THE RATING
THE LAIR EXPERTS
Matt: As soon as I heard 'Hellraiser' was the next in the long line of classic horror films that was going to be re-made, I feared the worst, especially with the track record of the previous sequels. After seeing it, I couldn't have been more wrong. Director David Bruckner did a marvelous job of honoring the traditional aspects of the lore, while adding a new spin to the franchise. Unlike past actors, Jamie Clayton did a fantastic job taking the reigns as the new Pinhead. She added a whole new dimension to the character and really made me forget the fact that they changed genders with it. Ben Lovett's score was also much better than almost all the sequels, and adding touches of Christopher Young's scores from the first two films was a really nice touch. On the negative side, besides the solid performance of Odessa A'zion as Riley, the supporting cast was very wooden and offered very little of substance. The villanous Voight came off as a dollar store version of Hellbound's Dr. Channard, and the mysterious boyfriend Trevor might as well start doing Mr. Mayhem commercials for Allstate because he is sure to suffer the same fate as Hellseeker's Dean Winters. The pacing was extremely slow by 'Hellraiser' standards, and could have been a more solid outing if the editing was tightened up a bit. Cut out about 15-20 minutes of useless footage that contributed nothing to the storyline, and it would have earned a much higher rating from me. As it is, I give it a respectable 6 out of 10, which I think is the combined score of every sequel since 'Hell On Earth'.
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