Hellraiser: Judgment

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.

Oh, My God! They just keep getting worse... and worse...

Can we please have a decent story writer and director give the fans a decent story, one that will do Barker's vision credit(?)

This story has so many flaws it verges on the ridiculous. Evidently, the humans have grown out of wooden puzzle boxes so the L'Merchant Configuration is no longer a viable gateway to hell. But as The Auditor (Tunnicliffe) says to Pinhead (Taylor), "At least, we still have the house..." Hey! Who would have thunk it(?) The Cenobites own property and real estate... No matter how preposterous that sounds it actually gets worse... How do they lure their intended victims through the door(?) They drop them a line via good ol' pen and paper. I wonder if it's the chatterer that runs down the stationers... I hear he loves to meet people and is a terrible gossip; gift of the gab he's got... Why, couldn't they think of a new and imaginative way to contact their victims? At the very least, Tunnicliffe (the writer) could have the message sent on a piece of human skin and tattooed in blood.

Then when the victim gets inside, the audience is treated to a bit of unnecessary vileness. After The Auditor takes down the quarry's life story, via a typewriter which uses the captives blood as print (finally a bit of imagination) we are introduced to The Assessor (Gulager). He eats the transcripts then regurgitates the remains down a tube, which sprays over three naked women, The Jury. This then leads to the subject being handed to The Surgeon, no matter what the verdict, who proceeds to do a hack and slash job. Then once again, the naked women get splattered... this time with blood. This gives a new perspective on hell's judging process; however there's no rhyme or reason to it, so it just feels like fill in. Even though it's quite nasty to view, it's also quite boring. Tunnicliffe (The Director) doesn't have the skill to create an atmosphere of horror or tension, which helps to make the scene even more tedious.

One decent thing about this film and story is the Thriller story woven throughout. Two detectives, literally brothers in arms, Sean (Carney) and David Carter (Wayne), along with Detective Christine Egerton (Harris), are chasing a gruesome serial killer terrorising the city. However, the inevitable twist is so obvious it weakens this "stronger" section of the film.

The best part of this whole mess is the acting. Even Tunnicliffe isn't too bad. I think it was a little too much to create a new Cenobite (loosely termed, as he's not really a Cenobite) who has more screen time than Pinhead himself and then give the part to yourself. As for Pinhead, Taylor still doesn't have the presence of Bradley, but he is much better than the last instalment. I will give this to Taylor though... he has sitting down-pat. That's right, we get to see Pinhead relaxing... twice... How Scary!

There's even an appearance by Heather Langenkamp as The Landlady. Though, if you blink you'll miss her for she's on screen for about the same amount of time it takes you to read this paragraph.

Do yourself a favour and miss this mess of a film. There are a lot better horror flicks out there... A Lot! If you need your Pinhead fix then, as usual, I recommend cracking open the original flicks.

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.

Please for the love of the fans, release the rights to a real writer, director and producers who loves the horror movies....this is just ridiculous....

Hellraiser: Judgment saved the franchise, it establishes new character and expand the lore. The Auditor is very interesting and I found Gary Tunnicliffe interpretation sublime. The Hell world was always left behind since the second movie, but in this chapter we finally discover more about the mechanics of this dark world. We get to see more Pinhead and we learn to know him al little bit better. This chapter establishes good bases for possible sequels, creators should definitely follow this narrative path. I was very surprised to finally see a decent movie of the series. Unfortunately after Inferno, this saga suffered a lot.

Photography is good, I really appreciated the color grading that sets perfectly the tone of the plot, both special and practical effects are on point. There are a lot of graphic scenes, but I feel that first movies were more violent and gruesome. However there are some pretty amazing killings. The pace of the movie is perfect, but the plot is very predictable and you can clearly see that there are a lot of ideas recycled from Hellraiser: Inferno. Maybe next time try not to pick a detective as main character.

After Revelations, my expectations were really low. I am just happy that the director managed to create something good and that could have save the franchise from the retirement. I really hope that Dimension Films will take seriously in consideration to create an extended narrative universe. Please, make it happen.