HELLRAISER: HELLWORLD

HELLRAISER: HELLWORLD
By Aine

Damnit! Spoiler warning: If there is one thing I hate it’s the “But it was all a dream” type of ending. Here I was entranced and thrilled to finally see a Hellraiser movie that went back to the old style of the series. Pinhead was around constantly, there was mystery, the puzzle box was floating around, Cenobites were being menacing, and it was as it should be at last. It even threw in Lance Henriksen for good measure and I was so very happy. Damnit!

This 8th installment in the Hellraiser series began with a funeral for some poor sap who took the “Hellworld” on-line computer game too far and managed to get himself burned alive. His friends didn’t learn their lesson I suppose so they continue to play the Hellworld game. When all of them beat a particularly tough part of the game they are invited to a special Hellworld party hosted by none other than horror staple Lance Henrikson.

He proceeds to give our newbies a tour of the mansion built by the great toy-maker who created the original puzzle box and it’s exciting to see Hellraiser lore brought back to the heart of the series. One by one the group is picked off in increasingly horrible ways, as Lance Henriksen sometimes morphs into Pinhead to add to the horror and mystery.

Things get more intense as our lead blonde babe runs around trying to save her friends and get out of the house alive, but for some reason no one can find her when she calls for help and she ends up running and hiding from her dead friends who are now on the side of evil. After almost an entire movie of this and a pending climax you would think it would be really good. Then, the sad sad truth: Lance Henriksen is the father of the original dead boy and he wants revenge on his son’s friends for letting him be killed by Hellworld. So he’s given them a hallucinogenic drug and buried them alive with a cellphone next to them so he can plant ideas in their heads and freak them out. They also have a pipe for air conveniently.

It turns out the obnoxious British girl clawed her on throat out, one guy choked on his puke, and another was just scared to death. Two lived, I guess long enough for the villain to reveal his diabolical plot to them. Normally I am inclined to support projects penned by Joel Soisson, but this was a major let down and was just totally lame. Yes at the very end some cool Cenobite/Pinhead action does take place, and this time it is not just a dream, but it hardly makes up for the disappointment of the rest of the film.