Franchise Review: Hellraiser [VI]: Hellseeker (2002)

 

Deadlines and changes have been happening lately, and sometimes they get in the way of other fun stuff I want to do and know I should do - like finishing watching that franchise I started whenever the fuck ago. Rest assured that I have not forgotten about my Hellraiser journey, fiends, so I'm back with it again - FINALLY - and the sixth installment in this kooky series, Hellraiser: Hellseeker.

 

I had to watch the movie again to write this review, and when I first watched it a few weeks ago, I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. This was weird, because for a good chunk of the movie, Hellseeker plays out a lot like the twin version of the previous installment, Inferno. I really loved that one, and Hellseeker has a very similar plot line. But I think it might be the ending that throws me off just the slightest bit.

Hellseeker sees the (real) return of Ashley Laurence as Kirsty, but the main focus is on her husband, Trevor. In the beginning of the film, Kirsty and Trevor get into a car accident that sends them over a bridge and into a river, with Trevor surviving and Kirsty being trapped in the car underwater. However, her body is missing from the accident site, and ever since the accident, Trevor has been experiencing terrible headaches and vivid hallucinations, all while being pursued by two detectives who think there is more to the story than Trevor is letting on.

Dean Winters (whom I absolutely love because of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) carries the film well as he goes through the motions made familiar by Inferno of a guy hallucinating all kinds of strange stuff. Trevor is an unreliable narrator who spends the entire movie going from one fucked-up situation to the next without much string holding it all together. All of this does have a purpose later on, but you will most likely be spending the first two-thirds of the movie wondering what in the blazes is going on. And like Trevor himself says, when a scene starts, you don't know what's real and what's not until something happens to let you know one way or another, and even THEN, it's hard to tell what might be real because even the really weird stuff can be real in a Hellraiser film, you know?!

Actually, what I really want to talk about with this movie is how the ending works with the rest of it, so I'm going to have to spoil everything right now. In a way, the overall point of the movie is not Trevor at all - it is Kirsty, even though she is only dealt with as a peripheral character. But knowing that she is a huge part of the Hellraiser story hopefully makes one think that her role in this story has got to be more meaningful than just being Dean Winters' wife (although that's not really a bad role to have). Pinhead and the Cenobites were after Kirsty because they're still all hungry for her soul and stuff, and they got to her by going through Trevor. She makes a deal with them to give them five souls in exchange for hers. She uses this opportunity to take revenge on her cheating spouse, who also happened to be in cahoots with another girl to kill her and take her money. It's a fine story, and certainly explains all the weird shit that had been happening to Trevor in the movie - the accident scene at the beginning is retold to show that Kirsty shot Trevor, so he has been dead this whole time and the movie is him suffering through his personal hell. This is obviously why I compare it to Inferno so much, and what is also making it difficult for me to say which movie I liked better, if I ever had to. As third and fourth sequels to a horror franchise, Inferno and Hellseeker are pretty damn good, well done films.

What irks me a bit in regards to the characters of Kirsty and Pinhead is that Kirsty survives yet again by making a deal with Pinhead YET AGAIN. He's all like, "I'm totally gonna take your soul this time!" and she's like, "Um, how 'bout I give you this instead?" and he's all, "Okay." If you all pull this shit again in another movie, I'm going to go ape. I don't even really believe that it happened this time. This honestly should have been the end for Kirsty and she shouldn't have been able to get away with it. The fact that she did diminishes Pinhead in a way, and, even though he's a villain, he's a villain that we really like and to me, this makes him look weak. I don't want a weak Pinhead. I also don't like what this does to Kirsty as a character. She was fucking awesome in the first and second movie, and now she's gone a bit too dark and far away from her character by using her scorned wife status to kill five people - three girls that Trevor was cheating on her with, the co-worker that he was planning to kill her with, and Trevor himself. This isn't the Kirsty I love.

Other than that, Hellraiser: Hellseeker is a really solid sequel with a great story and some cool visuals, which I didn't even get into talking about here. I like the personal approach that these sequels are taking as opposed to something more high concept, because I don't think that would have been as interesting thematically. Bring on part 7, let's finish this!

