Okay, my major complaints first: Pinhead's costume keeps changing slightly. It no longer looks as atmospheric and detailed as it did in the first two, plus the designs have changed. Pinhead's makeup looks gravelly - where did the weathered face come from? People are raving about the cover art - why? It's the picture off of the back cover of Inferno, you've seen it before! You know a series has gone downhill when the company changes the title logo. Dimension's all about money, they don't care about the integrity of a film. Rick Bota should seriously go back and re-watch the first two films (obviously the best in the series) if he's going to continue making entries. I'm getting tired of these films looking so washed out (as is the style in almost every horror movie anymore, especially those from Dimension). The puzzle box animation looks totally fake and inconsistent - one minute it's computer animated, the next it's obviously a guy under the table working it. There is cover art for Hellraiser: Hellworld on an ad in the slipcover of the DVD; looks just as cheesy.
Onto the story: A flaky shock journalist who should be writing for tabloids is sent to Romania (let's waste money to shoot on location!) to investigate a story on "Deaders" - people who kill themselves and then are brought back to life by a guy who is apparently related to LeMerchant, the maker of the Lament Configuration (the puzzle-box) who expects the resurrected to follow him blindly. Pinhead's presence in this film is totally unnecessary. He's supposedly PO'd that Winter (the resurrector) is dabbling into the other side of death, which is rightfully Pinhead's domain. Director Rick Bota openly admits that the original script was just "Deader," and not written as a Hellraiser entry. Yay for commercialism and milking a franchise for all it's worth! Doug Bradley, as always (except part 3 probably, that was ridiculous), delivers a likable Pinhead performance, and the finale is a definite throwback to the earlier films (probably the best part). This movie was meant to be about an underground resurrection cult and Pinhead was thrown in to tag on the Hellraiser name. Thank God Kirsty wasn't included because her story's been beaten to death and she already settled things with Pinhead in Hellseeker. Please no more "this is what YOUR Hell is like" stories! It's worth a watch or two if you're bored. You want real horror with an actual plot, watch the first two.
Onto the story: A flaky shock journalist who should be writing for tabloids is sent to Romania (let's waste money to shoot on location!) to investigate a story on "Deaders" - people who kill themselves and then are brought back to life by a guy who is apparently related to LeMerchant, the maker of the Lament Configuration (the puzzle-box) who expects the resurrected to follow him blindly. Pinhead's presence in this film is totally unnecessary. He's supposedly PO'd that Winter (the resurrector) is dabbling into the other side of death, which is rightfully Pinhead's domain. Director Rick Bota openly admits that the original script was just "Deader," and not written as a Hellraiser entry. Yay for commercialism and milking a franchise for all it's worth! Doug Bradley, as always (except part 3 probably, that was ridiculous), delivers a likable Pinhead performance, and the finale is a definite throwback to the earlier films (probably the best part). This movie was meant to be about an underground resurrection cult and Pinhead was thrown in to tag on the Hellraiser name. Thank God Kirsty wasn't included because her story's been beaten to death and she already settled things with Pinhead in Hellseeker. Please no more "this is what YOUR Hell is like" stories! It's worth a watch or two if you're bored. You want real horror with an actual plot, watch the first two.