Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Franchise Review: Hellraiser [VII]: Deader (2005)

 
This was the one random Hellraiser sequel that I remembered watching not too long ago because I was curious about Kari Wuhrer in it. I also remember actually enjoying the entry quite a lot, even watching it out of context with the rest of the films in the series. This has been both a good and a bad thing about Hellraiser, because many of the entries can stand on their own as pretty good horror films, but at the same time, there is not a lot of connective tissue between them all.

Deader is the story of immersive investigative journalist Amy Klein, who travels to Romania after her paper receives a disturbing videotape in the mail. She starts to look into the Deaders, a strange group of people lead by a man named Winter who has found a way to bring people back from the dead. In turn, this has earned him the ire of Pinhead and the Cenobites for entering into their realm, and Amy is caught in the middle as the one person with the power to stop both of them.

A great thing about the Hellraiser sequels so far is that they have not dropped down in quality. Here we are with entry number seven, and the film is stylistically and visually very well put together. With really only one hiccup involving CGI bugs, the effects work are spot on and fit in with what we have come to love from Hellraiser. The grittiness of the setting in Romania, and the decrepit buildings, dark dungeons, and oddly converted subway cars is also reminiscent of previous films, as is the dark tone of the film. Hellraiser has not yet entered the campy, meta territory and I think that really works best with the stories that have so far been told in each entry.

Amy Klein seems like a bit of a loner with a dark past who uses the shocking stories she works on to maybe punish herself, or see how deep she is really willing to take herself. Is she suicidal, in a way? Perhaps at the beginning, but I think she gets a nice character arc throughout the course of Deader. She's a sympathetic, likable character - a real tough girl with a relatable vulnerability. Black and white flashback scenes hint at her childhood abuse that still haunts her, and the symbolism of the knife in the chest (although I'm not for sure that she actually stabbed her father when she was a child - was that real or her redemption at the end?) is worked in nicely with the story.

Surprisingly, I once again didn't mind all that much that Pinhead and the other Cenobites are not featured characters. Pinhead and the whole Hellraiser world is a metaphor for the hell and suffering that humans are either put through or put themselves through. When Pinhead kills all the Deaders at the end of the film, he's basically scoffing at their stupidity, saying, "Oh, you thought this world was hell? Let me show you what you think you're after, and you'll see that you had it much better off before." It has become more about what Pinhead represents rather than Pinhead himself, and that's great. The fact that Doug Bradley came back each time, except for part nine, to play Pinhead keeps the character's mystique and power alive - when he shows up, you can still feel the fear he brings, even if it is only for a few key scenes.

The blood and gore is pretty minimal, but again, not a problem. When Amy is becoming a Deader, she has this huge knife wound in her chest, which is introduced in a great scene with Wuhrer in the bathroom discovering it. After that, she has to walk around Romania with a gaping and bleeding wound that she keeps trying to hide, which thankfully does not come off as comical when it really could have. Winter gets a nice death at the end much like Frank in the first film when he is skewered by a dozen hooks and then ripped apart, and the other Deaders get a hook and chain that plows through all of their bodies at the same time.

I honestly can't find too much that I really don't like about Deader. The story works, the acting is good, and aside from a couple of scene transitions that don't make sense but you just have to chalk them up to being in the freaky dream/reality world of Hellraiser, it's a nice entry. It works as a stand-alone and it works in the franchise, or at least what the franchise has become with Inferno and Hellseeker. I like it.

14 comments:

  1. YES!!!!

    You and I are definitely on the same wavelength when it comes to this series. The HR mythology being written into random shelved scripts post-Bloodline just so they could be sold as HR movies to make a cheap buck could have been disastrous, but I feel it worked in the favor of the series and kept it fresh. Watching this through for the first time, you go into these movies not knowing what to expect.

    Hellworld I recommend going into when you're in a silly fun movie mood.

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    1. Really when you think about, it's not that hard to work something Hellraiser related into a story where a character is going through some inner turmoil or their own "hell." If these last three movies have taught us anything, you just need that and then the box and some freaky visions and for Pinhead to show up at the end! But you're right, that's not a bad thing when it really could have been, and I'm so happy they got it right and that it worked.

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    2. For Miramax it was just a quick buck, but for the guys who wrote the scripts it was an opportunity to get a movie made. You can see the scripts had some thought. Plus Cenobites are so cool they can show up in any movie and I'll be down with it.

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  2. Wow, you actually enjoyed this and made the story more understandable for me; welp two more to go!

    Any plans on reviewing the fan film that came with the DVD release of Deaders?

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    1. I've never even heard that there was a fan film! Am I a bitch for saying that I'm not too keen on checking it out? Those things don't usually end up being good from what I've heard!

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    2. If it's the one I'm thinking of it's worth checking out, although it does go with the "literal Hell" interpretation of the series, which isn't my preference.

      There's a nuclear war, and Pinhead has to spend centuries judging every human soul on Earth. Then, realizing he has nothing else to do, so he solves the puzzle himself so the other Cenobites will rip him apart.

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    3. Hm, that last part makes it sound really interesting, actually! Might have to seek that out one day!

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    4. A bit late to this party, but the film you're referring to is "No More Souls" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlWGQaFxWKI

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  3. The HR mythology being written into random shelved scripts post-Bloodline just so they could be sold as HR movies...

    It occurs to me that HR kind of works as an anthology horror series. Each installment centers around one or more venal human beings and details how getting what they think they want turns out to be very different than they expected. Pinhead and the cenobytes almost serve as a sort of Greek chorus in the later installments, showing up at the end to comment on what's happened. Well...comment on what's happened and then rip the human characters apart with hooks, whatever.

    Even the first 2 movies fit the bill, with Frank and Dr. Chenard being the venal humans in question. Only 3 and 4 don't really fit the pattern.

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    1. That definitely makes sense too, it being an anthology type series - Pinhead and the other Cenobites are really the only connection between these last few films, but they all still feel like a part of one big thing. Ooh, and nice comment on the Greek chorus thing - that's the kind of thing high school English teachers think you'll remember but then you never do :).

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  4. And you've now past me in viewing this series, although I keep trying to get myself to pick it back up and finish the last few entries. I don't know what's stopping me, people tell me they're worth watching, but there always seem to be other movies to see. I think on my original viewing some years ago this might have been the first sequel not available for streaming on Netflix.

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    1. They're all on Netflix now, so you have no excuse! I would definitely say that they're all worth watching (so far) because they all seem to be their own thing while still working really well in the Hellraiser world.

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  5. Kari Wuhrer is a good actress and is usually solid in everything she's in. Sounds like they gave her a juicy part in this one. Your reviews are making me want to dive into the whole series. Great coverage of these!

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    1. You definitely should get into the series! I was very surprised at how many of them were really good!

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