THE Single best Hellraiser Film.

I rented this movie after reading many negative reviews and I'm glad for it: I was extremely surprised.

Despite its low budget, it was an excellent sequel and more psychologically terrifying than any of the other entries thus far. The first film was obviously more startling since it introduced the entire notion of the Cenobites, but this is truly a worthwhile (and, I have to agree with the original poster, it is the best) entry in the series. In this film, there is a kind of wish-fulfillment/Divine retribution thing happening when the Cenobites appear, as it was in the original. In many of the other sequels they degenerated into nothing more than campy goreheads, spouting out one-liners before dragging off whoever happened to be passing by to Hell.

I also don't buy the argument that the Cenobites were never meant to be delivering justice; the entire Hellraiser series is based on Catholic/S&M imagery and ideas, and "punishment" is certainly not an idea foreign to anyone who practices either. Besides, Pinhead's costume alone is clearly based on a priest's vestments, for cryin' out loud!

In my mind, the Cenobites have always represented the truth behind the ancient axiom "Be careful what you wish for."

This is an excellent film.

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I agree, any one who dosn't think this is one of the best in the series has no imagination... It was one of the most atmospheric horror films i've seen in a long time, and the first one in ten years or so to have me on the edge of my seat and jumping.
The low budget was good for this film, as most of the nasty things happening weren't on screen, or were heard as sound effects, so it all happens in your head.
Also, I think this film would have held up with out being a Hellraiser film... It didn't need pinhead or the box or the chains, but they were used well, (except the scene where pinhead first reveals himself, that was pretty lame) and it does fit the whole mythos of the series, 'Angel to some, Demon to others' and 'It's not the hands that do the calling...' The detective is a bad guy, and one he's got the box/door there's nothing to stop the cenobites coming and giving him what he wants... He might not get pleasure from his own suffering, but he certainly gets it from others, and those that open the door looking for suffering become Cenobites, those that open it looking for others suffering don't, and get hell instead.

The best? I don't know... It certainly had flaws (I mean that "NOOO!!!" cry at the end. Why do filmmakers do that!!! I have never seen it work...) and although I tend to destroy other films for their flaws I have always been forgiving to the horror genre. My earliest film memories of the holy-grail-esque, enticing, just-out-of-reach, forbidden fruit that horror movies were when I was a child are so dear to me. The flutter of fear combined with the excitement that I was watching something I wasn't suppposed too - about to see if all the rumours I heard about each one were true. The utter pleasure of finally being enveloped by the experience and knowing the truth of each horror movie and the shear inability to let the fear that each one brought tear me away from my prize.

The core of Hellraiser is that emotional state. This is why Hellraiser (movie and the Hellbound heart) was such a revelation to me. Horror has no place for morality - it just is. We take pleasure in the defication of flesh and sanity ... thats is the truth of the horror movie. So even a bad horror is a good movie. And a bad hellraiser movie is a great movie ... yup ... even III ... and if all else fails just put a camera on Pinhead for 90 minutes with his chains and soundbites and I'm a happy man! But the francise is MORE than Pinhead. More than the box. More than a concept of 'hell'. Its a reflection of this aspect of humanity that revels in very pleasure/pain conundrum that we all identify with as voyeurs of the depraved.

The reason that Hellraiser is one of the few horror movies that retains its power as I have grown further away from that easily frigthened child is that it raises that question - Do I actually understand in some sense what Pinhead is talking about? I abhor violence in reality. But enjoy it in the non-reality of film. So wait "There is no good (...) there is no evil...there is only flesh." Perhaps if morality was removed from my being I could understand the pleasure of a cenobite. Perhaps the existence of a cenobite is a pleasure that I can identify with and THAT is scary!!

I just watched it and I'm tingling. Sorry about the rant. Did Inferno miss the mark on pleasure. Well maybe. I think Joseph gets his pleasure but that the film doesn't successfully highlight this. It concentrates too hard on making a considered movie that shows the division between corporal sensual reality (or flesh) and conceptual space is an illusive one. That the very universe we live in is of our own construct and that we are the centre of that construct tryin to relearn what we forgot and solve the 'puzzle' we left ourselves to do just that. Perhaps what this film was trying to say wasn't moral at all. As Joseph is fueling his desire with his cocaine and his prostitute his so called 'pleasure' was empty - there was no enjoyment on his face. Just like the empty feeling that I had this evening when I over-ate and realised that what I decided was pleasurable was the root of my self-loothing and pain. This very scene included a musical clue - "this is the best of all possible worlds". Cenobite's aren't punishing Joseph ... He is. He is moralising and agonising. But they don't expect to solve the puzzle - they just play the game. A Gnostic reading of Inferno may suggest that the very fact Joseph constantly refers to being the centre of his own world means that HE is in his own 'hell' of his own volition. That his life IS his hell ... not a new realm created by the cenonites above (or indeed below) the 'normal' realm... Perhaps Pinhead is trying to be his ANGEL and set him free of the CHAINS that bind him to this 'hell' so that he can evolve and kill his 'king', his ego, his self... And realise the terrible truth that he is constantly running from:

That everything he experiences is exactly that way because he WANTS it that way, he DESIGNED it that way, he TAKES PLEASURE in being and BEING IS HELL. That is the best of all possible worlds for him. Hell/Flesh is what he wants ... hell/flesh is what he got. That is why one should be careful what they wish for... And the next time you watch a horror movie and feel that rush of satisfaction and pleasure as you witness something truly terrible remember to let the back of your mind hear those immortal words "What is your pleasure?"

This really is the best Hellraiser movie. It's really surprisingly well done, and I don't understand why it's rated so poorly. Probably because so many Hellraiser fans just want to see Pinhead. But if you take it for what it's worth, it's an extremely well done psychological horror, in the vein of Jacob's Ladder, Angel Heart, and Se7en. It's strange that such a good movie is just entry #5 in the Hellraiser series.

Such a shame that more people didn't see it or appreciate it.

The problem is this should not have been a hellraiser film. You could replace pinhead with anything you like (although pinhead is cool), and the puzzle box with drugs (like the ones he picked up from the crime scene), and you would not miss any of the two. The film then could stand on its own and get better recognition.

Anyone who dosn't like hellraiser series would not of liked to have seen this film, based on it being a hellraiser film. Especially as most of the other sequals were total and utter TRIPE. Who would want to see number 5 of anything (by different directors), it just gets cheep.

But i did like this film, and I'm glad i saw it, but then again I am not a particularly good fan of the other hellraiser films. I just watch them because they are nasty. I have watched a crap load of nasty films because they make me laugh. Hellraiser 3 is a classic with the fella using CD's as a weapon.

I do however enjoy films such as jacobs ladder and session 9, and have played silent hill 1 - 4. So that would probably sway my judgement of this film slighly.

This film gets a 7.5/10 for me. Nothing radicly new but a thought provoking film. Not so sure about the scene with the hands under the skin though... but :-D.

The hellraiser series should have stopped at 3 when they ran out of ideas though.

Oh and no more games... :-/

So many talk so much crap about Inferno I wasn't really sure what to expect, I was more than pleasantly surprised and of the Hellraiser movies I've watched I think I liked it the best. Maybe a lot of people don't like it because it doesn't fit the same mold as the other Hellraiser movies, in that it isn't clearly over the top fantasy type horror movie. It was a good look at another side of the Cenobite Hell that wasn't really covered previously, unless you include Frank's small little room in Hellraiser 2.