Plot
A journalist is sent to Romania to
investigate a group that call themselves the Deadites, led by a charismatic
leader who convinces people to kill themselves and states he can then bring
them back to life afterwards. One of her clues is the Lament Configuration
box, which she happens to open and her journey to hell and the world of the Cenobites begins.
Review
Another instalment of
the long-suffering Hellraiser franchise comes along which again seems to
simply cash in on the
Hellraiser name by offering us a stand-alone horror flick with a
brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it-cameo by
Pinhead and the Cenobites. It's no surprise to find out that this didn't
start off as a Hellraiser film and serves to only further the insult
made towards the original (and to a lesser extent the first sequel). I
applaud the attempts to take the franchise out of the gutter and restore
some dignity to the character of Pinhead but this isn't going to be the film
to do so. It's funny to think that the Hellraiser series has more or
less gone in the direction that John Carpenter wanted to take the
Halloween series - each film playing as a different entity with only one
connection to make between them, in this case being Pinhead. I'm not
knocking that idea, I'm knocking the execution of it.
The "is it real or isn't it?" approach of the last few
sequels continues with yet another weird and twisting film that attempts to
misdirect your attention numerous times in an valid ploy to confuse and play
with your mind. These films have progressively moved away from Clive
Barker's original vision and now focus more on the "real or not" plot which
is more in line with A Nightmare on Elm Street and it's "is it a
dream or isn't it?" stories. The nonsense factor has increased and now these
films are more about flashy effects and seeing how confusing they can make
the viewer feel. Far too many red herrings are thrown around to get the
viewer to question what they are witnessing. At times
there's so many flying around that it's like a fish farm. The script tries
to make itself sound important and give itself some direction but I bet
creative had no idea where the film was heading and just went with it. After
all, who needs a story when you've got dark rooms, dank back alleys and dim
corridors - sensing a theme here? Director Rick Bota has a decent visual
style, I'm not knocking that. The film is packed with plenty of grisly
imagery and there's lots of effective lighting and strobes. It's your
typical modern horror with lots of flashing, lots of quick cuts and a
frenetic visual style. He's not afraid
to splash the blood around either and there's a copious amount of naked flesh
during the train scenes. But they're not a substitute for scares. Or
cohesive story
or script for that matter.
It's clear that this was made as a separate horror flick but
some producer must have come along and thought they could make some extra
money out of it if they put in a few minutes of Pinhead and the Cenobites.
Their inclusion seems forced, unnecessary and at odds to the rest of the
story. They're an afterthought and a bad one at that. People knocked the
first few sequels for focusing on Pinhead as a central character. Whilst I'm
not for the guy getting oodles of screen time and being turned into some
cheesy Freddy Kruger wannabe, I still want to get my fair share of the guy.
After all, he's arguably the main reason why the original has spawned so
many sequels. He's such a cool, kick ass horror icon that he deserves
better. But once again the money men call the shots and Pinhead's cameo role
here is a cheap bait to fans of the series like myself who will continually
be suckered in watching them in the promise that we'll get more of him.
Kari Wuhrer wastes
her obvious talents in the clichéd role of the journalist who will do anything
for a story but she's still arguably the best bit of the film. Even poor
Doug Bradley looks fed up as Pinhead. His voice just doesn't have the same
gravitas as it once did and the dialogue he's given is meaningless drivel. I
want him to fire off some of his immortal lines like "We'll tear your soul
apart" and "No tears please, it's a waste of good suffering." He has sounded
more like a preachy old drunkard in the last couple of films and it just
damages his once-awesome character.
Verdict
It's hard to see what crowd
Hellraiser: Deader is supposed to appeal to. There's little Pinhead in
it for die-hard fans. The mind f**k approach for the THIRD TIME IN A ROW
will surely send other fans to sleep. And it's not that spooky or scary,
just plenty of glossy visuals instead of scares. Hellraiser: Deader does
exactly what it says in the title. Unfortunately this film was Deader than
the others.
