Hellraiser - Deader
|
Our Price: $9.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.32 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Hellraiser - Deader
Movie Review: To be watched
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are a collector of dvd's as much as me, I must have all of the hellraisers now. I have watched the first couple but not the rest so it wont be long before I get around to it. I like pinhead and the shows were in common with each other so far. I can't comment yet on this one but im sure it will be worth it.Movie Review: I had hoped for better
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved the first three Hellraiser films. I thought the fourth one a noble effort, even though its outer space location sounded warning bells. The fifth and sixth entries, both of which took the series in a totally different direction, were quite good in my opinion. I liked the idea of a more personalized hell presided over by good old Pinhead. Obviously, many fans screamed bloody murder over what has happened to Clive Barker's original vision. They seek a return to earlier films, I guess, or at least a return to the days before Pinhead ambled out of the shadows spewing one-liners like some demented Dirty Harry. I'm sympathetic to their demands even as I recognize that those days are likely gone forever, or at least gone until Clive Barker decides to revitalize the series. Old Clive hasn't been involved in these films for years. Instead, the Weinstein Brothers over at Dimension films got their hands on the series, and whenever those two hacks set their sights on something you can bet a diminution of the source material will quickly follow. One thing they've got going for them, I must say, is the decision to let "Hellraiser: Deader" sit in the vault for a couple of years.
Why? Because this movie is the weakest of the lot, not only inferior to the originals but also inferior to the preceding two installments. If you need a touchstone for "Deader," think of the personal hell theme found in parts five and six, but with even less Pinhead and the cenobites than found in those two films. In this outing, a reporter named Amy Klein (Kari Wuhrer) receives a most unusual assignment from her snooty British editor. The paper she works for, the London Underground, just acquired a most disturbing videotape. As snooty British editor and Amy watch in open mouthed shock, we see a group of grungy Eurotrash kids standing around in a grimy basement. One of the kids helps another kid lie down on a bed, puts a loaded pistol into her hands, and urges her to end her life. She does, and then comes back to life after the aforementioned kid gives her a couple of smooches on the lips. Hmmm. What's going on here? Euro-zombies on parade? Naw, it's just a cult known as the Deaders up to their old shenanigans again. Knowing that Amy can't turn down a juicy assignment, snooty editor sends her off to Romania in search of this dark cult. She's to report back with any relevant information.
Klein quickly locates the home of one of the cult members, bribes a greasy looking landlord into letting her into the apartment, and discovers that the girl is as dead as a doornail. She finds a videotape and a curious looking cube with ornate designs on it. Uh oh. Yep, it's the Lament configuration, and it's no time at all before Amy opens the box and receives a face full of chains as a reward. At this point "Hellraiser: Deader" descends into utter anarchy, much as parts five and six did after the main characters there opened the box. Klein starts experiencing incredibly freaky incidents, like seeing the leader of the cult jump in front of a moving train. She sees people sitting on benches bleeding, wakes up at odd times in entirely different locations, and runs into a cast of characters both weird and wacky. Amy is convinced that she's merely suffering through a very bad bout of dreams, but we know better. She did open that box, and she did unleash Pinhead and a couple of his cenobite cronies, but she's also caught up in some intricate conflict between the Underworld and the leader of the Deader cult. I won't say anymore--I don't won't to spoil a totally incomprehensible film for you--except to point out that "Deader" isn't very good or interesting.
In fact, Rick Bota's second Hellraiser film is actually quite boring. The pacing positively drags largely due to the head-scratching plot. Where's Amy going? Why is she going there? Who are these people she keeps running into? How did the Deader cult come to exist? These are questions without clear answers. But maybe Pinhead and the crew will come to the rescue! Nope, not really. We only see the man a couple of times in the course of the film and, what's worse, his lines are essentially the same dialogue we've heard in previous Hellraiser installments. He even says, "I am the way" more than once. Yawn. Well, maybe the gore will save the film! Don't bet on it. We don't see more than some heavy bleeding, pools of blood, and an exploding body at the conclusion of the film. I recall fondly the first time I saw "Hellraiser II" back in the day and being astounded at how many boundaries that film seemed to push. Those days are apparently over. "Deader" is a rather tame film less interested in pushing boundaries than in floating a series of confusing plotlines. Even the presence of the occasionally luminous Kari Wuhrer can't elevate the film above a mere average rating. She screams effectively, but seems to think smoking cigarettes and delivering lines with pseudo-attitude translate into an effective portrayal of a controversial journalist.
