creatures when we knew less about them.

 

So this week, I shall move onto the final four films of the franchise.  These movies were released directly to DVD, but surprisingly are largely more entertaining than Hell on Earth and Bloodline.  I say ‘largely’ as you will shortly become aware of the horror that is Hellraiser VII: Deader.  The important thing that you need to know about these four films is that they are largely stand-alone titles.  The only one that really refers back to the previous four is Hellraiser VI:  Hellseeker.  All the rest can be easily understood even if you only have a vague understanding of what the Cenobites and Lament Configuration are.

 

Anyway, let’s crack on with this review.  As you’ve probably guessed, there will be SPOILERS so you may want to stop reading now:

 

Hellraiser V:  Inferno (2000)

 

The protagonist of Inferno is one Detective Joseph Thorne – a man who is really good at solving puzzles but is otherwise an utterly irredeemable bastard.  Thorne beats informants, snorts cocaine, sleeps with prostitutes and neglects his wife and young daughter.  See, completely detestable man.

 

Anyhow, Thorne and his partner (Nenonen) are called to the scene of a brutal murder.  The victim is a man that Thorne went to high school with, although he professes to not knowing him that well.  At the scene, they discover the Lament Configuration and a severed child’s finger.  The finger is so freshly cut that they speculate that the child was still alive when it was removed.

 

Later that night, Thorne sits in a motel bathroom after sleeping with a prostitute and messes around with the Lament Configuration.  After opening it, he has a vivid nightmare where he encounters Pinhead and a handful of other Cenobites.  He wakes up and runs to work, leaving the prostitute sleeping.

 

While at work, he gets a phone call from the prostitute even though he did not give her his number.  She is terrified of something and it sounds as though she is being murdered while she is talking to him.  Thorne and Nenonen rush back to the motel to find the prostitute very dead and another child’s finger lying along-side the body.  Realising that he now has links with both murders, Thorne threatens Nenonen saying that he will frame him for the murder (effectively destroying his career and marriage) if he does not help to wipe down the motel room.  Reluctantly, Nenonen agrees to help.

 

Later, Thorne meets with an informant and is told that he has become the latest plaything of a psychopath known as the Engineer, who favours torturing his victims by attacking their friends and family.  Later, Thorne receives a video tape of the Engineer murdering the fore-mentioned informant.  The murder appears to be an amalgamation of the Cenobites that Thorne saw in his dream.  When he comes to show this tape to his colleagues he discovers that it is blank and begins to worry about his sanity.

 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Thorne eventually comes face-to-face with Pinhead and discovers that since opening the box he has been in his own personal Hell and the Cenobites have been torturing him for the horrible way in which he lived his life.  He also discovers that, no matter how he dies, he always wakes up back in the motel bathroom before the prostitute’s death.  Thus, he’s doomed to relive his hunt for the Engineer over and over again.

 

I must admit that I really like Inferno.  In fact, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Unlike the other Hellraiser movies which are straight horror-films, Inferno feels much more like a psychological thriller.  It’s still very nasty in places, but a lot of the violence occurs off-screen.  Although the twist is fairly easy to guess, it’s kind of nice for them to attempt a twist as the other Hellraiser movies didn’t really go in for this.  It was also interesting that, although I really despised Thorne at first, you actually start to like him (or at least feel sorry for him) towards the end when he realises all-too-late the error of his ways. 

 

The thing that I liked most about this was that the Cenobites barely feature.  They’re still integral to the plot of the film, but they’re once more mysterious creatures.  I felt that in focusing heavily on them in the previous two instalments, they lost some of their intrigue.  However, there are some problems with their portrayal.  The Hierophants of the Order of the Gash appear to have gone.  They no longer seek to educate people in their higher pleasures.  Instead, they’re here to dish out punishments to wicked people who solve the Lament Configuration.  Basically, although it was originally kind of ambiguous as to what exactly the Labyrinth was, it now appears as though we’re supposed to accept that it is a Christian Hell and that the Cenobites are just demons.

 

But still, in my opinion, Inferno is definitely one of the better Hellraiser films even though it is a little slow in places.

 

Hellraiser VI:  Hellseeker (2002)

 

As I already mentioned, Hellseeker is the only one of the direct-to-DVD releases that really refers back to the events of the first four films.

 

The protagonist here is Trevor, husband to Kirsty Cotton (the heroine of Hellraiser and Hellbound).  The film begins with them getting into a bad car accident and winding up in a river.  Although Trevor manages to escape, the car door locks behind him and he is forced to watch Kirsty drown.

 

Trevor then wakes up in hospital.  It seems that it is a month after the accident and Trevor has been having memory problems and headaches due to an injury his sustained in the crash.  He quickly discovers that his memory of the accident is flawed, as he told police that Kirsty drowned only for them to discover the car with both doors open and Kirsty nowhere to be found.  Thus, while the main detective believes that Trevor’s memories are just muddled; his partner is convinced that Trevor is lying and has actually murdered Kirsty.