Franchise Review: Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

 

From what I remember, this might be the end of the good when it comes to the Hellraiser films. Gah, why can't I remember any of these save for the first two? I did randomly watch part 7 a while ago, and that was only because Kari Wuhrer is in it and she's also in Eight Legged Freaks and I love that movie so I was curious to watch her in a Hellraiser flick again. Anyway, Hellbound starts things off very well for the Hellraiser sequels.

The sequel picks up right after the ending of the first film - actually, it starts with a montage that sums up the entire first movie which is totally cool with me because of course that movie is awesome. After the events of Hellraiser, Kirsty is back in the psych ward, which is run by Dr. Channard. Unbeknownst to Kirsty, he has quite the obsession with the Cenobites and the Lemarchand Boxes. Channard uses Kirsty to bring her stepmother Julia back from hell, and he uses another mental patient, Tiffany, to open the box and bring forth the Cenobites and enter hell.

The sequel's story begins with a quick glimpse into Pinhead's past. It's around the 1930s, 1940s and there is a soldier in a room, solving the puzzle box. The chains and hooks appear (more less-than-stellar effects shots like before but I still love it), and then he's shown in hell supposedly, having his skull cut on and the nails being hammered home. This becomes important later on, so pay attention. Having read The Scarlet Gospels recently, which is the concluding chapter in Pinhead's story, I don't think this is the background that Clive Barker had in mind for his character. But we're talking about the movies here, so I guess I'm going to have to let that go.

Again, there is a great cast of characters - except for one guy who is unfortunately not given that much to do. Steve from the first film has been replaced by Dr. Channard's assistant, Kyle, and frankly, he is rather boring. His only real purpose in the film is to spy on Channard, help Kirsty out a bit, and then get killed because he's an idiot. Dr. Channard himself is quite the interesting villain. We first meet him while he is performing some kind of freak-ass brain surgery, which immediately makes the audience weary of him, and you can definitely tell that he has ulterior motives when he is seemingly trying to "help" Kirsty. He does the things that he must do to achieve his goals, yet he seems horrified by it. Then again, by the end when he becomes a Cenobite, he seems to embrace his evil side. So yeah, interesting guy. The only thing that still niggles at me a little bit is the fact that Julia never asks this guy who he is or why he brought her back. Technically, they were both using each other but that's not a strong enough connection for me.

Julia herself is actually much more likable to me here, despite her villainy. She's stronger and more manipulative, instead of the one being manipulated. And of course her revenge at the end is fantastic. Though the film takes place directly after the first one (and was released just one year after the first one), Kirsty also seems to have grown. She's still incredibly brave and formidable, but there's something about her that's just slightly different and more mature this time around. Also, she puts on Julia's skin suit. That's really gross and really rad at the same time. Imogen Boorman as Tiffany is incredibly sympathetic, innocent, and does a wonderful job with practically no lines of dialogue. Her obsession with puzzles was a nice, though obvious, plot and character choice for the film and works well.

Hellbound is definitely one of those movies that I would describe as gore-geous. In the scene where Julia is resurrected, there is buckets of blood and oodles of nastiness. It starts off with the delusional mental patient slicing the shit out of his flesh because he imagines that he is covered with worms, and his blood on the mattress where Julia died is what brings her back. She is skinless like Frank was, and spends the rest of the scene rolling around in blood, trying to get the nourishment from the mental patient. Non-horror fans would perhaps watch something like this and be grossed out, but I watch it in utter fascination every time. It's beautiful. The full-body effects work on Julia where you can see the bones, tendons and muscles is amazing, and the blood is so shiny! Its darkness and richness also plays in great contrast to the whites of her eyes. And I love, love, love Channard as a Cenobite. His look reminds me of one of the monsters from the video game Resident Evil 4 (the best video game ever, by the way) and he's so wicked and "punny." It's fantastic.

Ah, this has already gone on long enough, and I think I hit most of the high points, but this is one of those movies where I could really discuss every single scene. Hellbound is a really solid sequel to one of my favorite horror films. It plays up the strengths of the original, and then takes it just a step further, which is what I think any good sequel is supposed to do.

