Overall Rating
  Awesome: 32.86%
Worth A Look: 34.29%
Average: 1.43%
Pretty Bad: 7.14%
Total Crap: 24.29%
3 reviews, 52 user ratings
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| Hellraiser: Inferno |
by Scott Weinberg
"Apparently it's just impossible to make good horror sequels."
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Once again, the producers behind all those 'straight-to-video' horror sequels refuse to simply to get a clue. I realize it would be inexcusable to merely copy the earlier films, but do the results ALWAYS have to be this interminably awful? If you're setting up a lemonade stand, you better make damn sure you got some freakin' lemons.Here's what I don't get: A studio goes to all the trouble of producing a new horror sequel, but time and again they simply refuse to acknowledge that these movies have fans and followers; people who love the series and will pretty much rent any movie with a number in the title. Hey filmmakers! THINK of these people when you do a sequel! Yeah, I know it's only Hellraiser we're talking about here, but this series is a perfect example of how to royally blow it.
The original Hellraiser is a classic; a bruised, bloody and hook-strewn gothic gore-fest. The fact that the original was also a funny and rather intelligent movie certainly factors into its ongoing popularity. An act of infidelity and blood-letting awakens an evil, which results in the arrival of Pinhead and his Cenobites.
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 was at least faithful to the themes and visual style of the original. In some ways, this sequel has an even larger (and bloodier) scope than the original, as the characters actually enter the domain of the Cenobites! While Hellbound lacks the stark, dark realism of the first film, it makes up for it in energetic and frequent gore scenes.
Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth is where things started spinning off-track. As it is, the third entry is a serviceable and pretty entertaining movie, but the holes were starting to show. New mythologies and characters were created, and the whole affair just seemed to be a framework for the 'Pinhead Stuff'.
Hellraiser 4: Bloodline vitrually destroyed the series beyond repair. Instead of focusing on the strong points of the earlier films (the Cenobites and their origins, the true evil that can only be done by humans, or just some plain old good carnage), this movie is instead a Creepshow wannabe anthology that takes place on a space ship! Um, were they drunk, stoned or simply insane? Didn't they try that in Leprechaun 4? Why ANY producer would decide to take a modern gothic horror tale and shoot it into orbit is just mind-bogglingly stupid. It's like proposing that the next Star Wars movie be set in Victorian times.
Hellraiser 5: Inferno is simply awful, and this is coming from a guy who usually likes all those cheesy horror sequels. This film honestly looks like a failed made-for-cable detective movie, only with two brief Pinhead appearances to book-end the movie. Now I'm not saying that a Hellraiser movie has to be wall-to-wall Pinhead, but heck - Someone plastered his nail-covered head all over the video box...so am I really expecting too much?
Any big Craig Sheffer fans out there? You remember Craig. He was the 'snotty rich guy' in Some Kind of Wonderful, and based on what he looks like now, his 'sex-symbol' days are over for good. Maybe it's just me, but Craig really looked like he was doing a drunk impression of Gary Busey throughout the entire movie. Add to that the fact that his character is a coke-snorting, prostitute-fondling, wife-ignoring, cash-stealin' alcoholic and all-around moody bastard, and what you're left with is one unpleasant protagonist.
The only other performer worth mentioning is Doug Bradley, Pinhead himself. His agent must have cut a sweet deal, since it's seems Doug put in maybe 55 minutes worth of work here. I guarantee that Pinhead appears in this movie for about 4 minutes, and even then it's just to preach and whine. That could be forgiven if we there were some cool replacement psycho monsters, but aside from two bland chick-zombies and a waddling torso, we're stuck in melodrama country here.
I would mention that Nicholas Turturro offers a surprisingly professional performance, but I doubt he wants me drawing attention to the fact that he was in this movie, so forget I said anything.I've given this lame-o movie more press than it deserves. Hellraiser 5: Inferno will irk and annoy fans of this series, and it will bore anyone else into a coma. Once again, the sequel-mongers have destroyed a series with solid potential, all in the name of a quick buck. Pinhead deserves a hell of a lot better than a cameo role in a third-rent cable movie.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=4579&reviewer=128
originally posted: 11/02/00 11:09:05
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For more in the Direct To Video Sequels series, click here.
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USA
03-Oct-2000 (R)
DVD: 19-Apr-2011
UK
11-Feb-2002 (18)
Australia
N/A (R)
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