20140304: Horror Review--Hellraiser 9 2011

Hellraiser IX: Revelations

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, rated R, 75 minutes, horror, supernatural.
2. IMDB: 2.8/10.0 from 3,196 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 350,000 USD.  Spoken word is in English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' 5% liked it from 615 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 161,216 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Victor Garcia; screenplay by Gary J. Tunnicliffe.
6. Starring:  Tracey Fairaway as Emma Craven, Nick Eversman as Steven Craven, Steven Brand as Dr. Ross Craven, Devon Sorvari as Sarah Craven, Sebastien Roberts as Peter Bradley, Ross Gillespie as Nico Bradley, Sanny van Heteren as Kate Bradley, Stephan Smith Collins as Pinhead. 


2. Setup, Plot
1. Filmed in LA, supposedly takes place in Mexico.  Right.  Smallest budget of the nine films.  The six year gap between HR 8 and HR 9 comes from the Weinstein company Miramax losing rights to the series and Puzzlebox Films picking up the rights.  The film was shot on a short schedule, and Doug Bradley did not return to reprise his role as Pinhead.


2. Nico and Steven bid farewell to Los Angeles on their way to Tijuana, MX.  Their aims are to get wasted or connect with sex workers.  We jump to Tijuana.  Nico is fooling about with a puzzle cube.  He succeeds in opening it.  Pinhead and two cenobites appear.


3. The Cravens and the Bradleys (parents of the doomed idiots, Steven and Nico) get together to have an evening together.  Emma is upset that no one talks about the sons, since Steven was her brother and Nico was her boyfriend.  She wonders why her mother spends time in Steven's room watching the tape the boys made over and over again.  Peter supports her in wanting to discuss it.


4. After a time, Emma watches some of the video, and starts playing with the puzzle cube.  The level of anxiety rises when this is revealed.  The anxiety ratchets up when Steven returns.  When they try to call 911, they find that their telephones are not working.  They decide to transport Steven, but their vehicles go missing.  It just keeps getting better.


5. As 'Steven' recovers a bit, secrets come out, many of them quite nasty, and blood starts to flow.  Will anyone get out of this alive?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Easily the worst of the nine films in the series.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Shaky cam, minus 4 points, immediately.  Terrible contrast, terrible framing, terrible focus.  Some of the film looks OK.


2. Sound: 4/10 Not very effective.


3. Acting: 0/10 Stephan Smith Collins is a terrible replacement for Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Whoever wrote Pinhead's lines was even worse.  From the beginning, the dialog is very bad.  A young woman playing a Mexican native speaks Spanish with a very American accent.  I did not like the performance of any of the actors.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Bad dialog to go with the wretched acting.  There is a story of sorts, but it develops slowly, and still seems muddled at the end.  The fractured time lines did not help all that much.


5. SFX: 2/10 Poor compared to the earlier films, even though this one was released in 2011.  The credits ran long, still mention the Weinsteins, and had better production values than the rest of the film.