Description: Pinhead is back in HELLRAISER: HELLSEEKER -- the next chilling chapter in this electrifying HELLRAISER legacy originated by frightmaster Clive Barker! When the puzzle box is once again solved, the devastating demon Pinhead (Doug Bradley) and his legion return to unleash Hell on Earth and demolish all who dare oppose them! But standing in his way is Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence -- HELLRAISER I, II, III) -- the only person who has defeated Pinhead in the past -- and it's up to her to save the world from this ultimate evil! Also featuring Dean Winters (OZ, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT) -- you don't want to miss any of the horror as Pinhead will stop at nothing to impose his ill will on eternity!
Amazon.com: A very credible entry in the Hellraiser series, Hellraiser: Hellseeker presents a nifty puzzle for gore fans, plus plenty of philosophical musings from the ineffable Pinhead ("Personally, I prefer pain"). A smoldering Dean Winters plays a man who survives a car accident in which his wife was apparently killed; because of a head injury, his memory is mixed up, and he can't distinguish between reality and fantasy. The borrowings from Memento are obvious, and the fragmented story pieces may not all fit together, but the mystery does become tantalizing. Within the low-budget constraints, veteran cinematographer Rick Bota (making his directing debut) keeps the atmosphere clipped and gloomy. The film also brings back Ashley Laurence, who appeared in the original installments of Clive Barker's franchise. One question: with Pinhead in the house, is visiting an acupuncturist really a good idea? --Robert Horton
Another Weak Sequel To A Once Promising Franchise Hellraiser: Heatseeker is a film that I wanted to enjoy. I thought the first direct to video Hellraiser sequel was decent but this one is just patheic consdering it has Ashley Laurence in it. I would only say you see this film if you need a movie to fall asleep on.
HELLRAISER PART 6 This movie was good, just not as good as Part 1&2. This series was at it's best back when Clive Barker was making the movies. It seems that every movie you see less & less of Pinhead. I would say it has a good storyline, but not as good as Clive Barker's original creation in Part 1 & 2!! I rate this DVD a 7 from 1to10!!
What might have been? Sometimes I think the whole HELLRAISER series is actually a series of metaphors about us, its fans. In the films, some fool goes out and obtains the box, brings it home with high hopes as to what it will do for him, and is brutally disappointed. Substitute "movie" for "box" and you have our collective history. We know in advance what fate awaits us when we rent a HELLRAISER film, but we do it anyway. People like us keep Pinhead - that is, the studio suits who grind these flicks out twice a year - in latex and chains.
Ne'er has a concept for a horror series been cooler, or offered a richer and more complex backstory, than did HR. And seldom has that concept been more badly and consistently bungled in execution, leading not merely to films which were weird, flawed and not what they should have been, but in some cases unwatchably bad and stupid. HELLSEEKER is somewhere between the two of these categories. It aspires to great heights, combining plot elements from films like MOMENTO and ANGEL HEART, but as it's carried out it's just a mess - confusing, disjointed, boring, and unpleasant to watch.
HELLSEEKER is the story of Trevor Gooden (Dean Winters, the best thing about HBO's prison opera, OZ), a seemingly ordinary suit-`n-tie office drone who nearly died in a car accident which may, or may not, have killed his wife Kirsty (Ashley Lawrence, reprising that role for the fourth time). Gooden, whose head was badly injured when his car went bye-bye into a river, can't remember what happened to her, and the cops can't find her body. Gooden is anxious to discover his wife's fate - especially since said cops don't believe his story - but he's plagued by chronic pain and an almost continuous series of hallucinations which make him seem guilty of something more than careless driving. When the people around him begin to turn up horribly murdered, Gooden begins to hallucinate about a puzzle box and a certain highly stylizied demon with nails in his mug and a penchant for torture. But who did what to whom, and why...and what really happened to Kirsty?
