Movies That Suck/Franchises: Hellraiser. Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)

I first learned of this on the forum for a horror podcast that I was once a regular listener of (I'm not going to name it, but those who've been with me for a while and who know me well will know who I mean), either when it was shooting or around the time it was released. I remember reading that it was extremely low budget and cheap, there were rumors that it was a found footage movie, and also, for the first time in the franchise's history, someone other than Doug Bradley was playing Pinhead, which was the news that shocked me. The thread about this film eventually shared a screenshot of the new Pinhead and, while I didn't think he looked that bad at the time (I remember at least one person referring to him as "Down Syndrome Pinhead,"; their words, not mine), I still thought it was weird to see someone other than Bradley in the makeup. When it came out, it was, by all accounts, absolutely horrible on every level, and so, I was in no rush to see it. The first time I saw any other images from it aside from that one screenshot of Pinhead and the home video cover was during Gary Tunnicliffe's interview with Midnight's Edge in early 2018, promoting Hellraiser: Judgment, wherein he gave a lot of context as to what happened with his initial script and vision for Revelations, how horrendous the actual filming is said to have been, why Bradley wasn't involved, and so on. While I still hadn't seen the movie yet, it sounded like a horrible mess, as well as just cheap, low effort trash made for no other reason than so the Weinsteins could keep the rights. And though none of the images they showed onscreen were at all encouraging, the shots and angles on Pinhead that I saw... yikes! As a result, this didn't move up any higher on my pecking order, and the only reason I eventually did see it was out of necessity and opportunity. I found the Blu-Ray cheap at McKay's and, since I'd already seen Judgment, I figured I might as well complete the franchise. 

When I picked this thing up, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was probably going straight into my personal "nosebleed section" of junk I don't intend to keep, and boy, was I right! Make no mistake, as much of a slog as some of the previous direct-to-video ones might've been, this is, undoubtedly, the worst Hellraiser of them all. That especially sucks since this is the first one in a while that was definitely meant to be a Hellraiser movie from the beginning, and the initial story was written by someone who not only loves the franchise to death but tried to hearken back to some of the themes and vibe of the original movie. But, in the end, it was made by people who completely squandered that opportunity. It has some gnarly gore and slight hints of what Tunnicliffe may have intended, but, otherwise, it looks and feels like the bargain bin garbage that it is, the acting is awful, the replacement Pinhead is dreadful, and even at a running time of just 75 minutes, it's not worth the effort to sit through it.

A year has passed since lifelong friends Nico Bradley and Steven Craven went off to Mexico and disappeared without a trace. All that's left of them is a bag of their belongings, including a video camera with footage of them, among other things, driving to the border and talking about their plans to get laid and wasted, getting into an argument after their car is stolen, and Nico fiddling with a puzzle box, leading to some strange phenomena and their confrontation with grotesque, frightening figures. Steven's mother, Sarah, has been obsessively watching the tape in private, and has never allowed Emma, Steven's sister and Nico's girlfriend, to see it. One night, both of the boys' families gather together for dinner at the Craven household and tensions boil over when the subject of them is brought up. Emma, tired of their being made into a taboo, gets the camera and watches the recording, which shows the boys picking up a girl in a bar, only for Nico to steal her from Steven. What the video doesn't show is that Nico killed the girl while they were having sex, and blackmailed Steven by keeping him from erasing the tape, which could implicate him as well. Also among their belongings is the puzzle box that Nico was shown toying with on the tape. Taking it outside, Emma tries to figure it out, when Steven suddenly appears, disoriented and covered in blood that isn't his own; Nico, however, is nowhere to be seen. Steven is clearly terrified of someone coming for him, and when the others try to rush him to the hospital, they find that their cars are gone and the phone-line is down. Everyone then barricades themselves in the house, deciding to wait until morning. But when Emma plays with the box again, something strange happens, and Steven becomes semi-conscious and warns them that the Cenobites are coming. He also tells them of how he and Nico were approached in the bar by a vagrant who offered them the box, claiming it could give them an experience beyond the limits. As the night wears on, more details about the boys' journey come to light, including the reason for the Cenobites' impending arrival, and Steven, as it turns out, may not actually be who he seems.

