Worst Hellraiser Sequel

[rhett]

Honestly, remove the bad press about Revelations being filmed over a couple of weeks and the fact that Doug Bradley wasn't involved because of the rushed sched and the film actually holds up okay. In terms of structure it is probably the closest film in the entire series to the original, and the focus is thankfully much more geared towards the cenobites. The effects were quite good too, all things considered. I liked it more than anything post Bloodline, barring that nice twist in Hellseeker. It's a shame Bradley wasn't involved because that's the main thing holding the movie back.

[MisterTwister]

Originally Posted by rhett

Honestly, remove the bad press about Revelations being filmed over a couple of weeks and the fact that Doug Bradley wasn't involved because of the rushed sched and the film actually holds up okay. In terms of structure it is probably the closest film in the entire series to the original, and the focus is thankfully much more geared towards the cenobites. The effects were quite good too, all things considered. I liked it more than anything post Bloodline, barring that nice twist in Hellseeker. It's a shame Bradley wasn't involved because that's the main thing holding the movie back.

This.

People can huff and puff about the film all they want but at least the damn thing feels like a Hellraiser film.

The cinematography by David Armstrong is excellent and the practical gore is nice.

Sadly the wannabe Pinhead and poor acting from most of the cast holds it back but I'd still watch it over any of the sequels past Bloodline.

[Copyboy]

Originally Posted by rhett

Here...I'll help!

one had a cute reporter girl who smelled of cigarettes and patchouli

Hellraiser III.

one had Kirsty return

Hellseeker.

one had kids either at a rave or house party

Hellworld.

one was a Carnival of Souls rip off

Also Hellseeker.

Thanks, Rhett! Ha ha! I do remember III though, and there's another post-space one with a reporter girl. This one had dark hair though and I remember her boss saying she smelled of cigarettes and patchouli. And was Craig Sheffer in one or am I thinking of something else?

Oops. Just noticed the new reviews posted for some of these. Will have to check them out to refresh my memory.

[Cooperkill]

To me, Bloodline was the worst until Hellworld came along, and Hellworld was the worst until Revelations came along. I don't care how long it took to film, and I care even less about who plays Pinhead for five minutes. Revelations is a piss-poor travesty in a series that has way too many awful entries.

[maybrick]

The first two direct to video films were surprisingly pretty good. The third one, Deadworld, I gave up on about 8 minutes in when it featured a college kid dressed as Cenobite and a chick said "Cenobites aren't real, you know." I suppose I should have given it more of a chance but sometimes you can just tell when something is going to be shit. Never watched any of the ones more recent than that.

I've always thought that Bloodline got a bad rap that it didn't deserve. I liked it more than part III.

[Conal Cochran]

Originally Posted by MorallySound

YES! Another Inferno lover!

I am with you guys!

[Body Boy]

Lol, after watched IX: Revelations, I have to say that the worst is still Part VI: Hellseeker. Actually, though low in budget and weird Pinhead, Revelations clocking in at 70 minutes without credits is much easier to swallow than the other DTV sequels aside from Inferno.

My rankings are as follows:

Hellraiser (1987)
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Hellraiser V: Inferno (2000)
Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992)
Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996)
Hellraiser IX: Revelations (2011)
Hellraiser VII: Deader (2005)
Hellraiser VIII: Hellworld (2005)
Hellraiser VI: Hellseeker (2002)

[Kolpitz]

Originally Posted by Copyboy

Thanks, Rhett! Ha ha! I do remember III though, and there's another post-space one with a reporter girl. This one had dark hair though and I remember her boss saying she smelled of cigarettes and patchouli. And was Craig Sheffer in one or am I thinking of something else?

Hellraiser: Deader is probably the one you're thinking of with the reporter. I don't care for it all, so I don't remember how the character is described. Craig Sheffer is in Hellraiser: Inferno, which I think is awesome.

[horror addict]

The only one I haven't seen is Revelations, and I honestly don't really care to. As for the first 8, I'm going with Deader as the worst. I've always liked Kari Wuhrer, but that movie just bored the shit out of me.

Also, count me in on the Inferno love. I quite like Hellseeker too, which sort of feels like a sequel more to Inferno than to the rest of the series in a lot of ways, both of them being stories primarily about one man's journey into madness and damnation. Then again, I really like Bloodline, so what do I know?

Here's my series ranking:

1. Hellbound
2. Hellraiser
3. Hell On Earth
4. Inferno
5. Bloodline
6. Helllseeker
7. Hellworld
8. Deader

[DVD-fanatic-9]

Originally Posted by horror addict

I'm going with Deader as the worst. I've always liked Kari Wuhrer, but that movie just bored the shit out of me.

