User Reviews

I'm a huge fan of the Hellraiser movies and the Hellraiser universe, but the movies are getting worse and worse. To me, there are only 3 "real" Hellraiser movies, and that's the first 3. The fourth has some ups and downs, but all in all, I think Pinhead's awesome dialog makes up for the downs. The fifth is taking it all in a different direction, a direction I strongly disagree with, but nevertheless, it's an interesting movie, with pretty good acting and visually, it's very nicely done.

Then this Rick Bota guy comes along... And just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, he delivers the deathblow to the Hellraiser franchise. His movies are messed up, the main characters in both hellseeker and deader keeps experiencing some horrible stuff, and just as it's about to get fun, they "wake up" to discover that they were just dreaming or had a vision - I hate that, it's messy and confusing! Also, Pinhead's role in these movies is not very well defined, which is also (sadly) very well shown by his absence. He only appear in a few minutes in both of Bota's miserable movies to deliver some nice one-liners.

This Bota guy is destroying what true fans love about these movies, I hope this will be the end, no need to make it a long a painful death, Hellraiser deserves better...

Whoever made this monstrosity deserves to feel the wrath of Pinhead's chains. Just when I thought they couldn't make a bad Hellraiser movie, along comes Hellraiser 7. Even if you could even call it a Hellraiser movie, this movie has the acting standards of Baywatch, a ridiculous storyline to match South Park, and features Pinhead and the cenobites for almost less than Inferno. For Hellraiser 5, this was necessary as the storyline was geared towards "The Engineer" and the expectation of this demon. Deader instead focuses on a stupid cult who have found a loophole in the Lament Configuration mechanics and are walking the earth dead. It's confusing and is so silly, and you won't care about any of the characters anyway. The directors also achieve to make a Hellraiser movie look like Tom & Jerry within the last few minutes when the Brit is convincingly killed, only for him to shout a witty one liner before toppling to the ground.

Pinhead has been disgraced.

2/10

Well.... lets begin... i didn't want to comment on this movie but the fact is that i am from Romania(the place where the movie was made) and i gotta say...i am surprised! Why? Simple ...all the movies made here seem to be low budget pieces of crap.I am a big Hellraiser fan and i taught the series will be destroyed with this one...but its not like that..the movie is pretty good,even the Romanian backup actors have the decency of speaking an understandable English.The story is pretty good...more than most of the horror movies released this year in the States..but bellow the Hellraiser franchise...and another disturbing fact is that Pinhead's appearances are limited...could be that there were some problems with the script that was not intended to be a Hellraiser movie(like another user commented on this site).Anyway...the movie is decent...worth seeing at least once..hardcore hypnotic horror type fans will be pleased... Still the fact remains that some different turns must be taken with the Hellraiser Series or else it will be lost soon...i've heard the Hellworld is out..i'm gonna check it out as soon as i can. PEACE!

So where to begin, we have our protagonist Amy Klein, who is a reporter and an interesting character and the actress does a good job but that is not enough when you have such a poor plot. We have a dude called Winter who thinks that he can control the cenobites and we see him killing and resurrecting the followers of his cult called ''Deaders'', still not sure why he kept killing and resurrecting people though and how this connects to the Cenobites. The main plot is just Amy trying to figure out what this cult is all about. While her investigation keeps you watching to see what happens next, it takes 40 minutes for Amy to find the Deaders, most of the movie is just us watching Amy's investigation, which gets annoying and boring, they took an idea that would fit a 20 minute short movie and stretched it to 1h and 30 minutes for no reason. The movie is part Amy investigating and part Amy living a nightmare after opening the box where its kind of hard to understand if what we see its real or her nightmare. The movie should be called ''Amy Klein'' or just ''The Deaders'' because Pinhead and the Cenobites are nowhere to be seen in this film. We see them in the end for 10 minutes to give an ending to the story and thats it. How can you call this a Hellraiser movie when there is no Pinhead, no hellish images, no cenobites, no gore, no nothing. My main problem with this movie is that while its a decent movie that keeps you watching, its not really a Hellraiser movie and i wanted to watch a Hellraiser movie. As a movie i give it a 6/10 but as a Hellraiser movie it give it a 3/10. My final rating is 4,5/10. If you dont watch this film, believe me its fine, skip.