That first spate of direct-to-video Hellraiser films may have continued unabated had the Weinsteins not been forced out of Miramax due to their funding Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 without Disney's approval. Not wanting to be associated with such a controversial film, especially during such a politically volatile time as the middle of George W. Bush's presidency and the Iraq War, Disney initially tried to stop it from being made once they learned of it, and when that didn't work, they forced the Weinsteins to find another distributor for it. In 2005, the same year that Deader and Hellworld were released, the Weinsteins and Disney parted ways, and they took with them some of the cheaper assets that they owned, including Hellraiser (that's what I meant when I said Hellworld was another end of an era for the series). After they set up the Weinstein Company, they attempted to proceed with a long-rumored remake of the original Hellraiser, and would go possible directors like Pascal Laugier of Martyrs, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo of Inside, and the director/writer team of Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer. Ultimately, nothing came of any of this (supposedly because Dimension, in their infinite wisdom, wanted the remake to be PG-13, which none of those filmmakers were willing to accept), and soon, their option on the rights was about to expire, forcing them to make another movie quickly and cheaply.

Despite the circumstances not being ideal at all, there could've been hope for Hellraiser: Revelations, as Dimension finally decided to give Gary Tunnicliffe his shot at writing and directing one of these movies. Even though producer Joel Soisson told him up front that the film's budget would be a measly $200,000 (according to some sources, the final cost was actually $300,000), meaning he wouldn't be able to get at all ambitious with it, Tunnicliffe accepted and came up with a story idea that would fit the limited parameters. But, after he wrote the screenplay, he learned that the film needed to be made immediately, and he was currently in Michigan, providing the makeup effects for Scream 4. Soisson talked to Bob Weinstein and then told Tunnicliffe that, because Scream 4 was, understandably, was a much higher priority than an "ashcan" movie like this, they wanted him to stay on that movie, which wouldn't finish shooting for another two months. Thus, he couldn't direct Revelations, making this, as he says, the second time in his life that Scream screwed up his plans for Hellraiser. Even worse, because he was so busy with Scream 4, he didn't have time to do the rewrite on the script they asked for, so they brought in an another, unnamed writer. While Tunnicliffe says in his Midnight's Edge interview that he felt his initial screenplay could've done with some more work, this rewrite was absolutely horrendous. Thus, he ended up doing another rewrite but, once filming began, while he wasn't there to witness just how badly things went off the rails, he heard about it because his company did the effects. Worst of all, he's the only credited writer, so when the movie came out and was as hated as it was, he got most of the blame and lot of the fanbase turned on him.

Since Tunnicliffe himself was unable to direct, the man who ultimately did make Revelations was Victor Garcia, a Spanish-born filmmaker who also began as an effects artist, working with directors like Brian Yuzna, Pedro Almodovar, and Guillermo del Toro. However, his own directing career is anything but prestigious, as it includes other direct-to-video sequels like Return to House on Haunted Hill and Mirrors 2, as well as Blood Trails, a web series based on 30 Days of Night. That wasn't a good sign for Revelations going in and, when you watch the film (which features a woman he was dating at the time in one of the lead roles), you have to wonder just what the hell he was thinking in his direction or if he even cared. As for Tunnicliffe, he said that he was crestfallen when he saw the movie, to say the least, and can't even watch it to this day. Since Revelations, Garcia's career hasn't gone much better, as few have seen or are even aware of The Damned, An Affair to Die For, and The Communion Girl.

The movie makes a pretty bad first impression immediately, beginning with video-camera footage of Nico Bradley (Jay Gillespie) and Steven Craven (Nick Eversman) as they head to Mexico, obnoxiously bragging about how many times they're going to get laid and really wasted, and also teasing each other about not telling Steven's mother or sister, the latter of whom is also Nico's girlfriend. Then, following some footage of Nico flipping out, yelling and cursing about their car

being stolen and at Steven for filming it, and then Nico messing with the Lament Configuration and summoning the Cenobites, we don't get back to them until a few minutes later, where we see them indulging in their appetites down in Mexico. They're filming themselves drinking tequila shots in a bar, when they spot a lovely woman sitting by herself and decide to approach her. Despite her not speaking English and the two of them barely knowing Spanish, Steven hits on her while Nico records it, and it looks as if Steven may end up scoring. Then, we learn what a truly awful person Nico is within a span of less than five minutes: he makes an off-handed remark about making a sex-tape with the girl, steals her from Steven and bangs her in the bar's restroom, and when Steven passes out from rage and drunkenness, he awakens to Nico rushing him to get up so they can get out as quickly as possible. Steven isn't sure what's going on at first but then learns that, some time after he passed out, Nico killed the girl. Though he claims it was an accident, but then also says he doesn't remember the specifics because he was drunk, the brutality of her injuries suggests he killed her in a rage. Steven, being the more decent of the two, says they need to call the cops, but Nico isn't having it, and also says that Steven is an accomplice, since he was the one who picked her up and filmed them going at it when he discovered them in the restroom stall. Steven attempts to delete the video but Nico stops him, saying that it, "Keeps us on the same team."

