bilities, he pledges to close the box for good. Thus, Pinhead chases the L’Merchant men through generations until he encounters the aforemen- tioned Dalai Lama of the solar sys- tem, whose space station is itself a giant puzzle. Thwarted by a hologram and a few lasers, Pinhead and the original box get locked inside the new contraption and the portal to hell is closed forever. Or is it? Director Kevin Yagher shrugged out of the blame for this shaky prequel/sequel by crediting the fictional scapegoat pseudonym “Alan Smithee” instead. Still, this re- mains his only feature film as direc- tor.
HELLRAISER: INFERNO(2000)
In an inspired bit of casting, the first
direct-to-video Hellraiser stars Craig Sheffer (Barker’s Nightbreed) as Joseph Thorne, a coked-out, dirtbag cop who finds the puzzle box at a grisly crime scene. After a glimpse of its powers, and a couple of run-ins with a new breed of Cenobites that would give Gene Simmons tongue envy, he tracks it back to a mysterious individual called The Engineer. Vio- lated bodies start piling up with sev- ered children’s fingers left as calling cards, while Thorne – suffering from hallucinations that frequently become reality – engages in a predictable game of cat-and-mouse with The En- gineer. Pinhead has little more than a cameo in what comes off as more of an improbable cop drama than a Hell- raiser installment, but bonus points for casting James Remar (TV’s Dex- ter) as a creepy beardo priest.
HELLSEEKER (2002) Kirsty Cotton (Laurence reprising
HELLRAISER:
her role) and husband Trevor (Dean Winters of TV’s Rescue Me) are clearly in love when they veer off a bridge and crash their car into a river. Kirsty’s apparently killed, but Trevor lives and, a month later, he’s still got a boo-boo in his head that keeps him from knowing what’s real and what’s imagined. Haunted by morbid visions, he soon learns that Kirsty’s body was never found and he’s suspect numero uno in her disappearance. And what’s with these fantasy sequences of three different women seducing him? Fit- tingly, Pinhead shows up while Trevor’s getting acupuncture, to ex- plain that he’s the one who’s dead, not Kirsty. Yep, Trev, the three women (whom he was humping),
Pathways To Hell: (clockwise from top left) Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Hellseeker, Deader, Revelations, Inferno, Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth, Bloodline and Hellworld.
and one of his buddies were merely Kirsty’s chips in another game of soul poker with old Pinhead. Silly rabbit, you’ve been in purgatory this whole time. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Bad CGI, ludicrous writing and overwrought acting – don’t seek this out.
HELLRAISER: DEADER(2005) Kari Wuhrer (Eight Legged Freaks) stars as Amy Klein, a hard-boiled photo-
journalist investigating a Romanian cult of “Deaders”– who seemingly live be- yond death while under the spell of a mysterious leader. After finding the puzzle box in a dead girl’s apartment, Amy finds the cult’s headquarters and unwillingly becomes a victim herself. Suffering painless wounds that cause her to bleed all over town while looking for answers, she slides between life and death before discovering the cult guru is a descendant of toymaker Phillip L’Merchant. Pin- head appears and takes back the souls of the Deaders he was cheated out of, except for that of Amy, whose suicide closes the box once more. Deader epito- mizes much of the series’ reliance on hallucinations and dream sequences
whenever the screenwriter gets painted into a corner.
HELLWORLD(2005) A group of friends addicted to an
HELLRAISER:
online role-playing game called Hell- world convene at a secret party for game diehards at “Phillip L’Mer- chant’s second greatest creation,” Leviathan House. The teenagers wal- low in every macabre detail as their host, played by Lance Henriksen, shows them around amidst an Eyes Wide Shut-style fête for the college set. One by one, the gang gets trapped and tortured in various rooms throughout the premises – this paint- by-numbers slasher film is dripping with more stereotypes and clichés than blood. Filmed back-to-back with Deader, this self-referential entry has Pinhead playing boogeyman rather than chancellor of purgatory.
REVELATIONS (2011) Cinematographer Victor Garcia
HELLRAISER:
(Mirrors 2) directed this eighth sequel, scheduled for release some time this year. Pinhead is back but Doug Bradley did not reprise his iconic role. Some creepy new hairless wonder named Stephan Smith Collins did the honours instead. A tense dinner party between the grieving families of two missing teenage boys presumed dead takes a bizarre turn when one of the boys surfaces, severely beaten. Ac- cording to an official synopsis, “Relief and joy are mixed with a myriad of [sic] questions and concerns and soon a mass of secrets, hidden agendas and evil truths take us on a journey into the bizarre and terrifying world of Pinhead and the Cenobites.”
HELLRAISER(2012) News of a remake has been in the
wind since 2006, but the director’s chair has been a cinematic hot potato with everyone from Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (Inside) to Patrick Laugier (Martyrs) and Anthony DiBlasi (Dread) rumoured to helm it. Most re- cently, the IMDb lists director/editor Patrick Lussier and screenwriter Todd Farmer, the dudes behind the 2009 My Bloody Valentine remake and the upcoming third film in the rebooted Halloween series, attached.
For Hellraiser fans, the road
through purgatory has occasionally been paved with pain but Pinhead’s minions may find solace in knowing fresh hells will soon be unleashed.
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