20140303: Horror Review--Hellraiser 6 2002

Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian live action feature length film, 2002, rated R, 89 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.1/10.0 from 6,078 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 3 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 0% on the meter; 36% liked it from 16,265 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 227,240 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Rick Bota, screenplay by Tim Day and Carl V. DuPre.
6. Starring: Dean Winters as Trevor Gooden, Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton Gooden, Doug Bradley as Pinhead/Merchant, Rachel Hayward as Allison.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Husband Trevor and wife Kirsty are traveling along in a Volvo, having a lively conversation, then a lengthy kiss.  Unfortunately, neither of them was looking at the road ahead of them.  They run off the road into a small river.  Trevor gets out.  Kirsty gets free of her seatbelt, but the door that Trevor opened wide for her mysteriously closes.  Trevor wakes in hospital later, but Kirsty did not make it back with him.


2. Trevor returns to work and gets a barrage of questions rather than any sympathy at all.  His female boss expects Trevor to return to his habit of servicing her.  She and his coworkers remind him that they are always being recorded.


3. Kirsty's body is not found.  Eventually the police investigation contacts Trevor, and he has some explaining to do. Trevor continues his wayward ways, and the hallucinations start.  He seeks help from psychiatry and from acupuncture.  However, both of his caregivers turn out to be self-delusions.  Or were they?  The film takes a few turns on that point.


4. Things get much worse for Trevor, but do they ever get better?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Follows another tortured conscience doing a bad job of dealing with its past.
2. Five of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Fuzzy, VHS quality over Netflix.


2. Sound: 7/10 The score is somewhat helpful in setting a creepy tone, and accentuating painful moments.


3. Acting: 5/10 Dean Winters is a more or less serviceable supporting actor on television, but has no business being the lead in a feature film.  The supporting players were not all that memorable.  It was nice to see a more mature Ashley Laurence in a short but nice performance.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The story for this film is reminiscent of HR5, in that it seems to be about the tortured conscience of one particular wrong doer. It is on the simple side, so the quality depends on the execution, and the acting was not all that good.  Pinhead in this film is just a prop, not really an essential character. This film has clearly lost the mission, and should call itself something else.