Not long after that fiasco, Nico and Steven are drinking at the bar, the latter worrying about their fingerprints being found at the crime scene, while Nico is not only confident that the place was so dirty that there's no way that's possible but also, very cruelly and coldly, adds, "Besides, life's cheap down here. There's probably something like a hundred killings a week. She's already just a number. A statistic." That's when they're approached by a vagrant and, initially, don't want

anything to do with him. Then, he shows them the box, describes it as a means of experiencing "ultimate arousal" and that it will take them beyond the limits. Though initially turned off when he also mentions "sensual pain" and the like, Nico is ultimately tempted into taking the box, while Steven remains skeptical and unnerved by it all. In their hotel room, while Nico tries to solve the puzzle, Steven plans to contact his parents to send him some money so he can go back home, something Nico mocks him for, calling him a

weakling. Not done looking for new pleasures and highs, he makes Steven film him while he continues trying to open the box. Sure enough, he succeeds and summons the Cenobites, terrifying the both of them, especially Nico, when Pinhead tells him that they've come for him specifically. They proceed to hook into him with their chains, much to Steven's absolute horror.

During the main story-line involving the get together of the boys' families, Steven suddenly shows up after he and Nico have been missing for a long time. Delirious and covered in someone else's blood, he begs his father not to let "them" find him, adding that he won't go back, before passing out. As the two families try to figure out what's going on, and realize that someone has taken their cars and cut the phone-line, Emma fiddles with the Lament Configuration, which was part of the boys'

belongings that were found and returned by the Mexican authorities. She manages to somewhat open the gateway, filling the living room with the blue shafts of light, which Steven senses, snapping him out of his momentary catatonia. Still somewhat delirious, once it passes, he tells them that the Cenobites are coming, that they don't like losing souls, and that Nico didn't want to come back home. He then keels back over again and is taken inside, into his room, where he appears to 

have a nightmare about the Cenobites skinning him alive. Waking up, he seems to not remember what he said and did before, and is also very intent on knowing where the box, though he claims he doesn't know why he cares. However, when Emma brings him some soup, Steven begins acting very strangely. He tells Emma that he and Nico left because they had to get away, that there were things going on that they couldn't bear anymore, but doesn't elaborate on what exactly. Then, after claiming that the Lament Configuration, which

she's become obsessed with and seemingly aroused by, was a souvenir he bought for her, they have an intimate, incestuous interaction where they kiss each other on the lips and he touches her breast. After that, following a scene where the vagrant shows up and kills Nico's father, Steven grabs his father's discarded shotgun from outside, shoots him, and holds the families at gunpoint.

Explaining that he and Nico left because they couldn't stand their monotonous, unfulfilling lives there, "Steven" turns out to actually be Nico. After he summoned the Cenobites and they took him away, Nico was able to return by speaking to Steven from their realm, convincing him to kill a prostitute that he went off with. He came back through her blood and had Steven bring him more victims to regenerate himself. But, when Steven couldn't go through with it anymore, Nico flayed

his skin and began wearing it like a suit. After breaking this to the Cravens, he also reveals that his mother and Steven's father were having an affair, another of the reasons why he and Steven left. He then orders Emma to summon the Cenobites with the box, intending to make a deal with them: her soul for his.

This is one of the reasons why I wish this movie was better, as there was potential here. As you can tell, we have a Larry and Frank Cotton situation with Steven and Nico, and applying that dynamic to a pair of kids from privileged families who are bored with their lives and disgusted with their parents' hypocrisy is a fascinating notion. It's also interesting how these characters relate to their inspirations, with Steven not exactly being a saint himself but ultimately proving to be decent enough

to call Nico out when he goes too far (though he doesn't stop him from killing anyone), while Nico, like Frank, was already a despicable person when he was alive but only becomes worse when he escapes the Cenobites. In fact, he may have been even worse than Frank to begin with. Frank was certainly a sadistic hedonist but, as far as we know, he didn't murder anybody while he was alive (he likely would've had the same attitude about killing that girl that Nico does, though). Moreover, Nico