 

Things also begin to get weirder for Trevor.  He remembers himself as being a loving husband to Kirsty and yet advances made to him by three women (his boss, his neighbour and his acupuncturist) begin to imply that he was having multiple affairs.  He’s also repeatedly approached by a colleague who talks about a plan that the two of them made together, though Trevor has no idea what this is.

 

Suddenly, the women begin to get picked off by Cenobites one by one, and when Trevor discovers an old business card that is labled “all problems solved” he begins to remember what really happened.  Trevor (like Thorne in the previous film) was a horrible bastard.  He was cheating on Kirsty and he had just discovered that Kirsty had inherited a fortune from Frank (see review for Hellraiser).  Therefore, he and his colleague from work intended to murder to Kirsty and claim this money for themselves.  It was around this time that Trevor was approached by the puzzle guardian and given the Lament Configuration.  Trevor forces Kirsty to solve it and (naturally) Pinhead appears to finally claim her soul.  However, Kirsty strikes a deal with him.  Five souls for her’s.

 

Naturally, Pinhead accepts, and Kirsty murders the three women and Trevor’s colleague.  The movie ends with the revelation that the final soul was Trevor’s and the cause of the accident at the start was really Kirsty shooting Trevor in the head.  The film ends with us seeing Kirsty walking away from the scene with the Lament Configuration in hand.

 

Stylistically, this film is incredibly similar to Inferno.  Although there are more Cenobites in this one (marginally) it is still more of a psychological thriller than a horror film.  Unfortunately, it is really too similar to the previous film.  The twist (that the protagonist has really been in Hell all along) is exactly the same and the influence of Jacob’s Ladder is far to obvious.  Yes, Jacob’s Ladder is a brilliant and iconic film but everyone rips it off – especially the hospital scene.  Sometimes, I wish that people would look a little further for inspiration.

 

However, my biggest problem with Hellseeker is Kirsty.  I liked her as a heroine in the first two films as I found her a realistic character.  She wasn’t insanely brave, but was willing to risk her life if it meant protecting the people that she cared about.  However, in this she’s totally changed.  Fair enough, Trevor intended to murder her, but why did she open the box?  Why did she willingly murder all those people (the women weren’t intending to murder her, after all)?  Just why?  It seems so out of character.

 

However, Hellseeker was fairly enjoyable and seems even better when you compare it to its sequel.

 

Hellraiser VII:  Deader (2005)

 

God, I don’t want to review this film.  I’d be happier pretending that it doesn’t exist…

 

The protagonist here is Amy Klein, a Gonzo-style journalist who has achieved popularity for her exposés of drug dens.  Her editor shows her a video tape of what he wants her to write her new article on.  The video shows the activities of a cult who call themselves “the Deaders”.  In it, she sees a young woman reject life by shooting herself in the head before the cult’s leader (Winter) seemingly resurrects her.

 

Thus, Amy travels to Budapest to meet with Marla (the last journalist to encounter the Deaders).  Amy discovers Marla dead in her apartment along with a video tape and the Lament Configuration.  The tape is a video of Marla warning whoever finds it to be wary of Winter and to neither solve the puzzle box themselves nor give it to him.  It also outlines how to contact the Deaders.  Naturally, Amy immediately solves the puzzle box and has a vivid vision of Pinhead warning her that she is in great danger.

 

Anyway, Amy locates the Deaders’ hideout and meets with Winter who explains how neither he nor his cult members can open the Lament Configuration but they desperately wish to do so.  He nearly influences Amy to join them but she manages to escape.

 

Later that night, Amy wakes up to discover that she has been mysteriously stabbed in the back with a very big knife and it doesn’t hurt at all.  Yes, that’s right, she’s somehow become a Deader.  So she returns to Winter who tries to convince her again (using visions of Amy’s abusive father) to take her own life and become one of them proper.  Before she can do so, the box randomly pops open and the Cenobites appear.  For some reason, it is revealed that Winter was a descendant of L’Merchant (see review of Bloodline) but this doesn’t matter as all of the Deaders are killed.  However, Amy does not want them to have her soul so kills herself to prevent the Cenobites from taking it.  The film ends with the editor sending another journalist out on the same mission.  Although this makes no sense to me, some fans speculate that he’s actually after the Lament Configuration for himself.

 

This movie sucks, plain and simple.  Firstly, it’s the only film that really has nothing to do with Hellraiser.  It’s like someone said “hey, we have this script for a crappy horror film.  Let’s add a puzzle box and a random reference to Bloodline and call it Hellraiser – then we can sell it better!”.  In fact, I expect that’s exactly what happened.  The Cenobites and the box are completely insignificant to the story and it’s never even explained why Winter can raise the dead – it’s sure not a power that the other of L’Merchant’s descendents have exhibited.  Personally, I would rather watch paint dry than see this film again.  Looking at the credits, it’s written by the same guy who wrote Hellseeker.   I already explained how this guy seems to have misunderstood the character of Kirsty.  Now he seems to have forgotten how the franchise works all together.  Thankfully, he did not write the film that I am going to review next, so here’s my views on the final part of the franchise.

