Why is Pinhead a floating space head now? Come on Miramax.
Bam! Kirsty Cotton is back. Opening scene. Direct sequel to H2, no doubt. No. Doubt. It's not. Well, it is, but it's post H4 so...
Kirsty and her husband, Trevor (Dean Winters - Rescue Me), are travelling down a highway - clearly there are some marital issues - when Trevor loses control and the car goes over a bridge into a river. Trevor escapes, but Kirsty is dragged down into the water locked within the car. Oh. Um, Kirsty's dead, forget I spoke.
When Trevor awakens in hospital with amnesia, Kirsty is missing. He says she must have died, the police say the car door was open so she's a missing person. Trevor might be mixed up some other murders too. Shit, this is another H5, isn't it? And basically, the movie dips into unnecessary complexity and plot meandering now. So, (deep breath) Trevor gave the Lament Configuration to his wife as a wedding anniversary gift (unknowingly - apparently), he's having an affair with his boss, then she dies and he's a suspect, There's a lot of death followed by waking up. Can you see a pattern between this and Inferno?
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| Ashley Lawrence / Dean Winters |
In the conclusion of the film, when Trevor goes to identify the body of Kirsty, he is cornered by Pinhead, who reveals that Kirsty traded her soul for that of five others, murdering everyone in the film that Trevor was suspected of, and in fact, Trevor himself, who has been in Hell since the car accident at the start.
Cut to Kirsty and the police as the car is dragged out of the water, with Trevor apparently having "killed himself" while driving, with the same gun that killed everyone else.
The end.
You've seen Carnival of Souls (1962), right? So Hellraiser has become a remake of a fifty year old film? Really. Fine. So, the films protagonist, Trevor, is unlikable, and now we know. No. Hellraiser can't pull off an unlikable main character. Kirsty Cotton, the protagonist of the first movies is now a villain, murdering left, right, and center. No cenobites in this movie killed anyone. Is anyone surprised that the script for this movie wasn't a Hellraiser script originally, also? I hope lessons were learned.
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| Doug Bradley, awesome as ever. |
Director, Rick Bota, sticks around for the next two installments. I can't say the direction was bad, but the film suffers in slews from the same as Inferno. Too much plot. Not enough lore. The point seems missed. Honestly, Ashley Lawrence is good. Doug Bradly is good. Even Dean Winters is good, but Hellseeker is a mess of plot, with Hellraiser sinking further from the source material.
There is a distinct lacking of Hellraiserness within the runtime. By the time I hit Hellseeker I was beginning to wonder if any of the film makers had seen the original movie.
It's not scary. There is little gore. The cenobites are bystanders. Established hero's are now villains. The story line is ripped from another film. No substance. No style.
It's watchable, just. It's not Hellraiser though.
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