not only murders one prostitute for her blood but also kills her baby, much to Steven's horror and disgust. Also, while Frank was intent on just restoring himself and escaping before the Cenobites came back for him, when Steven tells Nico that he's not going to murder for him anymore, Nico tries to get him to agree to go on by telling him that he wants to apply the sights and sensations he witnessed and felt in the Cenobites' domain to the real world. Steven, however, packs his bag and prepares to leave, telling Nico, "I've

given you the shirt off my back." Nico responds by hitting him over the head, knocking him out, and, deploying a switchblade, says, "It's not the shirt off your back that I want." And that's another thing: at least when Frank skinned Larry, he killed him; in one of the flashbacks, it's revealed that Nico not only left Steven alive, but also alone and in agony in the hotel room. Desperate, Steven summoned the Cenobites and became one himself, another concept that's very interesting.

Unfortunately, the whole thing just falls flat on its face. One reason is the acting: while Jay Gillespie's performance as Nico is suitably loathsome, and Nick Eversman is fine as Steven, the latter's performance as the disguised Nico when he shows up at the Craven home becomes embarrassingly bad. When he's out by the swimming pool and deliriously warns everyone of the Cenobites, his performance is very cringe, with exaggerated shocked facial expressions and him trying way too

hard to sound traumatized, especially when he delivers the line, "They want to experience your flesh." But when he holds everybody at gunpoint, reveals that he's actually Nico, and all of the family's dirty laundry, as well as his ultimate plans, he chews the scenery like nobody's business, and not in an entertaining way, either. They try to make him come off as charismatic and even funny, like when he says about taking Steven's skin, "He wasn't using it," as well as hideously cruel in how

he mocks everyone's terror and pain, and brags to Ross Craven about how he was the first one Emma was ever with, but Eversman just doesn't sell it. Another problem is the dialogue: as profound and meaningful as it could've been to have Nico commenting on how screwed up his and Steven's families are, and how the two of them were also tired of how monotonous their lives had become, the constant, obnoxious F-bombs just kills it for me. I don't know if that was in Gary Tunnicliffe's initial script but, like with Rob Zombie's movies,

when the movie is so needlessly profane, any substance is might have goes down the tubes for me. And finally, you have Steven become a Cenobite himself, ostensibly so he can get revenge on Nico, only for him to show up as what can only be described as a mini Pinhead (he's even officially referred to as "Pseudo"). Seriously, how uninspired can you be? And before he and the female Chatterer take Sarah away, they try to have him speak as profoundly as Pinhead, telling her, "Even that which is born of the flesh is still just flesh. And no flesh should be spared." Whatever.

Nobody else in the cast fares much better, but Emma Craven's (Tracey Fairaway) portrayal is sometimes just baffling. Besides wearing a fairly revealing dress for a simple family dinner, she, initially, seems reasonable, in that she's frustrated by how she's not allowed to even mention Nico and Steven in conversation. Wanting closure, she demands that they talk about them at the dinner table, and also demands to know what's on the video camera, which her mother refuses to let her see. Following the ensuing blow-up, Emma goes and watches the video herself, and gets a bit of a sense of what happened; she also finds the Lament Configuration among their belongings. Drawn to it and desperately wanting to solve it, she's momentarily distracted when "Steven" suddenly shows up, and they find that someone has apparently taken away their cars and cut the phone-line. But then, she periodically fiddles with the box, trying to solve it, and at one point, comes close to opening the gate to the Cenobites' dimension. Most bizarrely of all, it seems to make Emma extremely horny, as there's one scene where she describes how she thinks it works in a very suggestive manner, and even randomly hits on Nico's father, Peter. That's when she's sent to give Steven some soup and the two of them talk about how the box makes them feel (since when is the Lament Configuration an aphrodisiac?), then have a very intimate interaction for a brother and sister. This, coupled with a freakish, violent vision she has involving Steven, horrifies Emma when she comes to her senses. 

During the big reveal, when the disguised Nico spills the beans about Ross Craven and Kate Bradley's affair, he also accuses Emma herself of being really screwed up, given how she was apparently willing to do it with her brother. To her credit, she tries to stop Nico at one point by stabbing him with a knife she took from the kitchen, but he manages to knock her aside and forces her to open the box. When she does and the Cenobites appear, though Pinhead refuses Nico's

trade offer and prepares to take him back with them, he also notes the darkness within Emma's soul and says that, some day, she will call to them herself. At the end of the movie, Emma is left alone in the house with the box, and her expressions suggests that what Pinhead said will come to pass.

