Hellraiser VI: Hellseeker

This entry in the ongoing "Hellraiser" franchise brings back protagonist Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) from the first three films. Here she's married to a man named Trevor (Dean Winters, "John Wick"), and as the film opens, they have a car accident after which he loses his memory, and she disappears. Unreality begins to invade his life regularly, with no relief from the horrific images. Gradually, the truth begins to emerge, with Trevor realizing that he was NOT a prince of a guy before the accident.

For a while, this all feels rather familiar and predictable, and is not helped by Winters' bland performance in the lead. But Laurence still has appeal, and some of the supporting actors are good. There is some effective doom & gloom atmosphere, some okay gore (but also some ropey CGI), and decent attempts at surrealism. Use of the renowned Pinhead (Doug Bradley) character is somewhat limited, although you appreciate his presence every time he shows up. His booming voice still issues grave pronunciations on the nature of the situation.

It isn't until near the end, however, as the mystery is revealed, that this does become at least reasonably interesting, and *we* realize that we were being taken on a ride where things weren't as they seemed.

The film is not laden with style, but it's adequately directed by Rick Bota (in his feature debut), whose background was in camera operation and cinematography. At the very least, the sexy supporting actresses (Sarah-Jane Redmond, Jody Thompson, Kaaren de Zilva) are fun to watch.

Filmed in the Vancouver area.

Six out of 10.

This movie, like Hellraiser 5, feels like it wasn't originally written as a Hellraiser movie. I can imagine the following "How about this. You rewrite this script to add in Pinhead, and we'll call it Hellraiser 6.

Those Hellraiser fans will eat up anything".

This movie would be fine as a "Soul Survivors" type movie. But when it's a Hellraiser movie, you expect a lot more.

I say if they're not going to make real Hellraiser movies, don't bother.

"Hellraiser: Hellseeker" is a Mystery - Horror movie and the seventh sequel of the "Hellraiser" franchise, in which we watch a businessman trying to remember and figure out what happened after a car crash that killed his wife. The only thing he has is a box that he does not know its purpose yet.

I did not like this sequel because I believe that it was not worthy of the name "Hellraiser". Except some minor clues, some objects like the puzzle box and some of the main characters of the franchise, "Hellraiser: Hellseeker" did not reach the potential of Hellraiser's name. I do not recommend anyone to watch this movie especially those who have already watched the previous "Hellraiser" movies.

Hellraiser: Hellseeker is definitely a sequel deserving the title Hellraiser. It stands alone as a good picture and you could even watch it without having seen the other Hellraiser movies. It's probably what Clive Barker intended to be a sequel to his masterpiece. It tells a story that could have come out of his Books of Blood, with characters invented in The Hellbound Heart, the novel which was Filmed as the original Hellraiser. There is always room for Pinhead, the pope of hell in those kind of movies, and I hope that this great effort will be continued in the following two Hellraiser sequels. I would also appreciate to see his short stories from the Books of Blood filmed, because I think some of them would make great horror movies. A must see for horror fans who have enough of teenie slashers and for anyone else who likes a good suspense thriller before going to bed.

Other reviewers (at least the ones I read) must have watched a different movie to me. What I saw was certainly an effort at originality, and yes, it was better than some of the other sequels to the franchise, but that said it was still a below par screenplay, borrowing heavily from other, cleverer, more original films.

Ironically Hellraiser:Hellseeker shares some of the same flawed plot concepts as the movie it borrows most heavily from: Jacob's Ladder. There's the same two tier story running consecutively and along different, mysterious time-lines, both of which fail utterly to fuse into a single coherent time-line at the end of the film. There's the same solipsist nightmare: how can one truly discern between reality and dreams when the dream state feels as 'real' as reality itself? The second movie from which Hellseeker shamelessly borrows is Angel Heart, a masterpiece of cinematic horror featuring Mickey Rourke before his face went to hell (as a result of high living, screwed up plastic surgery and boxing, not Pinhead) and Robert DeNiro. Where Angel Heart is innovative, Hellseeker is simply repetitive and boring. Where Mickey Rourke excels as the confused protagonist in Angel Heart, Dean Winters sleep-walks his way through the role in Hellseeker, and where DeNiro gets all the best lines, poor Pinhead gets some of the most forgettable I've ever heard him utter.

Granted, compared with the other Hellraiser sequels (all bar Hell on Earth, which I have to say I enjoyed more than I or II) this tries something different, and maybe with a better lead role there'd be something there worthy of a couple more stars. But ultimately the confused mess of a plot destroys itself, irrespective of Winters' deadpan portrayal.

I give this rubbish one star for effort and one for the inclusion of Ashley Laurence who, lets face it, should really be above all this by now. Another star for Doug Bradley as Pinhead who never fails to send chills down my spine with his black 8-ball eyes and his tendency to drag nine inch nails out of his own skull.

Ultimately though, Doug needs to share that last star with Clive Barker without whom the world would be a much duller place.