Joseph: “I don't understand.”

Pinhead: “Ah, the eternal refrain of humanity. Pleading ignorance, begging for mercy. ‘Please, help me. I don't understand’."

I was shocked when director Scott Derrickson's name appeared on the screen. Yep, the same director as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, Doctor Strange, and The Black Phone. I guess we all must start somewhere.

So, this is the straight-to-video era of the Hellraiser movies, with ‘Bloodline’ being the last to have a theatrical release. It's also the era that the franchise started to go lucid “what is reality?” psychological phrase.

The biggest challenge of watching the movie is putting up with the main character, the biggest scumbag you will ever see. In the past, we had movies where the main characters were anti-heroes or straight-up villains, and we don’t like them, but we can’t bring ourselves to stop watching. Here, you do not get that. So, whenever something horrific happened to the character, I didn’t care, and that was throughout the film.

Weirdly this feels like two different movies. Because even though this is a Hellraiser movie, the cenobites and Pinhead feel forced in.

This is less Hellraiser and more Murder Mystery Movie of the Week

This would've been a good sci-fi mystery without the connection to Hellraiser and it's an unnecessary change to the story that only happened because of greed.

horror mystery that just happens to have cenobites

That doesn’t bode well for what came after! :joy:

Wow! I’m not even sure that this was supposed to be a Hellraiser film. It seemed like they inserted the Lament Configuration and Pinhead into a movie which had been written without the plot having anything to do with either!? Doug Bradley’s 3 and a half minutes on screen as Pinhead was disappointing. I won’t be watching this one again.

P.S. who’s fingers were they? If the main character was the child with the cut off fingers then how did he have fingers as an adult? I can’t cope with this movie.

It's quite a good Silent hill movie! I really loved it!

Less is certainly more in this instalment

A strange twist to make this a Hellraiser movie. It certainly felt like it was all ready to shoot and then the franchise was bolted on. Never the less it's a refreshing change of pace and actually held attention fairly well. It also does a great job of portraying the uselessness of man when faced with Hell (if such a thing can be said)