Lets start this one off by saying I’m going back on a 5 year old review and giving it another lease of life. I watched this once before and quite frankly it didn’t do much for me. For curiousitys sakes I wanted to go back see what this movie would be like for on a second attempt.
THE PLOT
Amy is a journalist. She is sent by the company head to investigate a subculture called “Deaders”. The Deaders obviously have nothing to live for. They get their thrills in morbid nihilistic ways. Amy views a particularly creepy VHS the group took, and it obviously sparks her interest. So at her boss’ request she heads off to Bucharest to investigate the group.
If you’re not on the right side of the economy Bucharest can be a scary place. The general decay of the city adds to the horror of the film and builds some cool atmosphere. Amy investigates an apartment and find the petrified corpse of a young lady holding the lament configuration (The box that calls the Cenobites). Amy finds a video tape warning her of the dangers of the box. DO NOT OPEN THE BOX!!!
Shit starts to get creepy. Amy feels death all around her. She meets up with a group of the deaders on the subway. Bit by bit becomes involved with the group. They want the box back. What happens past this point? Well, I’ll leave it up to you to find out by watching the movie.
Hellraiser Deader is yet another instalment in the long running Hellraiser Franchise. The 7th in fact. Hellraiser’s main character “Pinhead” is horror icon. One of the most recognisable characters in the horror genre. I don’t know how to feel about this film. It is not a bad watch but still left me feeling very underwhelmed on the first watch. There is so much potential with a a character like this and I feel that the producers of this one are letting us down with a movie that watches more like TV show than a full feature film. Overall not a bad story line, in fact its pretty good. I just feel its a tale of squandered potential.
SOME BACKGROUND ON HELLRAISER DEADER
Since the original viewing I’ve done some research this film. What the producers were doing was buying scripts that weren’t related to the original franchise. It’s a great story. It just has nothing to with Hellraiser. Basically what happened is the producers found a way to get good (but cheap ) horror scripts from unknown writers and work it into the franchise.
THE VERDICT ON DEADER
Maybe they ran out of ideas for Hellraiser Deader? Money? Who knows? I still can’t get past the fact Pinhead barely makes an appearance in the film. This doesn’t feel like a “Hellraiser” film. I don’ think I’m the only one who felt this way as the move barely got any sort of a cinematic release. Straight to video for this one :/ .
I have to say on the first watch of this film I didn’t like the film. Most likely it was due to lack of Pinhead. On this run through, years later I gave it a fair chance and it really paid off. This is actually a great story. I stand by my comments that it would have been great to see more of Pinhead. If you can put that behind you though, you still have a great little horror movie. You just have to put assumptions and expectations of pinhead at the door and watch it for what it is. At least when Pinhead makes an appearance he is still played by Doug Bradley.
Also be sure to check out our reviews for: Hellraiser – Hellseeker
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