There's little else to say about everyone else in the house. Emma's mother, Sarah (Devon Sorvari), is a neurotic mess who obsesses over the video camera footage found among Steven and Nico's belongings, and doesn't like for the subject of what happened to them to be brought up at all. Nico's father, Peter (Sebastien Roberts), gets drunk on wine fairly early on and, like Emma, wants closure on the subject about what happened to his son. When Steven shows up, Peter is initially shocked,

then becomes agitated and impatient. Despite Steven clearly not being in the best physical or mental shape to answer questions, Peter demands to know where Nico is and has to be restrained by Ross Craven (Steven Brand). Though Peter apologizes for this, you can tell there's some resentment over how Ross' son showed up but his didn't. Peter becomes more and more agitated over what happens as the night goes on due to his drunkenness, and is ready to shoot any intruder

who shows up on the property. He shoots the vagrant when he shows up with little provocation, but the vagrant not only doesn't die but slices deep into Peter's face, removing a huge chunk of flesh. Despite Ross' attempts to save him, he dies from his injuries. Speaking of Ross, he's just about the most likable character in the movie, mainly in how he often comes across as calm and collected, and tries to keep it all together as the night goes and things get worse. He also assures his son that he won't let anything happen to him now that he's

back home. But then, after Peter's death, the disguised Rico shoots him with a shotgun, and he spends the rest of the movie slowly bleeding out, listening as Rico reveals his affair with Peter's wife, Kate (Sanny van Heteren). At Nico's urging, he apologizes for the affair, but says it to Sarah, rather than Nico himself, whom he calls a "little shit." As for Kate, she does little more than act hysterical throughout much of the night. It's actually affecting when Peter dies, but otherwise, it's more horribly bad acting. She also gets her killed, as Pinhead rips her throat open when she doesn't shut up like he orders everyone too. And in the end, Ross' desire for revenge against Nico, even when he's strung up by the Cenobites, leads him to shoot him, commenting, "No one gets to kill you but me, you little fuck." However, that proves to have been a big mistake, as Pinhead tells him that now, they must take someone else in Nico's place, and he chooses Sarah. Ross begs for Pinhead to take him instead but he's left to spend his last few minutes alive realizing just what he's done. He tells Emma that he's sorry for everything before dying, leaving her in the house alone when the Cenobites disappear.

Though he would officially say it was due to the movie's cheap nature and story, according to Gary Tunnicliffe, the reason why Doug Bradley opted not to be a part of Hellraiser: Revelations came down to the pitiful amount of money they had for him, which was around $5,000. Moreover, Tunnicliffe said that the higher-ups at Dimension left it up to him to call Bradley and tell him. Thus, Bradley said no, and he was replaced by the much maligned Stephan Smith Collins. While there is a lot not to like about Collins' portrayal of Pinhead, from the way he looks in the makeup to his actual performance, I don't entirely blame him, as I feel he was doing the best he could, given the circumstances. The dialogue he's given isn't that bad, either, like, "You have a darkness that rivals my own, Nico. It will be a very special pleasure to rip you apart," "Human names, human memories. They have no place, nor meaning in our existence," and, "Unless you want to taste her blood, feel her freshly razored flesh against your own, you'll sit in silence. We have no desire for you." Pinhead's role here is basically the way it was in the original movie, as he and the Cenobites are intent upon reclaiming Nico after he manages to get away from them. I also like how, during the climactic confrontation, he notes Emma's dark side, saying that she will one day call to them of her own accord, but for now, they're only interested in Nico. And when Ross kills Nico himself, Pinhead lets him know how badly he just messed up, telling him, "Fool. We had all we desired. Our appetite was sated. And the eternity of suffering he would've experienced at our hands would've been more vengeance for you then you can possibly imagine. But your actions have denied us. Denied us that exquisite joy. Now there is a deficit of flesh. Debt is outstanding. And we seek payment." Ross' offer for himself is met with Pinhead telling him, "No. What few moments you have remaining will be spent in the agony that the indulgence of your own foolish vanity has cursed your wife to unparalleled terrors at the hands of others." Finally, when it's all said and done, I like how Pinhead comes back around to Emma, telling her, "When this existence ceases to fulfill... we will be waiting." Tell me you couldn't hear Bradley saying some of those lines.

