HELLRAISER; JUDGEMENT

By now you've probably noticed a lot of people making scathing, misspelled diatribes against FX artist/writer/director Gary Tunnicliffe in regards to the announcement that he is helming a new Hellraiser film. Also Doug Bradley will once again not be Pinhead. Take a deep breath. Filming has just started and there has been no footage to pass judgement over. (By the way, the new subtitle for this tenth entry is Judgement.)
Every time I see a post about the new Hellraiser film on social media it's followed by comments seething with anger, people convinced without a shred of evidence that this will be the worst sequel of all. I ask myself, why, children, why are you so angry? Yes, Revelations sucked. It was a hack job to keep the Hellraiser rights within Dimension's control. And Hellworld was almost as bad, but to say the franchise hasn't been good since the first or second film is at best a matter of a opinion and at worst a lie.
Considering that about half of the sequels were based on non-Hellraiser scripts with Pinhead plugged in and they still wound up watchable, dare I say enjoyable, is somewhat miraculous. Story wise, everything post Bloodlines and up to Hellworld mostly suffered from low budgets. There were some story flaws, true, and the films did little to advance the actual story that began with the first film. Hellraiser is not the first franchise to be guilty of such sin though. Look at every Friday the 13th film after Jason Lives. As much as I love F13, most Hellraisers after Bloodlines are better than most Fridays after Jason Lives. Strangely though, a steaming pile of dung like Jason Takes Manhattan gets more love than Deader. Has Hellraiser simply become fandom's punching bag?
Let's compare Hellraiser with some other big franchises; Halloween lost it's way after part six and Texas Chainsaw after part three. A Nightmare On Elm Street reached it's peak with The Dream Warriors and while it kept the story intact for three more sequels it suffered from the law of diminishing returns. All five of the franchises have suffered from bad sequels and/or remakes of wildly varying quality. They all also suffer from a case of arrested development. None of them have ever really taken a chance with a major reinvention of the franchise or ever evolved the story. (Wes Craven's A New Nightmare took a stab at this, but didn't recharge the franchise so much as it gave fans a chance to see Nancy [Heather Langenkamp] take on Freddy one more time.)
Some of the comments that have been echoed the most have been "No Doug Bradley, no Hellraiser" or "No Clive Barker, no Hellraisr". That's as silly as "No Ian Fleming, no Bond", or "No Bob Kane, no Batman", or worse, "No Michael Keaton, no Batman". Sometimes a franchise outgrows it's creator and sometimes the creator has better things to do than churn out sequel after sequel. These childish temper tantrums at writers and directors are as unhealthy as cigarettes for horror as a genre. What is a director? An artist. A director creates. No director sets out to make a bad film (ok, most don't). Even if it's for a pay day more than a creative impetus, no director wants to be associated with a bad film.
I don't expect Judgement to outshine the first two Hellraisers, but I also don't expect it to suck. After everything I've read from or about Gary Tunnicliffe I believe he has embarked on a journey to create a really good Hellraiser film. He's not just a hired gun keeping the rights in Dimension's hands, he's a fan and has worked on the FX for more than half the films in the franchise. So instead of throwing Gary under the bus for attempting what none of us could get done, lets be supportive and send a message to Dimension that we care about Hellraiser and demand quality films from them.   

MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MONSTERS PART 42 (PART 2); HELLRAISER 5-8 (and a bit about 3)

