Hellraiser: Deader (2005)

Purely Joyful Movie!

I'll tell you why so serious

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Few franchises have nose dived to the extent of the Hellraiser series. What started out as an ingenious memorable horrific set of movies turned into bafflingly bad boring titles with little relevance to what we had learned to love.Hellraiser Deader is just one of many recent dire attempts at cashing in on Pinhead and though this one does feature Doug Bradley he is on screen for mere moments.Starring Kari Wuhrer who to her credit is better than usual here we have another confused tale revolving around a cult and the infamous puzzle box. Sadly once again it makes little sense and is immensely boring.Fans of the series will not be happy with this one.Hopefully one day Hellraiser will find its way home, for now it's well and truly lost in the desert.The Good: One tense scene Wuhrer is on form The Bad: Confusing plotPractically no cenobites at all Things I Learnt From This Movie: When entering a property and finding a corpse that you have no intention of reporting it makes perfect sense to leave your fingerprints everywhereAlike the real world the term "God help me" has never worked in movies

Wasn't expecting this to be great & quite frankly was right as it wasn't. Saw it 3 years ago & didn't like it, though for all those years after watching the Hellraiser films once again, I feel no different from this 7th sequel which just like it's cover & name "Deader" sounds as if they've ran out of ideas for the Hellraiser Franchise!The film is about Deaders & this reporter, or journalist goes in search from the greatest story cliché & uncovers a far bigger mystery than she could've ever imagined. She then comes across the Puzzle Box & foolishly like the others, opens it & unleashes hell, this time around the Deaders become the victims as with herself!The film felt very flat & boring. There wasn't much going on a lot of the time & being honest, felt very dry & gloomy (not in a good way). I also felt it was trying too hard in places & didn't really have anything iconic about it. It was bloody, give them their due, but the film felt flat & didn't really have anything redeeming about it! Even the first 2 films were better than this & that's saying something else.The actress Kari Wuhrer, playing this reporter/journalist was pretty hot & sexy but that is probably 1 out of the few redeeming things about this dull film I can think is good! It feels much like an anti climax of the previous 2 (Inferno & Hellseeker).Overall, weakest installment out of the 9 films. 4.0/10

Deader is the final nail that broke the camel's back in a series with fascinating subject matters relating reality warping, pain and sex to psychological thrillers.This traded all that for a cult, drugs and hot twenty year olds making it a stinker.I was expecting to explore more of the mythology after seeker, but instead the cenobites are on the back burner gathering dust and only show up at random times.Taking the film to another country would've been a great way to enhance the atmosphere by using underground tunnels, old architecture and cobbled villages instead of the bland dull route they took.The cult seemed silly, not explored enough or even given a purpose. They die, take a drug and come back to avoid purgatory with our favorite nail man. Why not leave or get away from the city? Instead they build a sci fi ray gun to take him out. If your going to rob from your franchise don't use the sillier elements.You can tell by now the writers aren't even trying anymore and its nothing but a cash machine instead of producing great qualities to enjoy.Barker has many more books he wrote that would work on the big screen that explores the world set up in I and II much better.

The first film is the best, the second film was disappointing, the third film was okay, the fourth film was okay, the fifth straight to DVD film was silly, and the sixth straight to DVD film was rubbish, I didn't have very high expectations for this seventh film in the series, even with the returning iconic villain. Basically from London investigative reporter Amy Klein (Kari Wuhrer) is sent to Bucharest, Romania for an assignment, she is shown a video tape where a ritual is being carried out on a woman, she is shot in the head at close range and is somehow resurrected back to life, the cult that did it call themselves "The Deaders". Amy has to investigate the origins of this video tape, she tracks down the address the VHS was to be returned to, and in an apartment building she finds a dead woman in the bathroom sitting on the toilet, and in her hand she is holding a puzzle box, the Lament Configuration. On her own she solves and opens this box and in consequence releases Pinhead (Doug Bradley), the leader of the Cenobites, but he does not want to cause her pain, he warns her of a coming danger. Amy continues with the investigation and follows the leads, and she tracks down the leader of the cult Winter LeMarchand (Paul Rhys), he is a descendant of the toymaker who designed and made the puzzle box, it still opens the portal to the dark world, he has the birthright to access the realm. He cannot open the box himself, he founded the Deaders to attract emotionally vulnerable people, murder them and resurrect them in the hope of creating someone who can open the box, and he kills Amy. Killing Amy and bringing her back to life causes her to relive her experience in the past of childhood abuse, but coming back to reality she opens the box and summons the Cenobites and leader Pinhead, they slaughter all the Deaders for their cheating of death, and rather than be taken by them Amy kills herself and causes the demons to disappear. Simon Kunz as Charles Richmond, Hustle's Marc Warren as Joey, Georgina Rylance as Marla and Daniel Chirea as Amy's Father. One again the story has developed more into a crime based tale, but at least there is a bit more of Pinhead and torture material to watch, it is a bit more worked out and interesting than the other two stories were, with the people who die and bring themselves back particularly, but it is still pretty trashy and cheap looking, and you just know all in all it is a terrible horror mystery thriller. Adequate!