Hellraiser: Inferno

Despite appreciating horror very much (with a lot of classic ones out there, such as 'Halloween', 'Nightmare on Elm Street', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'The Exorcist', plus the best of Hammer House of Horror), even if not my favourite genre, it took me a while to get round to watching the 'Hellraiser' franchise. Due to having so much to watch and review, and the list keeps getting longer and longer. The film that started the franchise off is not only for me by far the best of the 'Hellraiser' films it also for me, and quite a few others it seems, is one of the stronger horror films of the 80s, though not quite of all time. What is meant by being by far the best of the 'Hellraiser' films is that it is the only one to be above very good, the nine sequels were very variable (leaning towards the disappointing) and the latter films particularly are suggestive of the franchise having run its course. Found the second film to be by far the best of the sequels and tthird and fourth films to be watchable if problematic. It was with 'Hellraiser: Inferno' when the franchise took a turn for the worse, though much worse followed this. 'Hellraiser: Inferno' is actually one of the better post-'Hellraiser: Bloodline'. 'Hellraiser: Inferno' does have good things. If there is anything that is quite a bit better than 'Hell on Earth' and especially 'Bloodline' it is the acting in crucial roles, which by 'Hellraiser' sequels standards was not bad. Craig Sheffer was a decent lead and James Remar is solid in his role too. Cannot say anything bad about Doug Bradley who is still genuinely frightening in the little screen time he has. It also doesn't look too awful, some atmospheric scenery, above average effects, unsettling enough photography. The film begins very well, being suitably creepy. It at least makes sense too and there is a nice unnerving atmosphere. On the other hand, like others have said, one of the biggest problems is that it doesn't feel like a 'Hellraiser' film. Feeling more like a psychological/mystery/thriller with Pinhead and the Cenobites being thrown in in an afterthought fashion. This is further accentuated by that they are in the film far too little, they do work very well (as proven in the original) when mysterious and like catalysts rather than heavily focused on, and have next to nothing to do when they do appear. Pinhead's contribution is very memorable and he is still deserving of his horror icon status but the Cenobites have lost their creepiness and come over as goofy instead. As a film judged as a standalone, 'Hellraiser: Inferno' is problematic. The editing is a bit all over the place and the direction doesn't seem assured or in control or at ease with the material. The characters are underdeveloped clichés with unclear and sometimes frustrating motivations and the writing continues to be laughably bad and too heavily reliant on goofiness and camp that juxtaposes too much. The story does lack tension, suspense and any surprises, while there is far too much focus on the hallucinatory sequences which looked good but slowed down the film and that ambition, intelligence and creativity had disappeared almost completely by this point of the franchise and replaced by camp, predictability and schlock. What had potential to be a dark and unsettling film is let down by the above, lacking energy and that while not overusing the gore or horror elements it feels somewhat toned down. The ending is not an incoherent parody or anything but it did feel rushed to me and the music does not fit in either placement or tone. To conclude, didn't do much for me but far from the worst of the series. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I haven't seen too many of the Hellraiser films... I've seen the first, which I thoroughly enjoyed as a gory horror flick, and I've seen the second, which I found provided excellent comic relief, as everything was terribly overplayed and the poor script didn't help much either. So, I found this in Blockbuster, at a cheap renting fee, so I thought, what the heck, it might be entertaining. That isn't far from the truth... but why it is entertaining is possibly part of the problem with the film. I think it has a pretty good(no, scratch that; a very good) idea/basic premise... but the execution is flawed. The plot is somewhat good, and the pacing is OK. The acting is pretty standard... for a direct-to-video film. The special effects range, but are mostly fairly good. The gore is good, and some of the shocks work. But the film just suffers from so many problems... the plot is a mess. I didn't manage to keep track of how many times the main character wakes up and realizes that it was a dream... and the very ending... well, yes, it does make sense, but it just seems so... empty, somehow. The film is very low on actual scares. Like the second one, it's horribly overplayed and usually inspires laughter rather than fear. I kind of liked how the cenobites were played down in the story, like they were in the first one... these are not main characters of the franchise, not at all. They are the most well-known, sure, but not the main characters. The film is more about the main character facing his own personal demons, with the cenobites being there to clarify this... which is good. Only, much like the second, the cenobites didn't really scare me... they were seen too much, and didn't seem as powerful or terrifying as they did in the first. I liked how the film kind of was about this man finding himself in his own personal hell, but, once again, it just felt empty and wrong. There were far too many times where I found myself questioning the characters' actions and not understanding what was going on or why... not even after the film was over. In the end, you're just left with that feeling of "was that it?" and that's really quite a loss, even for a direct-to-video production. I did find this to be an OK entry to the franchise, but it's really only worth watching for those who want to see anything that has any relation to the Hellraiser series. I recommend this only to big fans of Hellraiser and fans of crime/drama/mystery/horror films, and, be warned, you might not like it at all... even if you are a very big fan of the franchise or of aforementioned genres. 5/10

