MovieChat Forums > Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) Discussion > What IS a Hellraiser movie?

What IS a Hellraiser movie?

posted 13 years ago by SteveH2002
17 replies | jump to latest

I've been watching the series over the last few months, reading the boards after every one, and since the second one I've read at least one person says "this isn't a Hellraiser movie".

After Bloodlines I gave up on trying to figure out what is and what isn't a Hellraiser movie. I guess if I was forced to give a definition I'd say it's a Hellraiser movie if it bears just a passing resemblance to the 1st one, has Pinhead in it somewhere, and there's a headshot of Pinhead on the dvd cover.

[–] Elphie_Tiggular 13 years ago

I'm not sure I can answer for everyone...but personally, for me; a Hellraiser film has a certain feeling about it...a certain quality. It feels almost like a fairy-tale...albeit a rather demented and deranged fairy-tale, but still a fairy-tale. Good Vs. Evil. Heaven Vs. Evil. Etc. Etc. It should leave you with an almost dirtied or sullied feeling...as though you've touched something unpleasant. It should leave you with a nasty taste in your mouth...and feeling hopeless. It should leave you feeling the fear of eternal damnation and entrapment.

A true Hellraiser film should also involve and respect the original Hellraiser mythology, rather than simplify the Cenobites as virtually secondary characters!

This particular film has the quality and feeling of a regular and rather typical teen-slasher film...especially with its themes of revenge and redemption. Whereas, a Hellraiser film should leave you feeling helpless and realising that Good doesn't always conquer Evil, that there isn't always redemption for our sins, that there's a terrible price to pay for what we want, and that there is isn't always a happy ending...

At least...that's my interpretation of a true Hellraiser film! Lol.

ELPHABA: Eleka Nahmen Nahmen Ah Tum Ah Tum Eleka Nahmen.

[–] SteveH2002 13 years ago

Thanks Elphie. I tend to agree, esp about the centering of attention on Pinhead and the Cenobites. I think the series moved away from them quite a bit, especially after the first three or four movies. After that they seemed most often used as observers and commentators on events. Not participants.

[–] dreamsip 12 years ago

There's a reason for that. Inferno and Hellseeker were initially written as original IP's with no Hellraiser connection whatsoever. The Cenobites, box, et al were written in to turn them into "hellraiser" movies, thus increasing their marketability. I don't know about this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here, too.

[–] keith-kanderski 10 years ago

"A true Hellraiser film should also involve and respect the original Hellraiser mythology, rather than simplify the Cenobites as virtually secondary characters!"

In the original two Hellraiser films, Kirsty and Julia were the main characters and the Cenobites (including Pinhead) were secondary characters. It wasn't until the horrible third film that the Cenobites and Pinhead actually started getting some main screen time.

[–] Elphie_Tiggular 10 years ago

Well...no, really. That wasn't my point. I wasn't talking about screen-time...but rather mythology. I like to believe that Kirsty and Julia are actually secondary to the box. That's what the story is really about...Lemarchand's box, and therefore the mythology of the Cenobites. The box is an important constant throughout the films, and anyone who encounters the Lament Configuration could be seen as playing secondary to the box.

So, in context of what was asked (what makes a Hellraiser), I was merely saying that for me, the Cenobites should be respected and portrayed as indeterminable forces of the box, and not played as typical slasher-type bogeymen Vs. typical everyday teens.

ELPHABA: Eleka Nahmen Nahmen Ah Tum Ah Tum Eleka Nahmen.

[–] pugsonthemoon 12 years ago

Well, I think the problem is this: 5-8 weren't written to be Hellraiser films. They were scripts that the production company already owned. Someone just rewrote them as fast as possible with Pinhead and the Lament Configuration tossed in. This fact really shows itself in these films. They don't feel like Hellraiser movies and Pinhead just doesn't seem to fit as well at he should.

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[–] SteveH2002 12 years ago

5-8 weren't written to be Hellraiser films... They don't feel like Hellraiser movies and Pinhead just doesn't seem to fit as well at he should.

So you'd drop 5-8 from the canon?

I know what you're saying - after Bloodlines it felt like Pinhead and all the mythos he drags around with him was relegated to guest star status. I'm not sure if that change of focus violates what Hellraiser is all about or not - despite watching the entire franchise in order, I never felt I had a firm grasp on the character.

[–] HellboundHero 12 years ago

What some of the movies lack are the themes of sadomasochism, desire, and desensitization. In the Hellbound Heart, Frank is a hedonist who is bored with Earthly pleasures and seeks out the Lament Configuration because it's said to unlock pleasures from beyond the limits. The cenobites offer just that, but their definition of pleasure doesn't exactly match Frank's.

Some of the movies forget what the cenobites do or why people seek out the box, or they only make token references to them without it having any real relevance to the plot. The dtv movies are guilty of this, I think.

[–] froghawk 12 years ago

But the first movie in the series was the only one to do this. That's also what makes it the only good one.

[–] HellboundHero 12 years ago

The first three sequels all involve those themes, though to a lesser degree with each successive movie. At the very least, they didn't paint the cenobites as punishers of sinners. Inferno is a better movie than III and Bloodline, but those two are better at being Hellraiser movies.

[–] gohmifune 9 years ago

The fourth one does too, with the summoning of the female demon used as a sex slave.

[–] BHt88 9 years ago

it isn't it just "has" the "hellraiser" title on it
they just took a movie some guy wrote put "pinhead" in it
added torture/sex/a teen party and slapped a "hellraiser" label on it
*this is a saw/hostel 2/I know what you did last summer like movie

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[–] master_of_all 12 years ago

I always thought they should be little morality, horror tales. Like a darker Tales from the Crypt. With Pinhead as the Cryptkeeper.
Keep cenobites to a minimum, like the original. That was all Frank, Julia and Kirsty.

I loved 5. That was perfect, a bad guy creating his own hell without knowing. It wasn't the goriest but the box is tailored to different people so I didn't mind. It's still far spookier than other.

[–] rbf08 10 years ago

I'd like to think of a true Hellraiser film as one that exhibits sin. Not condoning or punishing sin, but rather expressing it. The beauty in them is that there is no happy ending.

If I were to pick ones that I felt should be cannon or at least on the level of being true Hellraiser films...

Part 1, Part 2, Bloodline, Inferno, and Deader.

Each of those films, sans Bloodline, kept a very surreal feel to them. Every actions outcome was often times both unnerving and off putting. The suspense is key. Hellraiser 3 felt like a run of the mill monster film. There was no suspense, just a monster that continues an onslaught on the protagonist. Hellseeker was too generic. More like a horror version of Momento. Hellworld felt like a Syfy original. The suspense in all 3 of those films was null. It just built up to virtually nothing. No real climax. No real value.

Don't even get me started on the remake. That film could have used any generic villain and would have worked just as easily as a low budget horror film.

[–] oldpantsnewjersey 10 years ago

I don't think the first Hellraiser film had any idea what it wanted to be, and none of the more direct sequels (2, 3, 4) did much to focus a narrative. After that, the best thing happened to the series--giving up and making Hellraiser more of an anthology. Most of the films sucked, but I found a couple to be OK.

[–] Lightman42 10 years ago

There are only 4 real Hellraiser movies in my book. 5 and onward are basically just attaching some of the themes of Hellraiser to stand alone stories that were likely not conceived as Hellraiser scripts. Hellraiser is an expensive concept, and the sequels naturally become bigger and bigger with each entry. It would be awesome if they made a new one that really picked up after the 4th one.

[–] The_King_of_Cool 8 years ago

Because it's called Hellraiser: Hellworld :)