| Overall Grade: |
D- |
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| Story: |
D- |
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| Acting: |
D+ |
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| Direction: |
D |
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| Visuals: |
D |
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“Hellraiser: Deader” has rigor mortis
by Zombiegrrl (movies profile)
Sep 17, 2006
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1 people found this review helpful
“Hellraiser: Deader” was a direct-to-video release for a reason – so that it can collect dust on video store shelves. In what may be the worst movie of 2005, “Hellraiser: Deader” proves that putting a pop culture icon in a film does not always improve it – and in some cases, doing so kills what could have been a passably good story.
Amy Klein (Kari Wuher) is a reporter for an underground London newspaper. Her editor shows her a tape – a group of young adults gathered in some type of ritual where one shoots herself in the head, then gets up covered in blood but seemingly none the worse for wear only a few minutes later – and sends her off to Romania to get the story.
Amy goes – and begins a journey to find out more about the bizarre, dangerous cult called The Deaders than she ever wanted to know. “Fear is where we go to learn,” is the memorable quote from the movie (one of the only memorable things about it) – but Amy learns more than she ever intended.
In and of itself, this creepy journey of a self-destructive but brilliant (and beautiful) journalist as she falls deeper into the situation – and questions existence itself – might be a morbidly interesting piece. Interaction between Amy and Marla (Georgina Rylance) – a Deader who wants out – are eerily well written and performed, and seem to capture the original feel of the film.
This original screenplay by Neal Stevens, however, was chosen to be the seventh in the “Hellraiser” series. Atop the already macabre and complicated plot, Pinhead (Doug Bradley) connected to The Deaders and the puzzle box of the “Hellraiser” mythos finds its way into Amy’s hands. This does nothing for the movie except muddle the plot and distract from Winter (Paul Rhys), who was surely an interesting bad guy in the original script.
Since the script was peppered with Pinhead after the original writing, Pinhead makes what is barely more than a cameo and the Cenobites are all but non-existent. Even the typically extensive gore is missing in this film, which, though still “icky,” pales in comparison to the previous six.
The worst news of all is that the eighth “Hellraiser” film is expected on video later this year. |
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