Review of Hellraiser: Inferno (2000) by Lucas M — 22 May 2010

Total departure from the first four, the beginning of the straight-to-dvd'etc, releases, smaller budgets, but arguably the best out of the latter sequels. The 5th in the series, this is also the first to introduce a more psychological-thriller aspect to the movies, which the previous four didn't have, but at the same time, makes less-screen time for the infamous demons, and all in all, just isn't up to par quality wise with the previous sequels. This is the point in the franchise, where the movies didn't feel necessary, and will only probably please the hardcore fans of the series. They might serve as decent movies on their own, but this is definitely the questionably last movie in the series, that has any purpose to offer to the franchise. It's different and new enough, but the next few sequels feel utterly pointless, even though they have their moments. The same can be said for this, but nevertheless it's got enough scary mind-twists and original ideas, to come off as a passable movie. Perhaps if they were going to end the series, it should have ended here.

The movie is about a detective who discovers the Lament Configuration box while working on his own cases of murders that have been going on. The focus here is on this man and the madness that comes into his life afterwards. The strength of this movie is that the viewer really has no idea what is going on and is actually lead on a road of second-guessing, confusion, paranoia, and suspenseful interest. This is an interesting take that hasn't been explored before, and definitely works in this sequel, arguably for the last time effectively. The rest of the movie, instead of being discussed and given away, deserves to be watched for its "can you guess what's going on?" plot. It succeeds on that, more or less alone.

I'd give it a watch.