Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Jun 11, 2005 2:14:14 GMT -5
Plot:A journalist uncovers an underground group who can bring back the dead. She slowly begins to learn that she plays an important part in their deadly game.
Cast:
Doug Bradley
Kari Wuhrer
Paul Rhys
Georgina Rylance
Marc Warren
My Thoughts:Huh? Wha? Who?
Review: After "Hellraiser:Hellseeker"'s release 3 years ago, I was looking forward to viewing the 7th installment of the series "Hellraiser:Deader". The problem? Well the film sat on the shelf over at Dimension for 3 years before finally they decided to release it just this past Tuesday. In my opinion, they should've just released this with "Hellraiser:Hellworld". Atleast after seeing "Deader", I could've picked up "Hellworld", and hoped before I popped it into my DVD player that it would be better than "Deader" was.
This seventh installment of the "Hellraiser" series doesn't have any ties to part 6, but keeping with the hot lead female trend, they give us actress Kari Wuhrer playing a journalist named Amy Klein whos out for a big story. Her opportunity arrives when her boss plays a tape for her, which shows a girl putting a bullet in her skull only to have a dude do some magic CPR trick and bring her back to life. Of course a phenomena like this is much too good for any journalist to pass up, so our hot female lead scampers off to Romania to investigate this cult nicknamed "The Deaders",which can bring back dead people. What I liked about this movie was that it had all the tools to be a pretty good installment, even at film number 7 in the series. However,the plot is strolled all over the place, and this cult leader really has no purpose other than to talk in riddles and look cool in his white overcoat. "Deader" does have some really nice nasty scenes, one of which involves a dead girl being found in her apartment and the scene toys with the viewer nicely before finally hitting us with what we knew would happen eventually. Theres also some nice trippy scenes which take place in the Romanian subway stations.As I stated before, the plot in this movie is everywhere. It seems like they took 3 different "Hellraiser" scripts, and ripped out a few parts of the storyline, and then glued them all together to create this pretty sloppy 7th installment. The basis of the story is that this Amy Klein woman because she opened Pinheads box, now has to give herself to this cult leader and his followers and willingly become a "deader". Why? Were never really told why. Although with Pinhead popping up here and there, we assume it's because the leader of the deaders wants to avoid suffering the same fate as Frank and Julia did in the first two movies.and One character thought to be dead pops up later on to try and explain things to Amy, and us, which only leads to more confusion in an already muddled story. Pinhead pops up a total of 4 times in this film, breaking the *scorching* record of the 1 appearance he made in "Hellseeker". While he spouts off some interesting dialogue in his second appearance, dialogue which could've been used to create an actual story arc, the film quickly settles back into wander around aimlessly, and watch Kari Wuhrer do weird stuff like have pointless flashbacks,pull knives out of her back,and bleed like a stuck pig as she wanders the streets of Romania mode. The overall story is pretty much abandoned for poorly strung together random weirdness which plays out in a goth/rock music video style.Eventually the film hits it's ending, and once again more intriguing plot points are brought up via dialogue but again abandoned so Pinhead, who makes his final appearance during the films climax along with his trusty cenobite sidekicks can do his chain thing and waste some disillusioned goth kids and their wussy leader. "Deader" ends on a sour but interesting note by revealing one of the films early characters out to be sinister. Of course had they done this earlier, along with atleast 50 other things I can think of, "Deader" might not have turned out to be such a subpar effort.
Pros:Nice settings, Kari Wuhrer is easy on the eyes, Pinhead opening up a can of whoop ass chaingang style at the end.Some trippy scenes here and there.
Cons:Extremely messy story. It seems everything they should've focused on they didn't thus creating an anorexic plot with very little meat to it.
Overall:Worth a rent if you're bored or an avid fan of the "Hellraiser" series.