Hellraiser series

  • Hellraiser: Deader (2005)

    Hellraiser: Deader (2005)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) There are now ten films in the Hellraiser canon and Hellraiser: Deader is the seventh of them. As luck had it, French-Canadian horror channel Frissons TV had itself a merry little Hellraiser marathon from the first to the seventh instalment, and now that I’ve caught up with my DVR recordings, I have no intention of seeking out the later ones. To be entirely fair, Deader is not a completely terrible film. It has a few scattered ideas, some visual sense within the limits of its low budget and Kari Wuhrer in the lead as a journalist investigating a mysterious sect videotaped reviving someone from the dead. Originally written as an original script only to be retooled into a direct-to-video Hellraiser sequel, Deader shares far too many characteristics with the other members of the fifth-to-seventh instalments of the series. It has a halfway-promising premise half-heartedly retrofitted into the Hellraiser mythos (making the Cenobites irrelevant, and whatever “rules” the first instalments offered completely discarded), with some down-and-dirty low-budget visual style and lead characters that could have led to something better if anyone had been paying attention. Deader is branded as a “Stan Winston production,” but aside from a mildly effective scene in which the protagonist has to contend with a knife piercing her through the chest (somehow a survivable injury!), there’s not much here to do justice to the special effects legend. Like its previous two brethren, Deader does not scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of horror movies, but it’s still not that good and could have been better if not branded with the Hellraiser title—although, frankly, the entire series (now that I’m stopping at seven instalments) has specialized in wasting its opportunities. In retrospect, even the first film makes promises that it, let alone its sequels, never came close to fulfilling: there is something in its BDSM union of sex and violence that could have been profoundly unnerving but seems almost consciously toned down, either by the filmmakers’ incompetence, insufficient means, lack of audacity or a simple poor misconception of the potential they were handed. We’re left with half-formed ideas, bad special effects, no continuity of vision and what’s perhaps the biggest belly flop of the 1980s horror franchises. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the series still didn’t completely autodestruct by the fifth instalment, but I was going with very low expectations from the get-go.

  • Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)

    Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) Six entries deep into the Hellraiser series, we are now past the point of direct-to-DVD and into copies of copies of copies, and possibly scripts retooled to fit in the Hellraiser universe even if it doesn’t make sense for their stories. Hellseeker is, at its core, a somewhat unambitious horror film dealing with visions and an existentially challenged viewpoint character. If it had tried to develop its own original mythology, it probably would have done better: The script does show a willingness to play with the nature of reality that goes beyond most horror narratives, and there are a few good moments in here. (It’s also notably more eager to embrace nudity and sexual themes at the borderline of erotic horror, which is not often done and even more rarely done well.)  But it’s when the film cozies up to the Hellraiser mythology that it becomes less and less effective. There’s no reason to bring back Ashley Laurence as the heroine of the first films, given how her character seems to have changed beyond any recognition. Pinhead is more pompous than even as he speechifies, and despite good foundational elements, the film feels cheap and unconvincing when it tries to put them together. Hellseeker ends up feeling like a substandard Jacob’s Ladder led by creators who don’t quite understand how to use those elements effectively: it’s as nihilistic as a bad noir film without much in terms of thrills along the way. But it’s its mercenary association with the Hellseeker series that kills it off—we may have respected an original film treading the same grounds, but tying itself to a series only makes it feel even less competent.

  • Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)

    Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) With Hellraiser: Inferno, the Hellraiser series takes a dive to the direct-to-video realm and (lower budget oblige) has to settle for something like a “Tales from Hellraiser” episode rather than provide a satisfying expansion to the series itself. Still, by direct-to-video standards, Inferno doesn’t do too badly: As a tale of a corrupt detective gradually realizing the depth of his depravity thanks to Pinhead, the Puzzle Box and a complete set of hallucinations, it makes a better-than-average use of available mythos elements. The plotting ambitions of the film are kept firmly in check, and you can argue that Inferno would feel far more interesting had it been kept separate from the Hellraiser title and mythos. Horror fans will note that this was Scott Derrickson’s feature-length directorial debut—which would lead to much better things later on. Otherwise, there isn’t much to add—a good chunk of Inferno feels like a slightly better direct-to-DVD horror film of the time, not unwatchable but not especially memorable either. It’s a step down from the theatrical Hellraiser films, but not a complete debacle.

  • Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)

    Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) It’s easy to measure Hellraiser: Bloodline’s ambitions against the means at its disposal and condemn the result. But compared to other films in the series, its ambitions become one of the best things about it, even if the low-budget (and considerable behind-the-camera drama leading to “An Adam Smithee film”) doesn’t allow it to fulfill those ambitions. For one thing, this is probably the most mythology-heavy instalment in the series, as it explains how the Lament Configuration (i.e.: The series’ iconic Puzzle Box) came to be in 1769 Paris, follows the current-day setting of the series as left off in previous film, all the while being narrated by a descendant of the characters in a 2127 space station. It’s a bold expansion of scope, but the film doesn’t do much in terms of cross-linking the eras: it’s mostly a historical prologue and futuristic framing device/third act for the current-day story. There’s a mildly interesting contrast between old-school seduction of the innocent versus modern-day BDSM-tinted depictions of hell, and the film concludes with a definitive happy ending of sorts, the threat having been exterminated from existence. No wonder, then, if Bloodline was the last of the series’ theatrical releases, the last to feature creator Clive Barker’s credited input and the last to get mildly positive (if often mixed) reviews from fans of the series—the following six instalments would be sent straight to video and become steadily less interesting along the way. Now, Bloodline doesn’t get a free pass on the sole strength of its more ambitious storytelling: the film is often surprisingly dull, with genre formula popping up even in the most unexpected places. (Hellraiser was faaar from being the only horror series to go to space.) Even with more imaginative ambitions, Bloodline also manages to be less unnerving than much of the previous films, which feels like a wasted opportunity. Still, if forced to choose, I find that there’s more to chew on in Bloodline than any of the other films in the series. Underdelivering on promising material, after all, has been a fixture of the series since the earliest film—At least Bloodline starts with more ideas than the other instalments.

  • Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

    Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) Even if Hellraiser III manages to run with the very last moments of Hellraiser II and much of its thematic content, this third entry clearly marks a shift in the series. The main narrative of the first two films is abandoned along with its protagonist, and the emphasis is placed on showing more of the Cenobites in an urban environment. The usual “raising of the dead by blood sacrifice” eventually leads to an entire nightclub being killed or possessed, and a few scenes set at night in downtown Generic City, USA. The plotting feels much closer to any other horror film of the time, and the place reserved for the gore clearly shows how the film aligns itself with the expectations of the genre horror fans. (New director, moving production to the United States and a takeover by genre-focused studio Dimension will do that.) Parts of Hellraiser III are better than you’d expect, especially for the third instalment of a series that is slowly becoming worse at each instalment. The subplot about Pinhead being a British officer fighting to regain his humanity is developed from the previous film, as is the somewhat underwhelming “pillar” that appears at the very end of the second film. The nightclub massacre, as gory as it is, finally shows what happens when the series goes all-out in its flesh-tearing horror—and the showdown in the city streets outside, as limited as it is, finally expands the series outside the walls of its previous settings. On the other hand, Hellraiser III can be frustratingly generic at other times, running through the motions of a formula horror narrative. The best thing you can say about it is that while it’s slightly less interesting than its predecessor, it’s not yet bad enough to stop watching the series. But just wait.

  • Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

    Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) While most people associate the Hellraiser series with the grotesque Cenobites (including the pinheaded series icon), the first film doesn’t have them on-screen for long—it’s mostly about the teenage protagonist’s creepy uncle being resurrected from the dead by blood sacrifice. Sequel Hellbound tries to have more of the Cenobites and develop the series’ hellish mythology without losing track of the first film’s overall plot. Here, our teenage protagonist (Clare Higgins, as cute as in the first film) does her best to reunite with her dead father, and gets the means to literally go to (a) hell in order to pursue him, despite the efforts of her murderous stepmother, reborn through the series’ usual blood sacrifices. In trying to play with a mythology invented by someone else (Clive Baker only being peripherally involved in this instalment), director Tony Randel manages to deliver a thoroughly average horror film—while there are a few effective moments, especially in the first half of the film when the evil stepmother makes a skinless entrance, Hellbound is watchable without being particularly compelling… which counts as a failure given the fascinating untapped possibility of its premise. The moment-to-moment cohesion of the film is also frequently dodgy, given how it seems to skip from one visual set piece to another. Compared to other late-1980s horror movies, Hellbound is not bad—but the expansive nature of its premise means that the special effects limitations of the time do prevent the film from reaching its fullest potential. There are at least half a dozen supernatural horror movies of that era that are simply better in every respect. Although, after watching the subsequent instalment in the series, I’m surprised to note how much material introduced in Hellbound pays off in the next movie.

  • Hellraiser (1987)

    Hellraiser (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On VHS, May 2001) As with many horror film, Hellraiser‘s potential exceeds its actual execution and leaves us wanting a better film. The characters are drawn in a realistic, rather than iconic fashion, but unfortunately they come across as unsympathetic, not authentic. The featured creatures are uniquely designed and their origin hint at some wild cosmology, but unfortunately, they’re used in the context of a more ordinary story that does the job without actually reaching its full potential. The early-eighties special effects are showing their age. Of more interest to horror fans and scholars, but not worth the while for everyone else.

    (Second viewing, On Cable TV, June 2019) It was time for a rewatch, after nearly two decades’ worth of additional experience in horror movie-watching. (If I recall correctly, my first viewing was affected by a very bad VHS copy that visibly degraded as I was watching it.)  It’s not that I completely dislike Hellraiser — it’s that the film never quite manages to reach a good chunk of its potential. It’s got good iconic villains, an intriguingly baroque moral system, a wonderfully perverse attitude, some truly stylish visuals, and better-than-average writing from Clive Barker. It’s also quite a bit more unpredictable than most horror films, either then or now. But despite those sizable assets, Hellraiser never fulfills its potential — it spends too much time in less-interesting subplots, doesn’t fully dig into its mythology, and doesn’t quite know what to do. The disappointment is all the more striking in that the sequels never measure up to it either. Maybe a remake will get it right some day.

    (Third Viewing, On Cable TV, February 2020) Given how I managed to get all of the first four Hellraiser movies onto my DVR, the next step was to revisit the first film once more.  In rewatch, Hellraiser is both more and less what I expected. On the upside, it’s significantly more original than most horror movies of the time. The supernatural component is always more interesting than some psycho with a knife, and this one benefits from imaginative creature design, as well as taking inspiration from extreme S&M rather than more prosaic true-crime horrors. Much is left to the imagination, which is where the film becomes lesser than remembered: not much background is given to the creatures except for a few cursory lines. Much of Hellraiser in fact, is dedicated to another plotline entirely, with a victim of the puzzle box being regenerated from the blood of his lover’s victims. The cenobites themselves are there for a few minutes—the rest is perverse family horror. I quite liked Ashley Laurence as the heroine trying to discover the strange shenanigans in her father’s attic, although that may just be my preference for curly-haired brunettes. Opposite her, Clare Higgins impresses with a deliciously evil role. But the stars of the show are the Cenobites and their barely sketched presence—no wonder the film led to a number of sequels.