Harry here with another horror franchise that is being beaten into submission by a studio without a clue how to develop these sorts of stories. God HELLRAISER started off with such promise... Remember that Stephen King quote? "I've seen the future of horror and its name is Clive Barker." Sadly, I see no future in Clive Barker right now. I've seen the future and frankly it seems to be LOVECRAFTIAN!
It's Enigma Boy again, and I just want to throw a little review your way. Through a friend of a friend, I came upon a video screener for the latest entry in the Hellraiser legacy, HELLSEEKER. The title is lazy, which sums up a great deal of the movie.
The latest one stars Dean Winters (who gets stabbed every now and then as Ryan O'Reily on OZ) as a guy who just lost his wife in a car crash/drowning. The body disappeared, however, and police are suspicious. Trevor (Winters) goes on with his normal life, but it continues to be anything but normal, as headache-induced hallucinations and flashes of memories thought forgotten fuck with his head. He keeps on seeing things, ranging from standard "Talking to a person no one else can see" to sexual encounters with the other women in his life, and, of course, the Hellraiser-expected torture sequences involving brains and chains. As the movie progesses, the odds are stacked up high against Trevor, culminating in him being wanted for the murders of at least three people.
I hate to say it, because I am not a big fan of the Hellraiser series, and even less a fan of straight-to-video horror movies, but the story is fairly clever. Yes, it is by-the-numbers, but it gives us information at just the right time, and we piece together the puzzle at the same time as the main character instead of being steps ahead, which often happens in movies such as these. The flashbacks slowly make a coherent backstory, only piecing together when is absolutely necessary for the plot. It's interesting to note that Trevor's amnesia only acts up when he needs to remember something important, but it all basically makes sense in the end.
The acting and directing, however, explains a great deal about why BLOODLINE was the last Hellraiser movie to hit American screens. It has no individual style, and looks and feels no different from any other piece of crap horror movie. Winters does the best he can, but when it comes to dialogue, the script comes up short, and he is left to utter complete nonsense with zero conviction.
An interesting thing to note is that this movie has barely anything to do with the actual Hellraiser mythology. This story could concern any member of hell or some other soul-seeking realm and it wouldn't make a lick of difference. The only thing that really makes it a Hellraiser movie is that goddamned puzzle box (which I'm getting sick of), the basic theme of hell wanting souls, and Pinhead showing up for about five minutes. Otherwise, this is a standard murder-mystery with some interesting supernatural twists.
I have a question for all involved in the making of this movie: when chains come out of the ground and latch onto your cheeks, ripping them down, all you can say is "Ouch" ?
Also, it seems to be a failure on the part of the movie when a dark shadow is following the main character, and all I can think is "I would be somewhat scared or at least concerned for Trevor if it were the police detective coming for him, but if it's a minion of hell, it'd be alright."
Overall, the hallucination bit gets old, and this really has no reason to be called HELLRAISER: HELLSEEKER, but it's not bad. If you are a fan, rent it come Halloween, but otherwise, spend your money on renting COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO again.
--Enigma Boy
