20140303: Horror Review--Hellraiser 7 2004

Hellraiser: Deader

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American/Romanian live action feature length film, 2004, rated R, 88 minutes, horror. Spoken word is in English.
2. IMDB: 4.6/10.0 from 4,897 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 4 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 17% on the meter; 24% liked it from 13,474 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 220,241 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Rick Bota.
6. Starring: Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Kari Wuhrer as Amy Klein, Paul Rhys as Winter, Simon Kunz as Charles Richmond, Marc Warren as Joey, Georgina Raylance as Marla.


2. Setup, Plot
1. The picture starts out in a large, run down flat in London which contains several abusers of alcohol and drugs.  The mostly blocked daylight slowly stimulates wakening.  Amy takes a few last snaps, and turns off her sound recorder.  She leaves to go to the offices of a publication, 'London Underground'...after some considerable cleanup, that is.  When she goes to meet her boss, Charles Richmond, the scent of patchouli oil precedes her. Amy and Charles have known each other for quite some time.  Charles shows her a tape about 'deaders,' then gives her a new assignment concerning the accuracy of the tape.


2. The tape has what at first seems to be a snuff film.  A young woman shoots herself in the head with a heavy pistol.  She seems quite dead.  Winter, the leader of the forsaken-looking 'youth' that watched the head shot gives her mouth-to-mouth and the stricken woman revives.


3. The envelope containing the tape had a return address.  Charles sends Amy to Bucharest, Romania, where all the 'cool' Euro trash go for thrills.  ('Amsterdam is so 90s.')  Amy finds the return address in Bucharest.  She finds the exact flat, discovers a body dead by suicide, a scrapbook of disturbing photographs, a puzzle cube, next steps to investigate, and a plea for help.  Later, when she is in private, she runs her hands over the puzzle cube, and gets her first (hallucinatory) encounter with Pinhead after opening it partially.  She keeps looking, then runs afoul of the local gendarmes.  Charles bails her out, then exhorts her to keep after the story, again back in Bucharest.


4. When she continues the investigation, her hallucinations get much worse.  She manages to witness the act of 'resurrection.'  She has her first chilling conversation with Winter, and gives him the puzzle cube.  Winter claims he is trying to recover his inheritance.  He attempts to recruit her in his war against Pinhead since she can open the puzzle cube.


5. Pinhead, on the other hand, sees Winter (a descendant of the puzzle box's creator) as an interloper in his domain.  Pinhead exhorts Amy to help him against Winter, since Pinhead is her only way out of her current mess.


6. Can Amy find her way back to stability and reality in this metaphysical war?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Amy investigates the war between Pinhead and Winter, plus her own demons.
2. Eight of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Well shot in daylight and in the dim night scenes.


2. Sound: 10/10 Strong and effective.


3. Acting: 10/10 This is, hands down, the best performance I've ever seen from Kari Wuhrer. Simon Kunz, Paul Rhys, Marc Warren, Georgina Raylance, and Doug Bradley were all quite good.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 A little weak on exposition, but not by much.  On the whole, well-told.


5. SFX: 8/10 Best in the series so far.