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source: Hellraiser: Inferno

Admittedly I wasn't too sure of this movie at first Being a large Hellraiser fan, it upset me. The mythos had changed so much, the favourite characters had not been mentioned and the Cenobites were not very "Hellraiser-ish" But, after a few attempts I now LOVE this movie. I accept its individual and sways off the Hellraiser guidelines. But....... The series DID need a focus since the previous two movies screwed up the Hellraiser-lore. The acting was top notch and it was good to see a few familiar actors in it. All I can say is that this movie brought a classic horror series into the twenty-first century, and succeeded. Not many other horrors can claim that. Usually they are all just repeats of their predecessors. On a final note I loved this film, Story- 10/10 Acting- 10/10 Effects- 9/10 Makeup- 7/10 Hellraiserishness- 1/10

With 5 and 6 it really seems like someone presents a script to the studio and the studio goes "hmmm why dont we throw in 3 minutes worth of Hellraiser stuff and we can market this as a Hellraiser sequel?" These stories could almost stand on there own if slightly modified without any ideas from the Hellraiser world, Is the make-up effects budget so low for these filmes that they can only give the cenobites a few minutes of total screen time in the whole movie? I would love to see new sequels written from the start with the Hellraiser universe in mind, and not some cheesey cop/detective/gumshoe/who-dunit with sex scenes for the male demographic crap. And thats all I have to say about that.

Another Hellraiser film that maybe shouldn't have ever been filmed, let alone put into production. I think this because it lacks an interesting storyline and I didn't think there was enough Pinhead in the movie. He is an iconic character that should be at the focus of each and every film, not just show up every so often for a few seconds and then sneak off back to Hell. Obviously I'm prejudiced in the sense that I am a Hellraiser fanatic and have seen each film roughly fifteen times. Needless to say, this is simply just not on par with some of the other installments that we have seen. With that said,this film isn't the worst in the installment, but is somewhere in the middle. A good watch if you're not emotional invested into the franchise.

I really love Hellraiser 1, 2, and 3. But this one was really stupid. Pinhead is only in this movie a few scenes. The Cenibites arent in there that much either. I miss the Hellraiser theme song that was on the first, second and third one. The only part of the movie that I liked was the ending. The ending was pretty good. Pinhead just isn't the same. I'm really not sure if I should recommend this movie to anyone. But if you like horror movies or Hellraiser movies you MIGHT like this movie. There were some good gory moments in the movie.

This movie was quite possibly the best psychological thriller I have ever seen. The dirty cop living in his own personal Hell was a creepy and interesting plot. The way reality kept shifting and changing was a very scary idea indeed. However, the movie was not perfect: it would have been better off outside of the Hellraiser series, as the only real connection to the rest of the movies was the Lament Configuration (which seems to have changed its purpose from movie to movie.) The fact that Pinhead was in the movie for a total of about nine seconds proves my point. Great, great movie, but not perfect. At least it's better than Bloodline and still manages to stay more coherent than Hellbound.

Even though Bloodline was kind of a dissapointment, it still had enough good stuff to make it watchable. The fifth installment, Hellraiser: Inferno has even less good stuff than it's predecessor, making it less watchable. !!!POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!This time a detective finds the lament configuration from the first 4 entries and like the unsuspecting victims in the earlier films he opens it. However, he does not realize that he has been taken to Hell. He then begins to see demons(Including Chatterer in a new form and 2 female cenobites), dead bodies, and so on. Finally, he meets the master of Hell, Pinhead(Unfortunately, he doesn't help the film much since he seems out of place this time around). Good effects, a creepy atmosphere, and an o.k. ending, but slow-paced, terrible acting, and a predictable plot. ** out of *****. I here 6 is on the way. Let's hope it's better.