 

Hellraiser VIII:  Hellworld (2005)

 

Hellworld provides us with an entirely different view of the Hellraiser universe.  A group of friends (Chelsea, Jake, Derrick, Allison, Mike and Adam) are all addicted to an MMO called Hellworld – a game that is loosely based on the events of the first film.  At the beginning, we see that Adam has become so addicted to Hellworld that he immolates himself to give his soul to the Cenobites.  At his funeral, his friends regret that they did not see this coming (though Chelsea and Jake seem more upset about this than the others).

 

Anyway, two years later they are still all playing Hellworld (for some reason) and win invites to a private party at a mansion that was supposedly designed by L’Merchant.  The mansion had been used for many things over the years, including an asylum, and contains many rooms (such as the swinging meat hook room) that we can imagine uses for later.  Anyway, the host of the party (played by the ever awesome Lance Henrikson) gives each of the attendees a mobile phone to communicate with other guests and a mask to hide their identities if they want to get it on with strangers.

 

So the party goes on.  I can’t really remember the sequence of events here but each of the friends gets separated.  Allison is virtually decapitated when the host traps her in some weird torture chair.  Derrick has an asthma attack and, while searching for his lost inhaler, gets decapitated by Pinhead.  Mike ends up in the fore-mentioned swinging meat hook room and we can all guess what happens to him.

 

Eventually, only Chelsea and Jake are left.  Chelsea tries to contact the police but discovers that although they can hear her they cannot see her.  Chased by Cenobites (including pseudo-cenobite versions of Allison and Mike) and a brutally burnt (Cenobite?  Ghost?) who they believe is Adam, eventually Jake sets on the idea that they’re only being hurt by these creatures because they believe in them.

 

They are awoken from this illusion when they are rescued by the police.  It seems that early in the party they were all drugged by the host who then buried them alive behind the house.  A mobile phone next to each of them was used to supply their subconscious with suggestions.  Consequentially, Derrick, Allison and Mike all died of fright (or fright-induced-asthma).  Only Allison and Jake survived.  It is also revealed that the host was actually Adam’s father who blamed the friends for the death of his son.  Chelsea wonders who could have contacted the police regarding their location (as the host has apparently fled the scene) and we briefly see Adam’s ghost watching them from the window of the mansion.

 

Anyway, cut to the host in a motel room.  While messing around with the Lament Configuration (which is son actually did own, it turns out) he manages to summon the Cenobites who promptly tear him apart.

 

Finally, as Jake and Chelsea drive away, suddenly the host’s ghost appears in the back seat of the car and almost causes them to crash.

 

Yeah, you may be able to tell that Hellworld is not the best film in the franchise, but it’s sure as Hell (no pun intended) better than Deader.  Basically, Hellworld is your run-of-the-mill slasher film.  The Cenobites barely appear and are out of character up until the end as they are just hallucinations in the minds of impressionable teenagers.  Although Lance Henrikson is (as always) brilliantly creepy as the host, it never really feels much like a real Hellraiser film because the atmosphere is just all wrong.  To appreciate it as a slasher film though, it is quite fun.  The twist was really out-there, and it was a lot better than the Friday the 13th and Halloween sequels.  It was nice to have a lot of the Chatterer around too.  Clearly, the TV was listening to my protests that we hadn’t seen much of the Chatterer since his “death” in Hellbound.  If you couldn’t guess, he’s my favourite Cenobite.

 

I know a lot of fans consider this to be the worst film due to the fact that it’s completely removed from the style of the other films.  To those fans I say “honestly, did you even see Deader?”.  Yeah, Hellworld is very different and isn’t the best of the Hellraiser films, but it’s very unique and an interesting twist on the universe.  Like Deader, it was also unnecessary and could have worked equally as well with the Hellraiser gimmicks removed, but I stand by my judgement as it was kind of fun.

 

Conclusion:

 

Anyway, that’s the end of my Halloween Special Review.  I hoped you enjoyed these four blogs.  With the exception of Deader, I enjoyed creating them.  I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween, and remember to support horror films by heading out to watch Saw VI when it’s released next week.  I know I will.

 

Just to finish, here’s my list of Hellraiser movies in order of enjoyment.  Your list may differ, this is purely my opinion:

 

Hellraiser

Hellraiser II:  Hellbound

Hellraiser V:  Inferno

Hellraiser VI:  Hellseeker

Hellraiser VIII:  Hellworld

Hellraiser IV:  Bloodline

Hellraiser III:  Hell on Earth

Hellraiser VII:  Deader

 

My mood: somewhat aggravated
My health: been better