My love affair with Clive Barker began at the tender age of 13 when I accidentally came across a copy of The Hellbound Heart. My discovery quickly descended into obsession as I ravenously began to consume any and all works Barker had done at that point. Once I had consumed his writing, I went on to find his movies. Hellraiser, being the best of his films it seemed, also became my favorite. This also solidified Pinhead as my number one horror movie monster, and I’ve since followed all the Hellraiser movies with a most critical eye.
I’m confident in stating that the Hellraiser series essentially ended with Bloodlines. Inferno, Hellseeker, Deader, and Hellworld were all hastily re-written as Hellraiser movies from totally unrelated scripts. This brings me around to the topic at hand: Revelations is the first script written as a Hellraiser movie from the get-go, and it shows. The main word I believe writer Gary J. Tunnicliffe had in mind while creating this was “reverence”. He treated this as an homage instead of a sequel, and it’s clear he had an excellent understanding of the atmosphere of the original.
We begin the film with what looks like a hastily made found-footage movie. A couple of brat teens have gotten their hands on the infamous puzzle box, they open it, and Cenobitic shenanigans ensue. Just when you think this whole movie is going to be a found-footage-crap-fest, we pan back to see a parent holding a camcorder and watching the horror on the view screen. It seems her son was one of these boys that disappeared mysteriously, their belongings mailed back to the parents by an unknown party. In the midst of a dual family “where could our kids have gone” argument, the sister comes in and finds the puzzlebox hidden in the bag with the camcorder. She opens the box partway, and her brother escapes from hell. The rest of the movie is told as two storylines. In one we have the family fretting over their injured and seemingly mentally damaged son, in the other we get the flashbacks of what happened to the boys during their quest for “the ultimate experience”. We Hellraiser fans know where THAT will lead…
The acting was fairly up and down, but believable for the most part. My biggest disappointment was that Doug Bradley, the original and (until now) only actor to portray Pinhead, was not appearing in this film. However Stephan Smith Collins does a pretty bang up job in his portrayal as the lead Cenobite, and almost has Bradley’s voice and speech pattern perfected.
When I sat down and Netflixed this movie I was prepared for another effortless, secondhand Hellraiser hack job. What I got was a fairly well made movie with a fairly well told story, even if some of it was lifted directly from the originals. But, hey! Isn’t imitation the ultimate form of flattery?
Aims high, but didn’t quite hit the mark 5/10
No disrespect since you enjoyed this movie even mildly but I felt this was worse than.any of the sequals after bloodlines. This one was a big pile of steaming sh…well you know. But everyone likes what they like. This was the one that should never got the green light
I honestly think that since my expectations were absolute zero, it was easy to impress from there. At least they tried, ya know?
It’s not Hellraiser if Doub Bradley ain’t in it.. And this movie sucked, it was just awful.. :/