Hellraiser VII: Deader

Hellraiser VII: Deader (2005) is a movie that I recently rewatched for the first time in a long time on MAX. The storyline follows a reporter who finds a tape that shows a cult bringing the dead back to life. She thinks this could be her big break and the story of a lifetime...she might be right.

This movie is directed by Rick Bota (Hellraiser: Hellworld) and stars Kari Wuhrer (Eight Legged Freaks), Linda Marlowe (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Simon Kunz (The Parent Trap), Paul Rhys (Chaplin), Doug Bradley (Nightbreed) and Georgina Rylance (War Machine).

This did have a more realistic storyline than some of the Hellraiser sequels and the main character was easy to root for (she reminded me of Ashley Judd). The subway scenes in here were pretty cool and it was a good subplot to add to the storyline. Those scene's definitely added intensity to the circumstances. However, this is another Hellraiser movie without enough Pinhead. It's too bad because the beginning and ending of this movie are great. The opening corpse in the bathroom was awesome and the last 12 minutes of the film were the best part of the movie. We needed more scenes like the end.

Overall, this sequel had the most potential since Hellraiser III, but still doesn't live up to expectations due to an underuse of Pinhead. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Rick Bota returns as director, and again delivers a film in the form of a mystery thriller. This time about a reporter on an assignment to find a missing woman. In her search for answers, she ends up much deeper than she ever thought possible, and I thought Kari Wuhrer was rather good as reporter Amy Klein. The story was not originally written for the Hellraiser franchise; instead an existing script was converted for the series, and that's evident, as there's very little resemblance to the previous films. Just as with Hellraiser 6, there are way too many dreams and hallucinations. It is almost as if they had different ideas and opinions for the film but didn't know how to incorporate all of them, so they did so via means of the dreams and hallucinations. It wasn't scary, and it wasn't NOT scary. It wasn't bad, and not all that good either, but certainly more enjoyable than 3, 4 & 5 in the series. The stabbing scene in the hotel room was incredibly well done!! Pinhead again only appears very late in the film, and only stays around long enough to convince us this is indeed a Hellraiser film .

There's an unwritten rule in horror cinema that says: you know you're in trouble once they stop numbering the sequels to originally successful genre classics. This is the seventh installment in the Hellraiser franchise and yet they already stopped giving them numbers since "Hellraiser (4): Bloodline". And can you guess where exactly it started to go wrong with the series?? Oh well...the good thing about these Hellraiser movies is that, no matter how mediocre the stories are, there are always some remotely interesting elements in them to satisfy horror lovers. In this seventh entry those elements are the presence of Kari Wuhrer, some sinister settings and really a lot of gore. Wuhrer stars as a chain-smoking, hard ass journalist who's sent to Bukarest to investigate the bloody rites of an underground cult. The leader seems to have a talent to bring recently deceased persons back to life and he promises his followers a world of pleasure once they returned from death. What he really looks for, however, is the one person who's able to open the mysterious puzzle box in his possession. As you can guess, our female journalist is that chosen person and she'll have to fight both the leader of the cult and Pinhead; the ruler of hell. The actual plot of "Deader" definitely shows potential, but it's confusing and it tries to be overly intelligent. Pinhead's share in the story is limited, as it already was in the previous two sequels, and he seems dragged into it simply because it wouldn't sell otherwise. The sequences inside the Romanian subway-trains are nice to look at and there's a lot of gruesome butchering going on. Kari Wuhrer is a talented and beautiful actress but she starred in too many dire, straight-to-video horror productions already. Apart from this failure, she also appeared in two sequels of "The Prophecy", a turkey called "Final Examination" and in the belated sequel to "The Hitcher". Even the bigger productions she starred in recently ("King of the Ants", "Eight Legged Freaks") were disappointments. We have another Rick Bota sequel coming up, namely "Hellworld".

A London journalist travels to Bucharest to investigate a cult called "The Deaders", who seemingly have the power to return back to life.

Kari Wuhrer stars as Amy, an investigative journalist for an underground newspaper sent on assignment in Romania after her editor (Simon Kunz) receives a video tape of cult ritual in which a woman commits suicide but is then revived. Once there, Amy becomes entangled with the local subculture and tracks down Winter LeMarchand (Paul Rhys), leader of The Deaders and descendant of the puzzle box maker from Hellraiser: Bloodline.

Hellraiser: Deader is not a particularly good movie, but it's honestly one of the better Hellraiser sequels. The characters at least have traits and motivations, and the movie feels a little bit higher budget than Hellraiser: Hellseeker thanks to more set variety, something which was accomplished within the budget due to filming in Romania. (By the way, this movie was filmed in 2002 but shelved for a few years).

There were a couple scenes I enjoyed; one in which Amy searches a disgusting apartment for clues, and another in which a character tries to remove a knife from their own back (which looked like fun). I also thought the acting was decent, at least by Hellraiser standards. Overall there were some things to like, especially in the earlier parts of the film.

Unfortunately, Hellraiser: Deader still suffers from some of the same problems as its predecessor. There are constant fake-out dream sequences, and it gets to the point that it's difficult to figure out which scenes are real or fake. Furthermore, director Rick Bota (who also directed Hellseeker) makes some questionable choices once again, including too much slow motion. There's also one scene near the beginning of the movie which is really bizarrely edited; it keeps flashing back and forth between Amy getting on a train and having a conversation in her boss's office. I get what they were going for, but the way they went about it is jarring.

For me, the movie really fell apart in act three. Without spoiling it, logic was thrown out the window, and the conclusion of the film was very stupid. This ending was a result of shoehorning the Cenobites into the film, as Hellraiser: Deader is yet another Hellraiser film based on a spec script that originally didn't feature Pinhead and company.

Worse, of all the movies in the series up to this point, Pinhead felt the most of out place. He and the cenobites seem to revert back to the "boogeyman" status of Hellraiser III, and have very little to do with the plot until the very end of the film - where they appear and ruin the movie. Not to be mean, Pinhead was looking kinda old - and dare I say a little pudgy - in this one. It doesn't help that his entire head seems to be grey, except his eyes, ears, and mouth which are blue; this ruins the illusion, as it's painfully obvious he's wearing makeup and prosthetics.

Hellraiser: Deader has issues, but it isn't the worst Hellraiser movie. It's more watchable than most of the films in the series, even though it suffers from many of the same pitfalls. In what is clearly a bad horror franchise, I would rewatch this direct-to-video entry before most of the others.

The Hellraiser film set ended after bloodline. This like the others after bloodline which are less slasher more trying to be some kind of deep psychological horror. Of course like the others its fails miserably and leaves you yearning for something to actually happen. Thats not to say the previous films did not have 'mess with your head' factor, They certainly did. However they managed it on a level that wasn't thought out, it came across more as a by-product of the film. You get to see pinhead about once for a proper scene and its nothing to write home about.

I would not bother even renting this film if you started out as a big fan of the first few. If you're easily scared they get it, why not.