Review of Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) by Keith M — 25 Jun 2010

"Welcome to the worst nightmare of all...reality." --Pinhead.

The "Hellraiser" series has seem some serious highs and lows. Comparing where it started to the low it hit with three and four to the unseen backhand that was the redemption of "Inferno", this franchise has seen it all. So if the fifth film worked so well (that film being "Inferno" for those new to the series) why the hell not try to make it work again? Well, for "Hellseeker", its a great idea that never got the execution quite down to work as well as the concept did for "Inferno".

Trevor is in a bad situation. He was just in a car wreck with his wife and although he thought he saw her drown, the police can't locate a body and he's being investigated. That's not even all. He is having headaches and he doesn't seem to know his own life as all of these different women seem to think that they have a sexual relationship with him. His best friend even seems to think that he killed his wife for her inheritance money that he's going to split with her. Now these people are dying around him and a mysterious figure and memories of a man with needles in his head seems to indicate there's more going on here than just bad headaches.

Despite its flaws, "Hellseeker" is still one of the better films in this franchise. Its story is rather smart, it has significant connections to the original film (the lead character's wife happens to be Kirsty Cotton from the first two films), and it hardly feels like the straight to DVD movie that it should feel like. It follows its predecessors steps in these ways giving us another tale of a person's descent into hell thanks to the puzzle box and with some very smart plot moments (the sexual chair encounter with his boss and the video camera nightmare moment come to mind for that) and some solid acting, "Hellseeker" carries its weight for the most part.

Unfortunately, I believe that this sixth entry doesn't go near far enough for what it could have. Our lead character Trevor seems rather distant throughout the entire movie despite his predicament and we lose touch with him by about half way through because of this. Also, as the film slowly winds down into pure insanity towards the end it doesn't seem to really give us the pure hell that the film should descend to. "Inferno" was much better at this tactic and although "Hellseeker" does try its best to copy it, it never goes far enough to make the viewer feel like a helpless insect in the web of the puzzle box.

Although the "Hellraiser" series has seen better, it definitely has seen worse than "Hellseeker". It has a pretty solid story that gets to the heart of what makes these films good, but some lackluster character arcs and a rather straightforward directing job this film needs a lot of work still. When Pinhead says in the film "All problems solved? Not so simple, I'm afraid.", who knew how right he was.