Detective Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer) discovers the infamous puzzle box at a crime scene, and is soon launched into an investigation, where he searches for a missing child and a mysterious figure called The Engineer.
After the disappointing reception of Hellraiser: Bloodline, the series was sent DTV by Dimension Films. This little era would encompass four films over a period of five years (2000-2005), the first of which was Hellraiser: Inferno. This one wasn't well received for several reasons, the biggest one was that many fans felt that the series icon's role in the film was not substantial enough. There are two schools of thought about Pinhead in these DTV films. One is that since he had a limited presence in the first two, that it was fine to hold him back; but others liked how much we saw of him in Hell On Earth and Bloodline, and wanted to see him have that kind of role again.
For me, his screen time isn't key to whether it's a good film or not however, if you're going to have Pinhead in the film and plaster his image on the DVD box; I think his role should be integral to the story. In the first film, Frank and Julia are doing what they do because Frank knows Pinhead and his minions are coming for him. In the second, we get more backstory on Pinhead, his interplay with the returning Kirsty, and his role as figurehead of the Cenobites is challenged. Though he wasn't one of the most featured characters, he was still very important.
Here, it's not evident until way late in the game what his role is exactly and even though I'm sure the writers saw him as being key to the events, to me it didn't really have the impact as such. Since Pinhead's screen time is rather fleeting, I'll tell you when he appears if you happen to be reading up on this film to make a purchase and you're getting it for Pinhead himself. He pops up three times in total, once early on and twice in the last half. During those scenes however, Doug Bradley still owns this role and brings the character to life as we've known him over the years. I did hate the shitty blue light director Scott Derrickson cast him in though.
Sheffer does a pretty good job with Thorne, but the problem is that the character is a major asshole and he's the one we follow for 95 minutes. It's not possible for me to care about the well being of a character like that, and they do several things throughout to make him as unlikable as possible. Most of the other cast isn't much to write home about because the film never shifts its focus from Thorne for any length of time; so they're only given limited time and mostly underdeveloped. The only two that really get some time to shine are Joseph's partner Tony (Nicholas Turturro) and the Department Psychologist Dr. Gregory (James Remar). I thought Turturro was good as the cop who is too trusting of his veteran partner, and Remar came off credible as the Psychologist and had added a certain amount of intrigue to that character.
I honestly enjoyed the film for about the first 20 minutes, but it soon went downhill for me. Around the 40 minute mark I didn't give a shit about The Engineer or who he was. Derrickson does a good job of not allowing the low budget to shine through very often and presents us with several gruesome images throughout the story. I don't think the guy is a bad director; he did The Exorcism of Emily Rose a few years later which was far superior.
But, I do believe that he and his writing partner Paul Harris Boardman, took delight in doing a serial killer story with Hellraiser only as the backdrop. I also don't get the impression that they were too passionate about continuing the franchise, given some of their comments to Fangoria back in 2000. Among those were how, after watching all the previous films, their first impression was not to even do it; and Derrickson saying he had the notion to change Pinhead's classic black costume to red! I don't want to imagine how awkward that would have been.
I think this film is as far removed from the mythology of Hellraiser as the series got until Hellworld. As a standard serial killer film and character study of Joseph, it's okay - as a Hellraiser Sequel, it fails. It probably should have had nothing to do with the franchise. Clive Barker certainly felt that way, which led to a brief pissing contest between he and Scott Derrickson. As I said, the initial reaction was not very good, but I think some fans have
since become more tolerant of it. See it if you want and judge for yourself, but I can't recommend the film.
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Doug Bradley, Craig Sheffer, Nicholas Turturro, James Remar
Released by: Dimension Films
Special Features
- A Conversation with Doug Bradley Featurette
- Secrets of Hellraiser Revealed segments w/ Gary Tunnicliffe
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