The most memorable thing I'll take away from "Deader" is the chuckle I got over that videotape of the cult. Apparently they captured the incident with more than one camera since we see professional grade editing throughout the presentation. Oh well, I shouldn't be too hard on this franchise. Most of the films in the Hellraiser series are interesting enough to watch. I do have hopes that "Hellraiser: Hellworld," coming out on DVD in September, is a better entry than this one. I can hope, can't I?
Movie Review: Different from all the other movies, but falls short
Summary: 3 Stars
This film was one of the long awaited new Hellraiser sequels that collected dust while being kept unreleased more than a year thanks to people over at Dimension. The original script for this film was done by Neal Marshall Stevens. The original story had nothing to do with the Hellraiser mythology, but then Dimension decided that this should be a new Hellraiser sequel. So what they did was throw in familiar characters and made one of the characters a descendant of another previous character from the other films. I really don't want to stress how long I've waited for them to release this movie along with Hellworld (which were both filmed back to back). Today both films are now available on DVD and that was when I decided to check them out and still to this day I'm unsure as to if it was worth the long wait.
Hellraiser Deader is about a journalist named Amy who goes undercover to investigate a group called the Deaders. A small club of people who fallow their leader Winter, a man who bring back the dead. As Amy goes deeper in her search she is led to an apartment where she finds some papers and a mysterious puzzle box. Unaware of the box or what it contains she opens it up and finds herself in a hellistic situation where she has to make a choice. The first thing that I wanted to point out was that they could have easily made this film into something different. It know for a fact that this wasn't originally meant to be a new Hellraiser sequel but what I really didn't like was the fact that you can easily tell. It really felt like they took an original story and threw in familiar characters that we seem to love and can't get enough of.
To me everything just seemed added in at the last minute and I had a hard time believing that this was a new Hellraiser entry. I guess it's because I'm very familiar with the franchise and I've fallowed the story line. With Deader you get a different plot mixed with nightmarish scenes much like the previous entries Inferno and Hellseeker. Each new Hellraiser film is a mystery which blend in with graphic horror and a head scratching turn of events. This film is very different from the previous installments and I was glad that it didn't have the same twist or outcome as the last two films. This movie is more about a female journalist who is in the middle this battle between these two cult like groups. I thought that part of the plot was very interesting and the small bit in the ending was pretty impressive despite its poor CGI quality.
I had no problem with the films music or acting. I also did like seeing Kari Wuhrer in a starring role. Most of her work now is either direct to video or television releases but I thought she did a great job with her role in this film. Much like the other films Doug bradley steals the show once again, coming back to play the role of our beloved horror movie monster Pinhead. Along with the character Pinhead we are also treated to a revival of another old and familiar Cenobite which just made the film a little bit better for me being a fan of the series and all. Speaking of which if you do happen to be a fan and follower of these movies then I'm sure most of you will be disappointed with some of the Hellraiser gimmick and tricks that we've seen many times in the past. That pretty much matches what I said earlier about finding it hard to believe that this was a new "Hellraiser" entry. Everything just isn't the same but I can't complain about it.
Overall I thought Deader was a decent film. It's different from all the other movies but it just falls short with the intensity and low budget feel of the picture. It was nice to see some old faces again but it's nowhere near as magical or breathtaking as the older films. I did enjoy the acting, music and it's nightmarish feel. But for me it's the films plot, editing and all of the gimmick crashes that prevents me from giving this a higher rating. It had a lot of potential but for me it just doesn't work. If you're a fan of the series then you might deem this a worthy entry, but if you fallow with the story of the series carefully then you just might find yourself bored or unimpressed in the end.
Movie Review: Temples of flesh
Summary: 3 Stars
For those still counting, there are now 8 Hellraiser movies. The first 4 made box-office appearances, with only the first two achieving a smidgeon of success. The 4th Hellraiser movie, Kevin Yagher's overlooked "Bloodline", did so poorly at the box-office that from that point on subsequent sequels #5 and #6 were relegated to straight-to-DVD status. As for entries #7(Deader)and #8(Hellworld) they didn't even make it that far, originally. Apparently Dimension Films thought so little of them that they just sat on their shelves gathering dust for a couple years, un-released in any format whatsoever. A company shake-up at Dimension now brings us these two new sequels to a franchise that was increasingly running out of ideas which each poor subsequent sequel. Amazingly, Hellraiser: Deader is actually a pretty good entry and well worth a watch for the undiscriminating horror fan.
