Hellraiser: Judgment

Seen every movie in this franchise, my fun ended with the third part for obvious reasons. With every following sequal i had my hopes up, just to be dissapointed again and again.

When i saw this trailer my hope started to flicker again. The trailer was what i was hoping for. So i started watching this one while being curious and eager.

The bottomline is that this is not the entry we hope it is. But it isnt as bad as some of the entries either. Basiclly its those last 20 minutes you want and for that youll have to go through 60 minutes of scenes full with nonsense, boring set pieces and a lot of typing. If you find yourself at the end of that boring, long road youll get to experience just a little of the old vibe. And although not the strongest bits in the series, satisfying nonetheless.

The end creates chances for another weak entry or even a reboot. All in all i would hope they would for once invested a big budget in this franchise. All those little snacks here and there doesnt make for the meal we are so hungry for.

I didnt expect anything before seeing this. My faves are the second one and Inferno (the latter for the production quality & story). This one isnt actually bad - while there is no Doug Bradley - the story isnt tooooo bad, there is a pretty lame twist however leading up to that the acting & story are OK. The premise is that there is some kind of hellish bureaucracy sending sinners to a tormented hell and Pinhead appears to be a senior middle manager in that arrangement. there is a bit of gore, the actors at the start are new and quite exciting. There are some fairly gross bits that go beyond normal Hellraiser gore too. Not bad overall and this one has a better look and feel than its budget suggests.

If you think showing several women's breasts, blood everywhere and gross vomit is enough of an excuse to make a horror movie? you're wrong the plot was predictable, not enough emphasis on the scariest thing..the Cenobites, and just simply stupid

dont waste your time

...originally based on works by Clive Barker, from Dimension Films and writer-director Gary J. Tunnicliffe. Cops Sean (Damon Carney) and David (Randy Wayne) search for a serial killer known as the Preceptor, but their investigation takes them to the very gates of Hell.

When it comes to these long-running horror franchises, the rights-holding studios have to make at least one new film every few years or risk losing the rights. This results in some truly awful films, cheaply made and rushed through production just to beat a deadline and meet a legal requirement. This is just such a movie, as have been the last several in this once-groundbreaking series. The first two films rank among the best horror films of all time, but starting with the third (when Dimension Films starting producing them) they've gotten progressively worse.

This newest film may be a tiny bit better than the atrocious previous entry (2011's Hellraiser: Revelations), but it's still terrible, with vague characterizations, bored performances, and a distinct cheapness to the production that undercuts some of the attempts at world-building. This story attempts to expand a bit on the bureaucracy of Hell as hinted at in the second film, namely with new character The Auditor, played by the director. He actually gets more screentime than series hallmark Pinhead, although he's not as impressive, and looks like the hell-cops from Highway to Hell (1991). In summary, all but the most die-hard fans should avoid this often dull and pretentious latest movie in the series.

I'm a fan of Clive Barker, first and foremost. My favorite books from him are The Books of Blood and Weaveworld, but I quitre enjoyed The Hellbound Heart (which the first Hellraiser film is based on). So if anyone should be overly critical, it would be myself and fans of his literature. That stated, this film is as close to Barker's world have got except for the first film. It certainly tops the sequels (in my opinion) and it's imagery is absolutely stunning. Gary Tunniclife has passion behind the camera for sure. You can tell he knew exactly what he wanted to do, which being the film's director is kind of a requirement (they call it a vision) but unfortunately there a ton of films with directors that seem to not have one or they are only worried about finishing the film on time, making money, make it look "just good enough". And with this type of film, the tenth I believe in the series, it kinda deserves that but no...not this film. The craftsmen/women and artists that made this film wanted to make it the very best they could and with a limited budget (limited is an understatement - it was roughly 350k it says on imdb) they succeeded in a way words can't really describe. Paul T Taylor as Pinhead I believe stole the show (duh). He is an amazing Pinhead and should (but won't always) make the fans rejoice. There is quite a bit of biasm (some may say loyalty) towards Doug Bradley, and he is great as Pinhead, but Mr. Taylor is right up there and he seems to relish the role giving it the due dilligence it deserves. No matter how good he was it was also the excellent storytelling that utilitzed him the way you're supposed to with Pinhead...sparingly. Like little pinches of salt and pepper, just here and there. I found myself really liking the Auditor (the director of the movie). I noticed I looked forward to him and Pinhead and when they came back into the film I wasn't disappointed. They were a great team. I have only two real problems with the film and that was 1) it did lack a sense of the romantic edge that the first Hellraiser had...A woman luring men to a cellar to kill them and reanimate her dead lover is a pretty fantastic and somehow romantic angle. Barker's work has a sick and twisted romance to it... Hellraiser Judgement's subplot was a serial killer (heavily inspired by Seven) and I believe I had even seen this in an earlier sequel. That romantic horror is absent. 2) I'm sure I would get some harsh remarks for this but...the female Detective, Alexandra Harris, wasn't believeable and I didn't care for her nor some of the other characters. Again, they are necessary to keep the balance, having one plot be the Cenobites and the subplot being the humans chasing the killer, but I simply didn't like their characters as much as the others...small little details...but just being honest. Other than that, I enjoyed this very much and I'm happy to see passion breathed into this franchise. There will be many that will hate it for a variety of reasons - viewers who dislike the horror. Fanatics of the film (not the book) who yearn to see Doug Bradley as Pinhead again. And of course people who will immediately disregard this because of the budget and the negative naysayers...but if you watch this film and cut off any preconcieved judgements (no pun intended) you will enjoy it. Fantastic job and I for one can't wait for another one so long as it's made with the same passion.

Watch it if you dig Hellraiser. You'll enjoy it.