Franchise Review: Hellraiser (1987)

 

That's right, guys. IT HAS BEGUN. Welcome to the beginning of my journey through all nine of the Hellraiser movies! I do have vague memories of some of the sequels, but I haven't watched any of them in a long, long time, so a lot of this will be like a first-time viewing for me. The original film, however, is still one of my favorite horror films of all time. And I have never really talked about it much on here, so I'm excited to get the chance. AND Clive Barker's new book about Pinhead, The Scarlet Gospels, comes out in a few days so it's perfect timing. Shameless plug: Be sure to look for my review of The Scarlet Gospels on Wicked Horror.com!

As most of you already know, Hellraiser is based on Barker's short novel, The Hellbound Heart, and Barker both wrote and directed the film adaptation. I don't think it's wrong to assume that that is one of the reasons why the film is so good, and why it has stood the test of time. Anyway, you all hopefully know the plot of Hellraiser so we'll forgo that. Let's just say that there's a box, there's a skinless guy, there're Cenobites, there's a chick saying "GO TO HELL!" Basically, it's awesomeness personified.

Hellraiser is a unique film for me because it is one of two films that I absolutely love and have seen a million times, but that also completely grosses me out still. Cronenberg's The Fly is the other one. That whole sequence of Frank growing out of the floor is fucking disgusting, you guys, and his evolution after that really doesn't get any better. I guess it's because both of those films showed me that humans really are nothing more than meat and bones, really, and that kinda sucks. That's what horror films do well. In Hellraiser, there is beauty in the horror, and logic in the fantastical, and intrigue in the deceit.

I hardly know what to say about Hellraiser because there is so much to say. Let's just go with some of the reasons why I love the movie so much. One of those reasons is Clive Barker's story. I admittedly have not read much Barker (which I will remedy eventually - I bought a bunch of his books recently) honestly because I didn't ever think that I could follow his stories because they are so out there and fantastical. But I get Hellraiser. Pushing the limits of human endurance with pleasure and pain, getting more than what you asked for, relationships fueled by lust and desire, a daughter trying to save her father - Hellraiser could be a hundred different movies with these same themes. It just happens to be gory good horror story with rad characters, created by one of the most imaginative minds of our time.

Another reason I love Hellraiser is the gore and special effects, which go hand-in-hand with Barker's filming style. That sounds like three reasons rolled into one but I don't care. Some of the effects are fairly rudimentary - most notably, the closeup shots of the hooks impaling Frank's skin - but overall, the practicality of the effects makes them so much more effective and wonderful. The aforementioned sequence of Frank's body growing and rebuilding itself out of the floor is my favorite/least favorite part (it's SO GROSS) but there's also Julia's death, Frank's death, and all the demons. Pinhead is just awesome, there's no need to go on for too long about him; the Female Cenobite is graceful and elegant despite her odd appearance; the Chatterer is deceptively amusing and I love the design of him (I have never understood the fingers in Kirsty's mouth - was that just to be a freak or what?); and Butterball always reminded me of one of those fat Italian guys in Mafia movies so I have a hard time taking him seriously. The Engineer (the monster that chases Kirsty down the hallway) is also a great design, and looks like one of those monsters that would come out of a child's imagination.

Another credit to the film is the great casting. Andrew Robinson as Larry is great at first as a typical dad, but then makes a wonderfully creepy turn as Frank when he takes his skin. Clare Higgins has a gorgeous face and a grace to carry it (damn those 80s fashion choices, though), and she gives Julia all the traits that actually make her a fairly complex character who just ends up making the wrong decisions and giving in to lust. Sean Chapman is Frank, the douchebag that started all this, and though I don't understand the physical attraction, he is the movie's representation of pure lust and desire, the idea of the wants of the human mind overtaking what someone knows they shouldn't do. And of course, Ashley Laurence breaks the mold as a pretty awesome heroine who doesn't take shit, and not only stands up to the Cenobites, but also cleverly figures out a way to work with them in order to spare herself. And when they still try to take her at the end, she again figures out how to save herself and send them back to Hell. Kirsty is foul-mouthed and fierce and I love her.

Although it does freak me out a bit when I read The Hellbound Heart because there she's just a family friend who has a crush on Larry, and in the movie she's Larry's daughter.

Hellraiser is a film that will probably forever remain on the list of my top horror films no matter how much any of the others change as the years go on. It is a timeless story, really, with characters and themes that will always be relevant, and villains that will always be icons in the genre. And now, be prepared to join me on the possibly treacherous journey through the sequels!