kclipper Review of Hellraiser: Inferno

Hellraiser: Inferno (2000 Video)

Dante's Inferno becomes Pinhead's Inferno in this interesting fifth installment.

[7/10 · 12 July 2014]

This is quite a unique departure from the usual over-the-top blood and gore that the first four Hellraiser films have satisfied fans of Clive Barker's visionary interpretation of desire and doom over the years. Director, Scott Derrickson takes us into the life of a brilliant but amoral police detective, Joseph Thorne, played by Craig Sheffer (who's no stranger to Clive Barker's surreal world from his role in "Nightbreed") Thorne is a master chess player and puzzle solver which brings us to his story. He also cheats on his beautiful wife with hookers and neglects his family, but when he stumbles across the infamous "Lament Configuration" puzzle box, he begins his descent into hell, which is ultimately an illogical mixture of reality and fantasy as he has to solve ghastly murders of people in which he was acquainted with and the disappearance of a child. It is somehow all designed by a character referred to as the "Engineer" that is actually the one and only Pinhead. This seems to be more for fans of the psychological thinking man's horror film than the traditional Gothic gore thriller. Craig Sheffer handles the material well as he must put together the impossibly complex world that is ultimately his chosen hell. The cenobite demons in this installment are strangely erotic shape-shifters of some sort, and many scenes have a convoluted dream-like quality. Pinhead gets very little screen-time, but when he emerges for the finale confrontation, its all the well worth the wait. Features good turns from Nicholas Turturro, James Remar and not to mention Doug Bradley's exquisitely demented Pinhead. Most fans should approve. Derrickson will go on to write and direct "Sinister" and the excellent, "Exorcism of Emily Rose"