So in the last chapter I was expressing my undying love of the first two Hellraiser films and a strong like of part 4. I wasn't shy about how much I hated part 3 and wasn't planning on revisiting it, but my wife wanted to rewatch it, since neither of us had watched it since we were in high school. So what the hell? After 5-8 we played 3 and...I have to apologize for all the negative hyperbole. I actually really

liked 3 this time around. There are still problems, but its no where near as bad as I remembered. It was just a strange experience; I remembered most everything, but I saw it in a new light and the film played better than I recalled. My take on 3 was that it was too commercial, not an artistic triumph like the first two, probably just a cash in, and finally, I wanted a Hellraiser film not a Nightmare On Elm Street knock off. I suppose I had unreasonably high expectations and possibly influenced by other fans of the series taking a dump on it. I treated Hell On Earth like it was the Star Wars Christmas Special and I retract that statement. It's at least as good as 4.
Right, deep breath, moving on. I plan to be vague in talking about these next four movies to avoid spoilers, except where absolutely necessary.
Hellraiser 5; Inferno was directed by Scott Derrickson, who also directed The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, Sinister, and will be directing the upcoming Dr Strange(!!!!!!!!!) film. It stars Craig Sheffer (he played Boone in the great Nightbreed) as a corrupt homicide detective who comes in contact with the puzzle box...and wackiness ensues! In a way, it's Bad Lieutenant vs. Pinhead (actually The Engineer, but I'll say no more). It's a strong film, despite a few flaws. Compared to the first four films it's quite a

departure in tone and focus, but the role of the Cenobites seems more in line with the fist film, than with Pinhead's world domination aspirations in 3 and 4. Inferno is a smaller, more personal film and sets the tone for the rest of the series. It's not very gory, but has some good scares and Derrickson does an admirable job of bringing a new take to the series instead of just a retread of the previous entries.
Rick Bota (House On Haunted Hill remake, Tales From The Crypt) directed the next three installments; Hellseeker, Deader, and Hellworld. If anything, Bota shows how a Hellraiser tv series could be a strong show and a lot of fun. My overall complaint about Bota's three films is that I wish they were hour long episodes of a series. While I enjoyed each (and I'll get into details in a moment) I feel like they each went on just a bit too long. Hellworld in particular could have used about ten minutes shaved off.
Hellseeker brought us Ashley Laurence's return to the franchise as Kirsty Cotton, but geez, blink and you'll miss her! Same with Pinhead. Like Inferno, Hellseeker is a hallucinogenic mystery about a man (Dean Winters) who's lost part of his memory after the death of his wife in a car accident. While it's a

fine film, I'm confused by which story Bota chose to focus on. When Heather Langenkamp returned to the Nightmare On Elm Street series in Dream Warriors and New Nightmare, she was all over those films. Ashley Laurence is at least as important to Hellraiser as Langenkamp is to NOES, but she takes a backseat to Winters. When the credits rolled I was left as dismayed by her lack of screen time as I was entertained by the film overall. Hellseeker could have used a bit more streamlining or maybe I'm just not a huge fan of how Bota shoots his films, because I have the same complaint about the next two films.
Bota followed up with Deader, starring Kari Wuhrer (Swamp Thing the series, Remote Control, childhood crush) as an investigative journalist who travels to Romania to report on a death cult. Deader is a stronger film than Hellseeker, more focused with a few better scares. Though the ending seems

tossed off, like everyone shrugged their shoulders and said "I don't know...chains?" "Sure, whatever." Considering Hellworld came out the same year as Deader, I get the impression these films were rushed on the cheap just to get product on the market.
Hellworld is the one I shake my fist at. Though it features Lance Hendrickson (Aliens, Pumpkinhead) it  doesn't have much else going for it, except a good idea that doesn't get utilized. The idea is that Hellworld is an online role playing game based on the Hellraiser franchise. Players have a tendency to become obsessed with the game and the friend of the main characters commits suicide at the beginning of the movie. Having Hellrasier as a film within a film is interesting, but the logic leaps and annoying cast tank the overall product. Not even young Superman, Henry Cavill adds any interest. But Hellworld does boast some cool set pieces, some good scares, and some decent gore. Hendrickson is fun to watch, and of course when the Cenobites finally show up it's sweet, but woefully short.
Inferno is by far the strongest of the second half of the Hellraiser series. I get the strong sense that
Bota's three films would have been much better had he been given a better budget and more time to develop the scripts. Which is not to say 6-8 aren't worth watching, they certainly are, just adjust your expectations accordingly.