However, everything else about Pinhead here is just wrong. Collins' physical performance and facial expressions are fare too overdone and flamboyant, even coming coming off as effeminate, with continually pursing lips. Pinhead may have gotten some sadistic pleasure out of what he did in the past, as well as had his own desires, but this is far too gleeful (that smile he gives when he finishes personally turning Steven into a Cenobite is a prime example). He also just doesn't have the 

same commanding presence that Bradley brought to the role. Then, there's the voice, which isn't even Collins'; rather, it's Fred Tatasciore, a pretty prolific and versatile voice actor. Why they bothered casting someone whose own voice they weren't intent on using is strange enough, but the voice that Tatasciore gives Pinhead should've definitely given them a moment of pause. Instead of the deep, rumbling sound they gave Bradley's voice in post, we now have an airy, slightly lisping voice that's noticeably forcing a British accent, and it's just as 

flamboyant and overwrought as Collins' physical performance. And finally, there's the way Pinhead looks. This makeup just doesn't work with Collins' long face and rather large cranium, and their attempt to make the grid pattern and his lips stand out more causes the makeup to look less natural (his lips remind me of the black ones they gave Bela Lugosi in the original Dracula). Collins also has a rather angelic look to his face that doesn't work with the character, either, and if the costume looks cheap, that's because, according to Tunnicliffe, the low budget forced them to just buy a Pinhead cosplay suit online!

They also brought back the character of the vagrant (Daniel Buran), or the Puzzle Guardian, having Nico and Steven run into him at the bar after Nico killed his lover. Sitting down at their table, despite their not wanting anything to do with him, he says he can sense their situation, noting how they're privileged and yet, are in such a seedy bar. He shows them the Lament Configuration, describing it as an "experience," a form of, "Ultimate arousal... Better than sex... Sex has limits. So does killing... This will take you beyond the limits, to places you can't even begin to imagine. Sensual pain." When Nico is turned off by that last statement, asking if he means like bondage, the vagrant says, "Let me ask you something: how can we experience ultimate pleasure without experiencing ultimate pain? How can we taste the truly sweet without a little bit of the sour?... Death is a finality. There's no beauty in that, as you both know... How many people have you known who've come close to death and survived? Every day for them is the best day ever. Every sensation, a symphony. That's what this does." That's enough to get Nico to buy the box, but like before, the vagrant asks for no money. In the main story at the Craven house, he shows up on the property, ignoring Ross and Peter when they confront with him a gun, and doesn't flinch when Peter takes the gun and threatens to blow him away. Ignoring his asking where Nico is, the vagrant simply says that the Cenobites will reclaim "Steven," and Peter shoots him (and in a completely different voice than before). But this doesn't kill him, as he rises back up, takes Peter by surprise, and mutilates his face, causing him to eventually die from severe blood loss and shock.

When the movie was released, Dread Central noted, "You could easily confuse this for some Hellraiser mockbuster from the folks at The Asylum," and that's very true. This movie has the feel of one of those movies, not just in the bad acting and low production values, but also in the way it looks. It has that same sort of low quality, color-graded visual aesthetic as those Asylum movies, and it alternates from being shot in a fidgety, handheld style that pans back and forth in a very amateurish manner, to being locked off

like a traditional movie. Early on, it also goes back and forth from that to a found footage type of movie, even beginning in that manner, and it actually manages to look cheaper than what you typically get in that subgenre. I will admit that I do think the way they initially show Nico summoning the Cenobites in the "found footage" style is kind of effective, with how the room goes from normal to being bathed in that otherworldly blue light and shadows from those slats in the wall, and how Pinhead suddenly appears from out of nowhere

offscreen, but other than that, it's one of many things that Gary Tunnicliffe didn't originally intend but they put in anyway. Also, after the opening, the way the film keeps simply cutting back and forth from the video footage that someone's watching to an actual, third-person flashback to what happened in Mexico can be confusing, as it can make you wonder what the person watching the footage is seeing, and what we're only supposed to be seeing as the audience. But, going back to the subject of

color grading, I think the biggest testament to how utterly cheap the movie was and how little anyone cared are the exterior establishing shots of the Craven house and the shots of the Bradleys arriving there for dinner at the beginning. I've seen some horrendous day-for-night photography but, man, that is one of the worst. Even if it's tinted blue like that because it's supposed to be at dusk during late spring or summer, it still looks so hackneyed, to say the least, and it must've been something they

had to get at the very last minute, as they certainly didn't have any issues with other exterior nighttime shots. Finally, the editing is sometimes cheap as well, like one transition during a part of the video camera footage where the image digitally disintegrates into particles, like an old, cheap effect you'd find on a camcorder like that.

