Two friends discover a puzzle box in Mexico, which opens a gateway to Hell. Before long, dermatological nightmare Pinhead has returned to make the lives of everyone in his way miserable.
Number 9, we’ve reached number 9 in the series. I have to admit that I’ve been dreading writing this review but alas it’s part of the series so I best get on with it.
Where to start? Well the movie is TERRIBLE and no I’m not just saying that because Doug Bradley got replaced although that does add into it, there’s so much wrong with this film both on screen and behind it that it never really stood a chance of gaining any success. Watching the film you can tell things weren’t good behind the scenes, it makes a bad movie even worse.
The film was rushed into production after Dimension films realized that a contractual stipulation meant they stood to lose the rights to the “Hellraiser” franchise if they didn’t produce a sequel to “Hellraiser: Hellworld”, Consequently the entire production time was roughly three weeks, including only an eleven-day shooting schedule.
Doug Bradley was approached to reprise his role of ‘Pinhead’, but became hesitant when told that there would be no second draft of the script, which he believed was neither good nor bad, just “not finished.” Bradley ultimately declined after being told that his salary from previous films would be, in his words, cut down to “the price of a fridge.” You can understand his hesitancy about the film and offering the man who made the character come alive an offensive sum for his part.
When the film was released released it was advertised as coming “from the mind of Clive Barker.” Barker, who hasn’t had any involvement with the franchise following “Hellbound: Hellraiser II”, posted a profanity-laden message to his Twitter feed in response, calling the film “no child of mine.” Again you can understand why, he’d seen his once great vision turn into something of a joke, especially this with it’s bastardised version of ‘Pinhead’
Honestly I would stay away from this film, the acting is atrocious and the effects are just terrible. The Cenobites look cheap and tacky and have no creep factor and ‘Pinhead’ is just laughable, truly a horrible film and not in a good way.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
The first Hellraiser movie since Hellraiser IV: Bloodline to use a script written as a Hellraiser movie. Hellraiser: Inferno, “Hellraiser: Hellseeker”, “Hellraiser: Deader”, and “Hellraiser: Hellworld” were all unrelated horror scripts owned by Dimension that were hastily rewritten as “Hellraiser” movies to save money on an original script.
The names of the two primary families – Craven and Bradley – are references to horror genre figures ‘Wes Craven’ (creator of the Nightmare on Elm Street series) and Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in the previous eight Hellraiser films.
The first ‘Hellraiser’ movie without Doug Bradley as Pinhead.
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