Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Writer: Clive Barker, Paul Harris Boardman, Scott Derrickson

Tagline: The Terrifying New Chapter In The "Hellraiser" Legacy!

Actors: Craig Sheffer, Nicholas Turturro, James Remar, Doug Bradley, Nicholas Sadler, Noelle Evans, Lindsay Taylor, Matt George, Michael Shamus Wiles, Sasha Barrese

Runtime: 1h 39m

Category: Psychological, Torture

Synopsis: Detective Thorne has just arrived at the scene of a gruesome crime of an old acquaintance. There he discovers the infamous puzzle box. After a little spat with a hooker later that night, he opens the box. Soon, almost everyone he comes into contact with is murdered by a faceless man with a whip of metal hooks. In his quest to find out who the killer is, he takes on another challenge to find the child who has been getting his fingers cut off and left at each crime scene. The entire time, all people can tell him is that a man known as The Engineer is running the whole thing. Can he find The Engineer and stop the murders before he completely looses his mind?

Review: Right off the bat…this is not your typical Hellraiser flick. It does not follow any lines left by it predecessors, nor does it have the same gruesome taste. But…it was a good movie. I thought that, at first, the movie sucked, and couldn’t wait to write this review so I could bash the hell out of it. But after puzzling over it for a fortnight, I have decided that the movie did not suck. Although it did, ever so slightly, follow the original story in context, but not storyline. The only real things that followed the original story were a discussion about the puzzle box (which finally has a name, The Lament Configuration), and the Cenobites.

The story was really weird. Near the end of the movie there were a lot of time jumps, not quite Tarantino-ish, but jumps all the same. I loved finding out at the end (although I had figured it out long before) that he was already living in Hell. I loved the depiction of a personal Hell, differentiated from person to person. Even after he shot himself, he ended up back in the hotel bathroom where it all started. Cool story…but not for a Hellraiser.

The acting was actually pretty good. Craig Sheffer did a good job of playing a hard-working detective with family problems who is, pretty much, going insane. There really wasn’t much more acting…I mean, yeah there was, obviously, but he pretty much carried the movie all the way through.

The gore was minimal…not bad or anything, just minimal. It was done very well and I liked it when it showed itself, but it just seemed to pop up real quick then scurry away like Dick Chaney. I don’t like Dick Chaney. Anyway, seeing as how Clive Barker came back to help with this one, I was expecting a little more. Oh well.

Rating: 16. I want to rate it higher but due to my oath to stay objective, I have to be fair. One actor carried the whole movie, the gore was cool, but short and quickly over with. The story was terrific though; it’s been a while since I’ve seen this kind of a compelling story. Reminds me a bit of Requiem for a Dream…but not as psychotic. Overall…good movie…bad addition to the Hellraiser series, even though the concept was the depiction of a personal hell. (16of25).