There are only three settings in the entire movie: Mexico in the video footage and flashbacks, the Craven house, and the Cenobites' realm. Because they couldn't afford it, all we see of the former are the seedy bar and the nasty restroom where Nico bangs and then kills the woman they pick up, their hotel room, the crappy apartments belonging to the hookers who Steven ends up killing for Nico, and some nondescript back-alleys where he picks them up. You also see a little bit of the highway and the city of Los Angeles during the opening when

they're heading to Mexico, and some random street corner in the footage where they find their van has been taken. The Craven home, by contrast, is a really nice, upscale house that's situated up in the mountains near Los Angeles (according to Emma, it's one of those places where you have to let someone onto the property through an electric gate), establishing the isolation that the families find themselves in when things start going down. Also, had the story been done better, it would've

made for a nice part of the major themes involving privilege, wealth, and depravity. And finally, the Cenobites' dimension looks a lot like it did in the original Hellraiser: a dank, dim room with blue light pouring through slats in the walls, chains hanging from the ceiling, and those flesh pillars with body parts and bones skewered onto them. Even though you know they only did this because they couldn't afford anything more elaborate, it is 

nice to see those familiar elements, some of which we haven't seen in quite a while now. The same goes for how it looks when their realm bleeds into the real world when they're summoned, even if that deep blue lighting here, as cool as it may be, comes off as a poor man's version of what we saw before, and the whole thing looks like a small theater stage in the wide shots.

Too bad the filmmakers didn't seemed to have done their research on or even cared about the fine points of the series' mythology, though. There are many times in this movie where it will cut from a shot of the Lament Configuration to Pinhead in the other realm, often reacting to and/or hearing what's going on in the house, as if suggesting that the Cenobites actually live inside the box. Moreover, like with Frank and Julia in the first two movies, Nico's resurrection occurs because the prostitute's spilled blood brings him back and he feeds on

more in order to fully restore himself... but it wasn't until I was scanning through the movie again that I realized Steven kills the first prostitute in her own apartment, rather than his and Nico's hotel room, i.e. the place where the Cenobites killed him and where any spilled blood should revive him. At least, I think that's what happens, since the prostitute asks Steven to come back home with her, but her apartment and their hotel room look really similar. Given the budget, they probably just

recycled the same set and redressed it to make it look slightly different, but even if this is Nico and Steven's hotel room, Steven kills the girl on the bed rather than the floor, where Nico was torn apart. Regardless, they try to get around this by having Nico speak to Steven through the box (see, the fact that it's there makes me think this might be the hotel room, just looking a lot worse for wear, because why would Steven bring the box with him?), telling him to kill her, and also by having him bludgeon her with it, getting her blood on it, but, going back to my first point, that flies in the face of the long-established mythology.

Revelations also, unfortunately, continues the trend we've been on for the past couple of movies of uninspired Cenobites. Again, we only have two besides Pinhead: Pseudo Pinhead and a female Chatterer (Jolene Andersen). Not only is Pseudo (even though it's Steven, he's actually played by Jay Gillespie, Nico's actor) such a lazy concept in and of itself, but his makeup design is just so-so. The idea that it's sections of new flesh held together on his head and face by the nails, which Pinhead inserted himself, isn't a bad one, but the

bloody lines of separation between the flesh are not as disturbing as they should be, and is it me, or does it look he has a mustache? As for the female Chatterer, her design is okay, but it's still not that creative and she does little except skin Steven's face in a vision that the disguised Nico dreams of and menace Emma during the third act. Also, when Emma almost opens the portal shortly after "Steven" has shown up, you see some hooked, faceless women making out in the background, but you never see them again and they serve no purpose other than to be a random, unsettling sight and it doesn't mean much.