I was a little reluctant to watch this installment, mostly because of the small little plot details that emerged many month's before the movie actually came out. HOWEVER, being an avid Hellraiser fan, I went out and bought the movie, much to my delight, I truly enjoyed it. Before I go into too much detail, let me state that I, in no way, compare any movie to any other. Every movie is an entry into the mythos, and should be treated as such. With that being said, let me elaborate. First, I felt this movie had a very dark feel, more so than Hellseeker and Inferno. The imagery in this one was very powerful (ala The Ring style) and deserves some much needed praise. The ending I thought was one of the better endings I've seen since Hellraiser III. It was a nice touch to link this one back to Bloodlines, though it did feel like it was an afterthought. The acting was very good, and it was nice to see a female in the lead again. I have to say though, New Hellriaser (i.e Post Hellraiser:Bloondlines) is starting to develop a very predictable style. Let me explain. 1) Man/Woman opens box 2) Visions and dreams haunt him 3) Man finds himself in hell without his knowing 4) Pinhead emerges to say "Welcome to Hell"

Now with that being said, as I was watching Deader, I was saying to myself "Yawn, here we go again". About an hour into it, I started to really like it. Not that it detracted to much from that formula, but it did so just enough that you stop yawning and start to really wonder what it going on. Unlike Hellseeker, the flashback/hunting's and reality wasn't not that intricately tied together so that it confuses the #### out of you. This one pulls it off very well. It's my opinion that if this was the first entry after Bloodlines, it would not have been bashed so hard. It's a great stand-alone Hellraiser film, though it doesn't have the power of the first 3, it still is a worthwhile watch

Hellraiser: Deader starts in London where Amy Klein (Kari Wuhrer) works as an investigative reporter for the London Underground (a newspaper not the subway transport system!), her boss Charles (Simon Kunz) show's her a videotape he received in the post. It appears to show a cult known as 'Deaders' watching on as a young girl named Marla (Georgina Rylance) kills herself & then miraculously return to life shortly after. Intrigued Amy thinks she can turn it into a story, the only clue is a return address somewhere in Bucharest in Romania on the envelope it arrived in. In no time at all Amy is out there doing what she does best & investigating, an investigation which she uncovers great evil...

This American Romanian co-production was directed by Rick Bota & for the record Hellraiser: Deader is the seventh film in the Hellraiser franchise which you might like to know since they stopped actually numbering them in the titles after part three. Personally the original Hellraiser (1987) & it's gore drenched sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) are two of my favourite horror films & I just think they are class & as each rubbish straight-to-video/DVD sequel goes by with each one being even worse than the last watching them can get quite depressing. The script by Neal Marshall Stevens & Tim Day apparently had nothing to do with the Hellraiser franchise at first but the studio decided to add Pinhead & the Lamont Chinese puzzle box to rape a bit more money from a once great horror series. Firstly Hellraiser: Deader doesn't really fell like a Hellraiser film, it focuses on Amy the reporter investigating the Deader cult in Romania & following the blatantly obvious clues (a return address on the envelope, colour coded keys & locks just so she can't mix them up) while the Hellraiser connections are tenuous to say the least as Pinhead & another couple of Cenobites make a cameo appearance at the end. The story is weak, how did Winter know Amy was 'the one'? Why send the tape to her editor? Surely it would have made more sense to send it directly to her? What if he had put another reporter on the case? Or even just decided to call the police? Then there's the narrative which is awful, about a third of the way in the film becomes obsessed with flashbacks, dreams, hallucinations, sudden shifts in locations & character's which ended up making me feel like I didn't know what was meant to be real or not. It's also hard to figure out when a flashback, dream or hallucination begins &/or ends so I never really felt I knew what was happening. I mean what was with the mysterious guy who jumped in front of the train? There's a also a severe lack of blood or gore which doesn't help.

Director Bota is responsible for the last three Hellraiser sequels, Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002), this & Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) which was shot back-to-back with Hellraiser: Deader. It's competent but there's not much style here, it's really not much to look at & all the symbolism, imagination & visual richness of the first two Hellraiser films seems a million years ago. The gore is also disappointingly tame, there's some blood splatter, a few knife wounds, a few severed limbs & a hooking scene at the end which is a direct rip-off of Frank Cotten's death from the original. It's not scary, there's no tension or atmosphere, Pinhead is barely in it & the plot is a mess & instead of being mysterious & intriguing it's just plain frustrating & confusing.

Amazingly this apparently had a budget of about $4,000,000 & I have to say that I am not entirely sure where all the money went. The special effects are low key, the locations are bland & there are no big name stars or action set-pieces in it. Filmed in Bucharest in Romania as a lot of films seem to be these days. The acting isn't anything to write home about, in fact the acting is totally forgettable.

Hellraiser: Deader is yet another terrible Hellraiser sequel that merely uses the Hellraiser name to sell a few more copies, not worth bothering with even if your a fan of the series. This was a sequel to Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), Hellraiser: Hellseeker & was itself followed by Hellraiser: Hellworld & you would have to really love the franchise to stick it out through all eight films.