Hellraiser: Revelations Review

Movie: Hellraiser: Revelations
By: Maniac E
Date: October 23, 2011

So this is how it feels to be insulted

There comes a time when a story just needs to end. This can be due to a number of things. Either it's become too familiar, strayed too far from the source, or has stretched itself too thin. However, if there is still money to be made an end may be nowhere in sight. Dimension Films is known for milking franchises for all they're worth, especially Horror. Multiple sequels can kill a franchise, but not all of them are bad. The 'Hellraiser' series started on such a high and had its ups and downs through seven more films.

The film opens with two best friends Nico and Steven who apparently hate life, so they head out to Mexico for unknown reasons recording their exploits as they go along. They reach Mexico with the intentions to get as drunk as possible and get laid by the local hookers with for some reason no Mexicans in sight. This mis-adventure in ‘Mexico’ leads to a dead hooker and a flash forward to months later where Steven and Nico are assumed dead and missing. Steven’s mother soon gets her hands on their belongings from a private investigator who couldn’t find out what happened to them. Soon she finds the video the recorded and witnesses their exploits, where she witnesses Nico with a puzzle box in his hands and suddenly Pinhead is standing in-front of Nico spewing a few lines. It’s here we get our first good look at the “new” Pinhead and it’s just not the same.

After this, Steven’s mother begins to shed tears and quickly shuts the camera off, why the investigator gave the video back and found nothing out is beyond me. Stevens sister Emma finds the box in Stevens room and as you probably guessed begins tinkering with it herself. Soon the box glows and some weird things happen, suddenly Steven appears behind her and this is where the plot heads elsewhere and the twist and turns begin to appear. It is at this point that the truth behind what happened to Steven and Nico is revealed.

As expected the movie lacks all the important things needed to have for a Hellraiser movie. The story writers probably didn’t have much creativity left since they like to borrow a whole lot from the original. Even with a length of 70 minutes playtime the movie drags, unbelievable that you can make a Hellraiser movie drag with all the content that it is around for it. Dimension could have thought about the movie a bit more it shouldn’t have to be in this kind of state.

Doug Bradley did a good job rejecting this piece of pathetic movie making and which in the end is an insult towards all that adore the Hellraiser franchise. Stephan Smith Collins tries his best but he just looks like an anorexia, baby-faced pinhead. The movie just makes you want to look the other way around and throw away the disc. I can’t believe the rubbish they have made with this one. Dimension I hope you guys are glad with what you produced and I hope your remake fails as hard as this one.

Well there is one part that I liked and those were the gore effects that did their job in an effective way. It even has a bit of the old look and feel of the older movies. But thanks to the rest of the movie being poorly executed it doesn’t save the movie at all. The only way this movie would have survived would have been if Doug returned as Pinhead, the script would have been more (new) and wasn’t rushed maybe then it would have been something. Go watch something else like: Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s “No more souls” or just put on the first. But with this one you will feel cheated and betrayed.

BLURAY REVIEW

Image quality

The images of the bluray are crisp and clean, you can see effort has been put into the make-up and special effects. But the overall feel of everything just makes it look cheap and there are not more than 3 locations used in the whole movie so don't expect a lot of vibrant color scheme.

Sound

The sound is done nice with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Everything sounds as it should sound like the chain rattles really are done well. And the screams of the victims come along nicely.

Extras

None

Overall

All in all it is a sad day for Hellraiser this disc just isn't cutting it. While the image quality and the sound quality is good the rest leaves to be desired.

E1 Entertainment