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When two young men disappear while taking a road trip, their families soon discover that it is because they met a group of sadomasochistic demons.
I realise that the pedigree of the Hellraiser franchise was never a particularly strong one, but I thought there was a considerable amount of enjoyment to be gleaned from its weird combination of Lovecraftian horror and Gothic sadomasochism. Of course, that premise was already starting to run a little dry by part two, never mind how parts three and four tried to amplify things by taking Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites to New York and even to outer space. While it doesn't seem to make any difference to any over-arching narrative or spoilers that I skipped all the way ahead to ninth installment Revelations, I still think it should be known that everything about watching this movie is a bad idea. A lot of that does stem from it being an ashcan copy with no real care being put into it beyond making sure it technically qualifies as a film capable of retaining Dimension Films' copyright on the franchise. This much is certainly evident thanks to its less-than-generic plot that sees two friends, mild-mannered Steven and party-hearty Nico, take a trip to Mexico with all sorts of debauched intentions. As can be expected, they get more than they bargained for when they not only cause the death of a local woman they try to hook up with but also end up being presented with the puzzle box that summons Pinhead (conspicuously not played by Doug Bradley for once) and the Cenobites to tutor them in the ways of suffering, which intrigues Nico and repels Steven. Meanwhile, both their families (including Emma, who is both Steven's sister and Nico's girlfriend) still worry about what happened to their boys but are in for a shock when Steven suddenly returns...
It almost goes without saying that Hellraiser: Revelations is an out-and-out horrendous excuse for a movie. The film runs a mere 75 minutes and every one of them makes itself felt for all the wrong reasons. Everything about it looks dull and cheap, not least the parts where it does engage in the franchise's predilection for gory flesh-rending and unfathomable body horror. This extends to the film largely being confined to a single mansion with a handful of characters (none of which are acted well, especially not Steven and Nico) - in this company, Bradley's refusal to show up is thoroughly understandable. All of this is shot with some remarkably flat cinematography that somehow manages to feel lifeless despite its constant handheld motion. That's without getting into the ways in which the plot (which already rips the original off quite heavily for the most part) twists and turns in ways that somehow manage to be unpleasant even by the standards of a franchise built around incomprehensible displays of senseless cruelty - this is especially true of how the film handles the character of Emma and how she is alternately repulsed and fascinated by the whole situation and the opportunities it presents. As a result, it's easy to consider Revelations to be as close to actual torture as a Hellraiser movie is ever likely to get. There's not even any amusement to be had over how goofy-looking the noticeably-recast Pinhead looks. Not only would I consider it the worst movie I've seen for this thread, but it is almost certainly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I may still work my way through the remaining installments of the franchise, if only because I honestly can't imagine any of them plumbing the absolute depths that Revelations does.
#32 - Hellraiser: Revelations
Victor Garcia, 2011
Victor Garcia, 2011
When two young men disappear while taking a road trip, their families soon discover that it is because they met a group of sadomasochistic demons.
I realise that the pedigree of the Hellraiser franchise was never a particularly strong one, but I thought there was a considerable amount of enjoyment to be gleaned from its weird combination of Lovecraftian horror and Gothic sadomasochism. Of course, that premise was already starting to run a little dry by part two, never mind how parts three and four tried to amplify things by taking Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites to New York and even to outer space. While it doesn't seem to make any difference to any over-arching narrative or spoilers that I skipped all the way ahead to ninth installment Revelations, I still think it should be known that everything about watching this movie is a bad idea. A lot of that does stem from it being an ashcan copy with no real care being put into it beyond making sure it technically qualifies as a film capable of retaining Dimension Films' copyright on the franchise. This much is certainly evident thanks to its less-than-generic plot that sees two friends, mild-mannered Steven and party-hearty Nico, take a trip to Mexico with all sorts of debauched intentions. As can be expected, they get more than they bargained for when they not only cause the death of a local woman they try to hook up with but also end up being presented with the puzzle box that summons Pinhead (conspicuously not played by Doug Bradley for once) and the Cenobites to tutor them in the ways of suffering, which intrigues Nico and repels Steven. Meanwhile, both their families (including Emma, who is both Steven's sister and Nico's girlfriend) still worry about what happened to their boys but are in for a shock when Steven suddenly returns...
It almost goes without saying that Hellraiser: Revelations is an out-and-out horrendous excuse for a movie. The film runs a mere 75 minutes and every one of them makes itself felt for all the wrong reasons. Everything about it looks dull and cheap, not least the parts where it does engage in the franchise's predilection for gory flesh-rending and unfathomable body horror. This extends to the film largely being confined to a single mansion with a handful of characters (none of which are acted well, especially not Steven and Nico) - in this company, Bradley's refusal to show up is thoroughly understandable. All of this is shot with some remarkably flat cinematography that somehow manages to feel lifeless despite its constant handheld motion. That's without getting into the ways in which the plot (which already rips the original off quite heavily for the most part) twists and turns in ways that somehow manage to be unpleasant even by the standards of a franchise built around incomprehensible displays of senseless cruelty - this is especially true of how the film handles the character of Emma and how she is alternately repulsed and fascinated by the whole situation and the opportunities it presents. As a result, it's easy to consider Revelations to be as close to actual torture as a Hellraiser movie is ever likely to get. There's not even any amusement to be had over how goofy-looking the noticeably-recast Pinhead looks. Not only would I consider it the worst movie I've seen for this thread, but it is almost certainly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I may still work my way through the remaining installments of the franchise, if only because I honestly can't imagine any of them plumbing the absolute depths that Revelations does.