20140304: Horror Review--Hellraiser 8 2005

Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American/Romanian live action feature length film, 2005, rated R, 89 minutes, horror, gore.
2. IMDB: 4.2/10.0 from 5,165 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 20% on the meter; 24% liked it from 17,470 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 326,738 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Rick Bota, screenplay by Joel Soisson and Carl V. DuPre.
6. Starring: Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Lance Henriksen as The Host, Katheryn Winnick as Chelsea, Henry Cavill as Mike, Christopher Jacot as Jake, Khary Payton as Derrick, Anna Tolputt as Allison, Victor McGuire as first policeman, Stelian Urian as Adam.


2. Setup, Plot
1. The picture begins in the Roman Catholic setting: nuns, so-so sculpture, churches, services for the dead, dreary music, and stained glass windows.  Coincident and discordant with that, we have young adults (well, children in adult bodies) who look all correct in their level of solemnity, which they will soon enough chuck off as just another aspect of their hypocrisy.  These are the folk headed for the grinder.


2. The protagonist group (Chelsea, Mike, Allison, Derrick, Jake, Adam) were all addicted to the MMORPG video game 'Hellworld,' and have come to the funeral of Adam.  Adam apparently committed suicide after a period of instability.  Jake is a bit stand-offish at the funeral because he thought the other four spent too much time at the game while Adam was in trouble.


3. If the titles are to be believed, two years go by.  The sub-group (Chelsea, Mike, Allison, Derrick) get tickets to the 5th annual secret Hellworld party at a large semi-secluded mansion. They meet Jake there, somewhat to their surprise.


4. Since they are first time party attendees, The Host shows them around his collection of Hellworld memorabilia.  All of them are quite impressed. The building is called Leviathan House, and supposedly was designed by Phillip Lemarchand. The house was originally a nunnery until 80 nuns went missing.  Then it became a house for the criminally insane, and developed a history of paranormal violence.  The staff took a bit of a wrong turn when they all took local anesthetics and proceeded to dismember each other.


5. Chelsea shows open skepticism to The Host.  He shows her a powerful hallucination in which he introduces himself as Pinhead.  All this is shrugged off, and they go to the party for getting drunk with masks on.


6. After that, we get down to divide and conquer.  The protagonists have some rather bad experiences, and the elimination derby is on.


7. Allison walks into a room marked 'Keep out.'  She should have done that.  Chelsea thinks she sees Adam, and pursues.  Jake goes exploring too, and meets Pinhead.  Then he notices that no one acknowledges him, except someone who has been dead for years.  Derrick goes looking for love, but needs his inhaler.  He just cannot get to it on the dance floor, and has to search hard to find it.  Mike finds a young woman who gives him some physical attention. Chelsea calls him, but he cannot be bothered.  Then his hallucinations start.


8. Chelsea stays a bit aloof, and resists the goings-on the best.  Will she survive the party?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Grieving father plays elimination derby with Hellworld gamers.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 A lot of VHS quality, which is disappointing.  Then again, this picture was straight-to-video.


2. Sound: 4/10 Music by Lars Anderson was not effective.


3. Acting: 3/10 Lance Henriksen seemed a touch not involved, but still delivered his lines professionally. Doug Bradley was good, as usual, in his short role.  The other actors just sucked rocks.  This definitely includes Henry Cavill, who later played Superman in Man of Steel (2013).


4. Screenplay: 4/10 There is some very terrible dialog, followed by more. "Like a bad horror movie, isn't it?" The Host asked Chelsea.  Motivations were often unclear.  The story seemed merely an elimination derby for twenty somethings with a Hellraiser setting.  The double reverse at the end was moderately interesting, and was the basic reason for 2/5 instead of 1/5.


5. SFX: 4/10 Not many SFX, and none of them were all that interesting.