Amy Klein is an American journalist from NYC who has recently been re-assigned to London to work for the "London Underground" paper. She's an expert of the urban underworlds, who secretly infiltrates and befriends the lost souls of crack houses, whore houses, S&M parlors and writes revealing exposes on them. Her new assignment is most interesting: To go to Bucharest, Romania and infiltrate the secret society of the "Deaders", a strange cult that encourage suicidal and down-on-their-luck people to kill themselves. The "Deaders" are then able to re-animate them and supposedly give them a new meaning to life. With the help of some insiders, she gathers clues and eventually ends up opening the secret box, bringing back Pinhead and his Cenobites on this side of the world. Pinhead and his minions of torture have a score to settle with the "Deaders" who are interfering with their universe and poor Amy now finds herself stuck in the middle of a very fierce battle...
"Hellraiser: Deader" is a competently shot sequel that makes good use of sound, music and some oppressively gothic Bucharest locations. Director Rick Bota throws us head-first into a dirty, sleazy underworld of junkies, crazies, fetish hounds and cult loonies. I particularly liked the subway car that appears throughout the movie. Now this is not your average subway car, bear in mind. It is one where pain and flesh addicts are attached to its walls with chains, as fetish-fiends fornicate to the tune of loud heavy metal music.
As for our heroine, Amy is a chain-smoking, self-destructive and cynical girl whose miscues provide a few unintentional chuckles throughout. For a journalist who is supposedly a seen-it-all veteran of underworld sleaze, she somehow freaks out at the sight of anything in the least bit disturbing. Her deer caught in the headlights look was wearing thin on me after a while and it's not until right at the end that she finally develops a backbone to her. Oh well, at least she's hot.
As one would expect, leaks in logic abound. Why would a newspaper company send an American journalist like Amy on an undercover European assignment? She obviously doesn't fit in, with her noticeable accent. And how come everyone Amy comes across in Romania speaks perfectly fluent English? They speak Romanian in Romania don't they? But heck, minor squabbles these are. What's a horror b-movie good for when you can't poke a little fun at plot holes? As for ol' Pinhead and gang their appearances are very limited throughout. I counted two 30-second appearances by Pinhead (played again by Doug Bradley) on his own and then there's a rather gory 5-minute sequence at the end with him and his cenobites. I can't help but feel like this franchise has become one where the whole Hellraiser theme is simply a banner and image with the brilliant mythos that Clive Barker created being swept aside. Still, that doesn't make "Deader" a bad film. For most of the time, I forgot I was even watching a Hellraiser movie, rather I was engrossed with Amy's quest. Despite its flaws and formulaic nature, "Hellraiser: Deader" is a fine addition to the Hellraiser cannon, one that should appease many fans and newcomers alike.
Movie Review: Not really a Hellraiser movie, but fun anyway
Summary: 3 Stars
Hellraiser: Deader (Rick Bota, 2005)
A funny thing happened on the way to the review. I mentioned, offhand, that instead of watching the Academy Awards this year, travesty that they always are, I watched Hellraiser: Deader and Hellraiser: Hellworld, and would be reviewing them. I made a few vaguely positive comments. There was an immediate avalanche of debate about the relative merits of these two movies, far more so than there was about my various remarks disparaging the Oscars. Which leads one to think that perhaps one of the hallmarks of a movie's "goodness," as it were, is how much debate is sparked over whether said movie is, in fact, good or not. And while I'm certainly not going to call Deader a timeless film classic, compared to some of the other recent Hellraiser-franchise movies, Deader actually has quite a bit going for it.
Plucky reporter (for they must always be plucky) Amy Klein (Sliders' Kari Wuhrer) uses the darknesses in her past to drive her life as an investigative reporter. When her boss gets a video in the mail that seems to show a woman committing suicide and being brought back to life, she's intrigued, and he's already got her booked on the next trip to Romania. She meets an odd band of characters there, but finds herself unable to uncover even the merest shred of truth...
The first thing you should know about Deader is that it's not a horror film at all; it's a mystery, and it's paced like one. It almost seems as if the Hellraiser aspects of the film (Pinhead makes a couple of cameos) were added as afterthoughts to an already-existing screenplay. Probably not the wisest decision; while tacking on the Hellraiser name was sure to get the film a distro deal, the movie has raised the ire of many devoted fans of the franchise. I can understand why; after all, as I said, this isn't a horror film. The gore, in most cases, is nothing you'd find outside a BBC mystery show, and the Hellraiser-esque footage (which may even be intercut from earlier films in the series) is generic. If you go into it looking for a Hellraiser experience, you are almost certain to be disappointed.
The second thing, and the most surprising, is that Kari Wuhrer, a name that has always been synonymous with "bad actress," has actually matured quite a bit in her acting ability. She's still a long way from Oscar-quality, but it's at least no longer painful to watch her act while she still has clothing on.
A surprisingly good movie, as long as you're not expecting much. ** ½