Review #100: Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)


This review was originally written in October 2020.

October Movie Review #17- Hellraiser: Hellseeker

Are you kidding me? Two in a row?

I'm beginning to think I was misled in regards to what to expect from this series, because like the previous entry, I thought this one was GREAT. I might even like this one better than the last one- I'm not sure. I feel like this one is not quite deserving of a perfect score- but I can't really put my finger on anything I disliked about it.

Similar to Inferno, I love how this one is all about one man's inner demons, rather than literal demons that blow things up as you run away from them. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize it, but I loved how this is a direct continuation of Kirsty's story from movies 1 & 2. Numerous times throughout this film I had moments where I would roll my eyes and say, "Oh, I know what's going on. This is pretty predictable." But then, even though I got small parts of it right, I never had all the parts and I was always surprised by something. Some bits of the ending I saw coming from five minutes in, but I never could have guessed the whole thing in a million years!

This one was an incredibly satisfying mystery with the perfect amount of spooky otherworldly elements. At times it feels extremely disjointed and confusing, but I came to realize that that was 100% by design and it serves the narrative in a meaningful way. This movie felt like a dream, except a dream where all of the awkward transitions and bizarre symbolism actually ends up meaning something in the end. I cared about the characters, I was intrigued from the first scene and interested until the last (without the lackluster midsection that most of these have had) and I can't recommend this one enough.

I know I'm asking a lot, but I really hope the series maintains this type of storytelling (if not this level of quality)!

Overall Rating: 9/10 Needles in the Brain

Goof I Noticed: In the last interrogation scene (about 2/3 of the way through the film) I noticed a baseball-capped crew member visible in a mirror

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