Review #99: Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)

This review was originally written in October 2020.

October Movie Review #16- Hellraiser: Inferno

Holy cow, what is this movie doing here? In this series? It's actually GOOD. Like, REALLY good. To the point where I think I like it better than I liked the original and I would feel perfectly fine recommending this to anyone, even if they have no intention of watching any other Hellraiser movies.

Like, I don't even know where to begin saying what it was I liked about this. I liked almost all of it. On one hand I want to praise this film for actually making the cenobites interesting AND scary, but I also want to point out that this movie used far less of them than any other in the series. There's so little distinct cenobite presence in this film that I almost feel like it was a separate movie that got shoehorned into the Hellraiser series at the last minute (hence why I'd recommend this to someone who hasn't seen any others).

[End-of-Writing Edit: I just looked at the IMDB trivia and this is exactly what happened. I'm not bothered one bit.]

In Hellraiser 2, 3, and 4, the cenobites were just kind of these "scary" villains who would show up and you'd think, "Uh-oh, they're about to kill some people, our protagonists better run away". In this one, they only show up as a secondary effect of something else scary that's going on, and they're mainly just there to make you wonder whether what you're seeing is even real. Also, despite ostensibly being the villains in this film (I suppose) their relationship with pain is so much more well represented, like it was in the first film.

One scene in particular stands out in my mind: Early in the film, we see (during what is most likely a dream sequence) two female (?) cenobites seducing the protagonist and rubbing his chest, and we realize that during this bizarre and horrifying seductive act, they've actually pierced his chest and are sliding their hands around under his flesh (which he only takes issue with once he realizes what's happening). This is the kind of schtick the first movie made me think the whole series was going to be about- the relationship between pain and pleasure and the fact that some people want something so utterly masochistic that they would derive enjoyment from the cutting and tearing of their own flesh (and more). Remember that in the first movie, unlike the unwitting protagonists of basically every other film in the series, Frank bought the puzzle box KNOWING what it was and what it would do, because he was actively seeking pleasures that the mortal world couldn't offer him. The other films all kind of forgot about that, instead having them be "oooOOOoooh spooky murder demons" because that's a lot easier for a lot of people to understand and these movies are meant to make money. This one did it right, but also had the restraint to make the story itself about the human characters, not about the cenobites.

There was definitely a soggy middle point (right around when the main character goes off in search of the Engineer) and I lost interest for a little while, but it got right back on track not long after and the ending was kind of blowing my mind. There were some points of incredibly creepy imagery (like when the nurse puts her hand on the bed in the parents' bedroom) and I loved the twists that came one after another near the end, and the actual ending itself was a way more fitting version of hell than anything Hellraiser 2 had to offer.

All in all I thought this was a fantastic film- not perfect, but very very good, and if it weren't for the fact that I've been told this is a distinct high point for the series, I'd be eagerly awaiting the next entry. But I guess I'm going to watch them all anyway, so let's see what happens tomorrow!

Overall Rating: 9/10 Nenonen Palindromes

Marketing Idea I Had: This film could serve as a better Silent Hill movie than both of the Silent Hill movies (despite the fact that it doesn't take place in Silent Hill)