Synopsis :
Seeking to distance themselves from the crappy third & fourth installments, New World elects to churn out the Hellraiser version of "Se7en." What's surprising is, to some extent, how close they came.
A cop starts finding weird murders connected to some master criminal that is apparently holding a child hostage whilst cutting off his fingers & leaving them at every crime scene.
Review :
There's two folks anyone might've heard of that have roles in this flick. There's Doug Bradley & the perennial Pinhead & Nic Tuturro (from NYPD Blue) in a supporting role. That's it. There's no one else. No producer, writer, actor, editor, or anyone else you've ever heard of. Maybe a producer, but that's it. This is the fifth Hellraiser, which did mean "straight to video" release. Probably cos the last two sucked so bad. If rereleased this Halloween, this fucker could've garnered some cash. It sure as fuck beats the hell out of any entry in the Saw franchise.
While this was obviously shot on a small budget and doesn't age terribly well, it is still a film that engages your brain much more than ____ is the title of any movie series with four sequels. The writing isn't Oscar quality, but it's not all that bad. The special effects makeup elicit a creeping horror after the initial shock is over, which was a huge part of the first Hellraiser. The directing is pleasantly competent. The acting, however, is not the best. Some of the lines don't make it any easier. Hack actors reading hack dialogue routinely kill any real momentum that gets going. But doing times of action and no talking, the film is watchable.
Whoever the hell wrote & directed this flick got it into their heads that turning Pinhead into another supervillain would've been death. They figured out that he should be a peripheral figure in someone else's story. The dialogue gets bad at times, but the story itself is alright. It actually looks like time was spent trying to make the film not suck. If there is a weak spot, it's the protagonist's acting. Whatever no name dude they got, he did a passable job. But he couldn't carry the story by himself as his presence isn't quite that commanding.
Verdict : 2.5 stars. Not great, but a billion times more than you'd expect from the fifth entry of any horror series. If you've got an evening to kill, you could certainly do worse than renting this sucker.
Edited By Malcolm on 1162406480