If only I'd been bored. I was too busy bashing my head against the wall because it was so painfully awful. Every second. Making my brain actually react to everything bad about it, instead of Hellworld, where I was allowed to just watch light stupidity. And at least that movie looked good. After the opening scene at a funeral, it was all uphill. Though... extremely slowly.

Originally Posted by horror addict

Then again, I really like Bloodline, so what do I know?

Well, I'm tempted to say you know a lot. But I won't, because you think Hellbound is the best film and that thing was so terrible, I started hating the 80's. Thankfully, I just saw Bud the Chud last week so now I have a reason to like the 80's again. (I'm deadly serious; when I think about everything that was genuinely artificial, overproduced, and soul-crushing about that sickeningly conservative decade, this film will stand to me as one of the leading symbols of that. Yet- not as a sobering reaction to it, but as a product of it.)

However, Bloodline is just harmless. And so whacked, that it's legitimately entertaining to watch how wrong that film goes. I said it before: it's as though they were taking inspiration from the Power Rangers. The Cenobites wanted to conquer Earth. It was cute.

[Rft183]

I've just recently watched most of the sequels. For the most part, I've enjoyed them all. The problem I have with them is that they all seem to run together. I can't remember which is which! I specifically remember the first and second ones, but after that, it's just a mish-mash (kind of what some of the cenobites look like!)

[dave13]

after this years franchise harvest i decided to watch all the Rick Bota-helmed sequels, which i had kind of forgotten about. i'd hated inferno when it first came out, and had passed on the next three when it seemed like they were more of the same. but now i can actually offer an opinion on the last three sequels (not counting revelations, which doesn't seem like it should be considered cannon without Bradley).

Hellseeker - this one was ok, and probably the best of the 3 directed by Rick Bota. Everything that doesn't have Kirsty in it feels like a retread of Inferno (at least, what I remember inferno being about, since i haven't seen it in over a decade). i found the main portion focusing on Kirsty's husband tollerable, but not really that engaging. I mean, the bottom line is that the guy is obviously a douchebag, even if he doesn't remember it at first, so its hard to feel any sympathy and thus any actual suspense about what will eventually happen to him. Ashley Laurence didn't disappoint, though - she's a great actor, and she plays her part with a lot of conviction. The years have also been very kind to her, as I think she looked even prettier in this than she did in the first two. So the first 5 minutes and the last 10 are definitely the high points of the film. Although, as soon as the relationship between Kirsty and Pinhead is revealed at the end, I couldn't help but think about their exchange in Hellbound when Pinhead (or was it the female cenobite?) tells Kirsty that they're not interested in making any more deals with her. What happened to that? Oh well. This one wasn't so bad.

Deader - I can see why some people hate this one even more than Hellworld, since its just such a storytelling mess and makes absolutely no sense. But there are some decent performances (I like Kari Wuhrer, she was the best thing about Anaconda), and the subway train is entertainingly sleazy. Also, since this one is actually SET in Romania, the cinematography is allowed a little bit of room to breathe in the exteriors, which was nice. A bit more gore and nudity isn't enough to save this one, though, since the story is just so terrible. By the end of it, despite trying my best to pay attention, I had no idea what the hell was supposed to be happening. I just read Chunkblowers review, and he mentions a sequence at the end in an insane asylum. try as i might, i have no memory of that scene at all. so that goes to show just how successful I was at following the stupid thing. Also, did anybody else notice that this was produced by Stan Winston? What the hell is that about? Was he attached to the initial spec script, and just ended up with his name stuck on the thing? Weird.

Hellworld - as completely schizophrenic as Deader was, at least it wasn't aggressively bad. The characters are so smugly annoying in this one, the story so insultingly bad and pandering and desperate-to-be-hip, that this has now supplanted Inferno as my vote for worst sequel (still haven't seen Revelations, though). Poor Lance Henrickson. Poor Henry Cavill. the online game was beyond stupid, both as a plot point and in its actual execution, the self-aware wannabe-meta aspect of having all the characters know about cenobites and the lament configuration, etc. was grating, and the final "twist" was moronic. Oh, and why the hell did they keep calling it the "lamont" configuration? ugh. BAD.

when i watched the children of the corn series a year or so ago, i eventually forced myself to watch the syfy remake, despite it not really being a part of the series. due to the purely commercial inspiration and lack of Doug Bradley, I would consider Revelations to be likewise apart from the actual Hellraiser series. However, i still feel like i should watch it, so i at least can have a legitimate opinion. so, at some point, that will have to happen. we'll see if that can bump Hellworld from the bottom spot.