1) Hellbound - Really works as gothic horror. I love the early mental asylum setting and how that transitions into the world of the Cenobites. Has a lot of classic horror moments. The mattress scene is truly chilling. (8/10)
2) Hellraiser - The setup has some gaping holes (I never bought that the husband would be so oblivious to what's going on in his own house), but this movie has the strongest central story that derives just as much power from the human horror of the lengths that people are willing to go to as from the gore and the Cenobites. This movie deserves a lot of credit for introducing so many original ideas that eight more films (and a possible remake) would go on to draw from. (7/10)
3) Inferno - One of the most elaborate portrayals of Hell (or a Hell-like world) to have ever been filmed. I appreciate the filmmakers really breaking from the formula and trying something new with this. I feel like Hellraiser would work well as an anthology series full of stories likes this, showing people descending into their own personal Hells. (7/10)
4) Hellworld - Am I the only person who actually liked this movie? Lance Henriksen is a terrific villain and the best antagonist aside from Pinhead. For a while, I thought the movie was unraveling into nonsense, but the ending was actually extremely clever at tying everything together. (7/10)
5) Hell on Earth - The first two-thirds of this work quite well. There are couple sudden and frightening moments of horror as well as a deep sense of impending doom. And the idea of Pinhead being split into 2 parts after Hellbound is a good one that fleshes (!) out his character. But this movie falls completely flat in its final act. It just doesn't have the budget or the vision to deliver on the notion of Pinhead and the new Cenobites (who all look awful) attacking the whole city, and the movie becomes bloated and almost unwatchably atrocious. Still, it's decent horror. (5/10)
6) Bloodline - I certainly admire the ambition of this movie, but (like the final act of Hell on Earth), the low budget shows and really brings it down. And Pinhead kidnapping a child is just ludicrous. I do enjoy seeing familiar motifs unfolding in so many different settings and the ending of the chronology that it provides, but the production problems that plagued the movie and caused many important scenes to never be filmed make it incomprehensible. (4/10)
7) Hellseeker - As much as I appreciated the approach of Inferno, Hellseeker is pretty much the exact same movie despite being the very next one produced. On top of that, the digital effects are unimaginative and tacky. We've seen all of this better before. The only thing that works is the presence of Kristy, who shines in a twisted role that at least wraps up the movie in a way that is far more interesting that everything that precedes it. (3/10)
8) Revelations - This was, indeed, awful, full of terrible acting, cheesy dialogue, poorly-written characters, and a lousy new Pinhead. Revelations really feels like what it is: a quickly slapped together product that exists only so that the studio can retain the rights to the franchise. That said, I do think it has redeemable qualities: the practical special effects are actually quite good, and the movie produces sights of genuine, extreme horror unseen since Hellbound. And the twist about one characters' identity is pretty shocking. But all of that is only enough to bring this piece of garbage up from a 1 to a 2. (2/10)
9) Deader - I'm tempted to give this one point just for Kari Wuhrer's acting, which may be the best of the series. She has a strong presence in the lead role, but what occurs around her hardly even qualifies as a movie. I was not surprised to learn that the script for Deader was originally for an unrelated horror movie that was later reworked to add in Pinhead, because nothing about the cult and Pinhead coheres at all. The digital effects are poor. This is the kind of movie that is so lame that not once but twice the lead character suddenly wakes up to find herself in an unexplained, dangerous situation. I do not understand how anyone likes this movie as it's even worse than Revelations. (1/10)
"I am trapped in this body and can't get out" - Radiohead
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HellboundHero
10 years ago
It is believed that all the DTV movies except Revelations were initially unrelated to Hellraiser in the script/treatment phase. In some sense, Deader's problems are Inferno's. Inferno was written and directed by a devout Christian, and put his own moral spin on the mythology. The cenobites are not moral beings, and would not scold anyone for sinning. As silly as Hellraiser III is, it got one thing right, when Pinhead said "there is no good, there is no evil, there is only flesh". That's something a cenobite would say, because they encourage sin and depravity, they don't punish people for it. The things they do for their own amusement go far beyond a detective snorting coke and banging hookers.
I do like the movie though, it's well made and has a cold, unforgiving atmosphere, but it's even further from the mythology than Deader is. At the very least, the Deader cult seems to be after the pleasures the puzzle box promises.
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