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User Reviews for: Hellraiser: Judgment

dalboz
3/10  5 years ago
Well, it's better than "Revelations," I will grant that. Taking a note from "Hellraiser: Inferno," we once again are following a cop and his partner(s) as they track a sadistic killer whose killing follow the Ten Commandments (name the film this brings to mind in ten, nine, eight, ...), all while the Cenobites seem to be doing...something in the background (seriously, I'm not sure what they're really up to; it starts at the beginning of the film with a discussion about how antiquated the Lament Configuration is and how outdated they seem to be with increasingly debauched pleasures and pains readily available; I don't know, it never seems to really go anywhere). Or we would be following them if we weren't already pretty much near the end of an investigation that had been going on for a while.

The really bizarre thing is that, for the tenth movie in the series, you can actually see the potential for a decent and interesting film here. But they drop the ball hard, and it's a potential that they fail to realize on an epic scale.

The main problem here, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, is that the film needed to be longer. More hints at the ultimate solution to the mystery needed to be dropped, enough so that when looking back, the audience could say, "Yeah, how did I miss that?" rather than "Did I miss something?" It also results in a real lack of characterization, although I have to admit that it's not entire for want of trying.

I like that there are hints at a bigger picture, even if they do fly in the face of established Hellraiser lore. For the first time, we see an actual angelic counterpart to the demonic Cenobites, although the problem here is that the Cenobites were never really established as demons, per se. It's also got a twist ending that's bizarre even by Hellraiser standards, and might have worked if Pinhead in particular were given more of a character in this film. Instead, the ending is entirely dependent on knowledge of him from previous films, but let's be honest here, no one who isn't familiar with the previous films will see this one.

Again, it's not phoned in like the previous Hellraiser film (I can't believe I also have to give credit for the film actually looking like it was filmed with a professional camera and not an iPhone like "Revelations"), but it's still so sloppy that it falls over itself trying to tell a bigger tale than I think they were ready for, and instead comes off as derivative and vastly disappointing.
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Sheldon Nylander
/10  2 years ago
Well, it's better than "Revelations," I will grant that. Taking a note from "Hellraiser: Inferno," we once again are following a cop and his partner(s) as they track a sadistic killer whose killing follow the Ten Commandments (name the film this brings to mind in ten, nine, eight, ...), all while the Cenobites seem to be doing...something in the background (seriously, I'm not sure what they're really up to; it starts at the beginning of the film with a discussion about how antiquated the Lament Configuration is and how outdated they seem to be with increasingly debauched pleasures and pains readily available; I don't know, it never seems to really go anywhere). Or we would be following them if we weren't already pretty much near the end of an investigation that had been going on for a while.

The really bizarre thing is that, for the tenth movie in the series, you can actually see the potential for a decent and interesting film here. But they drop the ball hard, and it's a potential that they fail to realize on an epic scale.

The main problem here, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, is that the film needed to be longer. More hints at the ultimate solution to the mystery needed to be dropped, enough so that when looking back, the audience could say, "Yeah, how did I miss that?" rather than "Did I miss something?" It also results in a real lack of characterization, although I have to admit that it's not entire for want of trying.

I like that there are hints at a bigger picture, even if they do fly in the face of established Hellraiser lore. For the first time, we see an actual angelic counterpart to the demonic Cenobites, although the problem here is that the Cenobites were never really established as demons, per se. It's also got a twist ending that's bizarre even by Hellraiser standards, and might have worked if Pinhead in particular were given more of a character in this film. Instead, the ending is entirely dependent on knowledge of him from previous films, but let's be honest here, no one who isn't familiar with the previous films will see this one.

Again, it's not phoned in like the previous Hellraiser film (I can't believe I also have to give credit for the film actually looking like it was filmed with a professional camera and not an iPhone like "Revelations"), but it's still so sloppy that it falls over itself trying to tell a bigger tale than I think they were ready for, and instead comes off as derivative and vastly disappointing.
Like  -  Dislike  -  0
Please use spoiler tags:[spoiler] text [/spoiler]
Sheldipez
6/10  3 years ago
Essentially a remake of Hellraiser Inferno with a twist.

It's better than a late entry in the Hellraiser series has any right to be. There's loads of gruesome, odd, Barker inspired imagery as you'd want from Pinhead and his crew. However all of that is sandwiched between a cop procedural story which you'd be drunk if you had a shot every time they cover one of usual tropes. Donut eating cops, shot, detective that drinks too much to deal with the case, shot, his wife has had enough of being absent and working the case, shot, investigating every crime scene with torches, shot, only two to three cops working a massive serial killer case which in real life would have an entire task force assigned, shot. Not to mention dozen other things that are rather silly like two brothers working on the force alongside one another conflicts of interest be damned. They say they are cops but you really don't get any indication that any one else works in this police station. It's also odd how they make a deal in prior films that opening the puzzle box is well... A puzzle whereas it's opened here in mere seconds by two people that don't know what it is.

On the plus side its brisk, short film and is at least better than bottom of barrel entries like Hellworld. It may not have Bradley but its certainly better than the latter entries he was happy to appear in and at least they try and do something with the mythology as Barker did in his Scarlet Gospels novel.
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