If Revelations does anything right, it's in the makeup and gore effects, which are pretty gnarly. The first one we see, which is the aftermath of whatever Nico did to that woman in the restroom, is a harsh first start, and from there, we see sights like Pinhead forcing the nails into Steven's head in the process of turning him into a Pseudo Pinhead, Pseudo hammering some bloody flesh onto one of the pillars, Nico's face being pierced into and stretched by the chains, Steven's bloody bludgeoning of the hooker, that vision of

Steven's face being flayed off by the female Chatterer, a later one of Emma kissing the faceless Steven and a quick shot of him ripping the flesh off her breast, Peter's face getting mutilated by the vagrant, and the bloody gunshot wound that Nico delivers to Ross. Also, during the climax, when the Cenobites are summoned, Pinhead uses some hooks to rip open Kate's throat when she fails to be quiet like he warns everyone, doing so in a manner that makes her kind of look like the original female Cenobite. After that, Pseudo slices off a chunk of

flesh from her cheek, while Nico is strung up like normal by the hands, with excruciating close-ups of the hooks digging into his palms, and Sarah gets hooks into the bases of her shoulder-blades which lift her up, and two more in her face that stretch her cheeks, before Pseudo and Chatterer take her away. But, akin to the lackluster makeup designs for the Cenobites, the design for Nico when he's first resurrected and skinless, while certainly good, especially given the circumstances, doesn't feel as

grotesquely realistic as it did in the first two movies. Plus, after those amazing examples of makeup effects work, nothing else is going to measure up (not to mention that, until he takes Steven's skin, Nico remains the same, even after he's fed on at least two people). Finally, the only true visual effects are used to create the glowing blue light that emits from the Lament Configuration whenever it's activated.

Other than the notion that Nico is so desperate for victims to restore his body that he's willing to kill a hooker with a baby, and kill the baby as well (done in an effectively suggestive manner using just sound), Revelations, despite being quite gruesome, as you've seen, never attempts to explore any of the darker, taboo themes of the series but, instead, decides to just scratch the surface on it. Like Hellseeker, it thinks that a bunch of grisly and disturbing sights are enough, and that especially sucks since, while the people who ultimately made

it had neither the time, money, nor interest in doing so, Gary Tunnicliffe's scenario was absolutely ideal for it. For the first time since the original, we have a movie that's all about the facade of happy families, and the dirt and filth that actually lies behind it all. In this case, we have children from a pair of wealthy families who, after having had everything handed to them on a silver platter their whole lives and falling into a monotonous routine that's driving them crazy, as well as discovering

that their parents are having affairs with each other, decide to leave and explore what the rest of the world has to offer. Moreover, after escaping the Cenobites' realm, Nico is not only desperate and unscrupulous enough to flay his own friend's skin and use it as a suit, but also decides to go back home, let them know how much he hates them, shoot the man who was having an affair with his mother, and sell his former girlfriend's soul to the Cenobites in exchange for his own. And as if that

weren't enough, we have the notion that Emma is kind of disturbed herself, enough to where she's willing to make out with who she thinks is her brother, and is also drawn to the Lament Configuration, to the point where Pinhead decides to wait for the day when she will summon them of her own accord. This truly is the closest we've gotten to the original Hellraiser's scenario of a Henrik Ibsen-like scenario made into a supernatural horror film... if only it had been done better, or even competently. Instead, it ended up as the basis for what, hopefully, will remain the series' absolute worst installment.

Save for this somewhat poignant bit during the scene where Steven listens to Nico murder the one prostitute and her baby, which has the sound of a woman vocalizing solemnly, and some parts of the ending credits (though I forget it as soon as I stop listening to it), I don't have much of anything to say about the music score by Frederik Wiedmann, who did the music for Victor Garcia's previous movies and went on to work with him again. It's as generic and forgettable as you would expect for a score to a movie this bad. Wiedmann has had better luck scoring a good number of the direct-to-video, DC animated movies, but given his track record, it's not surprising his live action composing career hasn't really taken off.

Early on, an ad copy for Hellraiser: Revelations proclaimed it to be, "From the mind of Clive Barker." When he caught wind of this, Barker made his feeling on the matter very clear on Twitter: "I want to put on record that the flic out there using the word Hellraiser IS NO FUCKIN' CHILD OF MINE! I have NOTHING to do with the fuckin' thing. If they claim it's from the mind of Clive Barker, it's a lie. It's not even from my butt-hole." That sums it up better than I ever could. Other than some well-done gore and very sporadic moments of quality, this movie is complete garbage. The acting is poor, the characters aren't worth caring about, the portrayal of Pinhead is a joke, the other Cenobites are similarly uninspired, the cheapness is as obvious as the nose on someone's face, the direction is sometimes baffling and shows that those behind the movie didn't know or care about the mythology, the music score is forgettable, and, above all else, it's a no budget, bottom-of-the-barrel, direct-to-video piece of junk that could easily be mistaken for an Asylum ripoff and, worst of all, squanders a scenario that did have some potential. We've had some rough entries in this franchise before, but this is the one Hellraiser I don't recommend at all.