20140302: Horror Review--Hellraiser 5 2000

Hellraiser V: Inferno

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2000, rated R, 99 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 8,307 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 2 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No scores yet,' and 'No score yet' from audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 221,998 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Kevin Yagher, screenplay by Peter Atkins.
6. Starring: Craig Sheffer as Det Joseph Thorne, Nicolas Turturro as Det Tony Nenonen, James Remar as Dr. Paul Gregory, Noelle Evans as Melanie Thorne, Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Nicholas Sadler as Bernie, Carmen Argenziano as the Captain.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Det Thorne is a hypocritical cop.   He has a wife and child and an above board appearance, but also consorts with hookers and beats the crap out of 'suspects' or whoever bothers him.  He finds a puzzle cube in the course of his investigations.  Then the dreams start, and he finds the latest hooker he has been with dead in the shower in the place where they last met.


2. He enlists (with a bit of blackmail) his straight-shooting partner Det Nenonen to help him cover up the hooker's murder.  The two of them descend deeper and deeper into the seedier side of life in Denver.  After one of his confidential informants is killed, Thorne receives a tape showing the CI being killed by a cenobite.  When he shows the tape to his boss, his partner, and a tech specialist, the content is gone.  Ouch.  They investigate the scene, and everything is as Thorne described it from the tape.


3. Since Thorne cannot substantiate his sightings of the cenobites, his boss recommends that he spend time with a shrink, Dr Gregory.  The shrink turns out to be Pinhead in disguise.  His wife starts to object to his unexplained lengthy absences.


4. How well does Thorne deal with his demons?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  The series returns to 'take responsibility for your own actions,' Twilight Zone style.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Good-looking film until that jumpy nonsense towards the end.


2. Sound: 6/10 Nothing special.  Sound was not all that important to the film, which could have been quite an asset.


3. Acting: 8/10 Nicholas Turturro is as bad as ever.  Craig Sheffer gave one of his better performances.  James Remar and Carmen Argenziano gave their usual competent plus performances.  Doug Bradley was quite good as expected.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Not nearly as complex as HR4, but tremendously better executed.


5. SFX: 9/10 The SFX are much better in HR5.  Most of them concern Thorne's hallucinations, and most of them are rather good.