Like I said, the story aspires to be much more than the standard spatter-`n-splatter horrorthon. And on a few levels, it succeeds. For starters, Ashley Lawrence is not only one of those women who gets hotter as she gets older, but her acting skills have improved dramatically over the years, and while her screen time is limited she has more to do than scream and run away from demons. Stylistically, the movie is appropriately noirish - everything looks washed out, shadowy and run-down, precisely the way a HR film should look. And certain events in the movie's climax are pleasantly reminiscent of "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" in their mind-frakking, falling-into-place quality. But these things can't overcome the film's basic problems, a short list of which would include sluggish pacing, confusing, epilepsy-inducing editing, a completely confusing storyline, listless direction, a forgettable script, and needless departures from the HR series mythology (how, for example, can Pinhead lay claim to souls who did not ever use the Box and were murdered in an ordinary way?). The biggest mistake the editor made was the decision to keep the hallucinations going full-clip throughout the flick, rather than having them build slowly over its course: the end result is a disjointed, eye-glazing orgy of what Hollywood types call "frame-[expletive]ing", whose relatively satisfying and well-executed climax won't help the people who pressed "stop" on the remote after forty-five frustrating minutes.
I realize it's chump-ism to expect that HELLRAISER movies will be "good" in the classic sense of the word. The budgets are too low, and the talent levels of the people involved are too inconsistent to produce anything spectacular. But when a concept is this good, when you have a director with some aesthetic sense who clearly is trying hard, and when you can get solid, respectable actors like Winters to play your leads, the end result should be much better. The real "puzzle" here is why I keep coming back for more. I guess, like Pinhead, "I prefer pain."
Interesting idea As many have said, this one has not got a hell of a lot to actually do with Pinhead, but he is in it. This one seems to be more a Freddy Kruger adventure, but none the less, I enjoyed this one when it was done.
A man drives his car into a lake, via a Duke boys style jump over the bridge. His wife is trapped inside the car and he can not get her out.
The man then wakes up in the hospital, and seems to be suffering from memory loss. As the movie progress' you discover what is actually happening to him. It takes a few twists and turns, and a few things that make you go, "huh?" but in the end it all ties up and explains itself and it has a very interesting ending that I did not see coming.
the overall plot and story of this is pretty well written and portrayed on screen. Even tho many Hellraiser fans are dismissing it as being a true Hellraiser film, I think they are more unhappy with the fact that Pinhead is not in the movie a heck of a lot.
I think this is a decent sequel, it's different, it's fresh, and it is in no way ever boring during any of the movie like some scenes of the original Hellraisers. It gives the series a new perspective, and if you can just accept that, and see the movie for what it is, you may just enjoy it.
Also, I think anyone who has never seen a Hellraiser film, but enjoys a good suspence/horror movie, then you may just find this one to be pretty good. It's not going to please hardcore fans who would praise a film of Pinhead jumping rope for 2 hours and singing, "i'm a little teapot" nor will it appeal to the fans who care blood & gore in the movies, but I say just give this one a go, you may like it, you may hate it, but keep in mind, it's because it's different and Pinheads not around much, that you see so many Hellraiser fans bash it.
It's in no way a bad movie, and it deserves more credit then fans give it.
Underrated I've never quite understood the negativity thrown at this movie and the other later Hellraiser films. I've seen all of them and this one is my third favorite Hellraiser film behind the first two. I think the main source of criticism comes from the idea that it is not a true Hellraiser film. Well, the Hellraiser series is now about variety. Seriously, who gets excited when a new just-like-the-others "Friday the 13th" movie comes out?
Well, not pure variety. If you've seen both films, it's easy to see the similarities between this film and its predecessor, "Inferno". This is little more than a remake of "Inferno", but this one is much better done. This film emphasizes psychological horror and personal torment over gore and most of the scenes are very creative and memorable. The creepiest scene for me was the one involving the video camera. The images from that scene are forever burned in my mind and many of the other scenes are close to matching its effectiveness. The entire film is genuinely scary and they even mix some nice eroticism into the mix (though little nudity). The costumes and special effects are also well-done (except for the gunshot).
Complaints? Well, some mention that the movie is kind of confusing. It can seem so at first, but all is cleared up at the end. It's not really a movie you have to rewatch to fully understand, although the movie is good enough to inspire you to rewatch it. Also, some complain about Ashley's character (the heroine from the first two films) being turned into a villian. Yeah, I was a little disappointed too, but it's nothing that killed the movie for me.
Check this one out if you're interested in a heady, scary, and unique (ignoring "Inferno") horror movie.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
