Review #102: Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)


This review was originally written in October 2020.

October Movie Review #19- Hellraiser: Hellworld

Okay. Now I know why people keep talking about the Hellraiser movies being bad- it's because of entries like this.

When I read the one-sentence blurb about this film I expected it to be about a haunted video game, complete with cheesy 2000-era CGI and maybe some 90s-holdover "hacking" scenes. I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get that, because if we had, at least it might have been a fun romp through some cheesy effects and maybe a self-aware joke or two.

Unfortunately, that's not what we got. In fact, despite several sources seeming to market this movie as being about a Hellraiser video game, it isn't. There is nothing in this movie about a video game, except that the characters in the movie used to play a video game based on the Hellraiser mythos. (There really isn't any impact from this on the script- except that the characters have a few lines talking about how they know who Pinhead is and who the Cenobites are, and one character even refers to the "Lamont Configuration" [sic] in dialogue.)

In fact, I kind of feel like this isn't even a Hellraiser movie. Aside from some in-name-only references to some of the series lore, a few on-screen props, and a twist scene at the very end, there's no Hellraiser in this Hellraiser movie. It's about a teen (?) who killed himself after becoming too obsessed with a video game, and his father using the video game to enact a (way too elaborate and stupid) revenge plot against his friends for not helping him kick his game addiction. It almost feels like Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 in this regard- it's not a Hellraiser movie, it's a movie about a world in which Hellraiser exists AS a movie. (I would argue the difference is that Blair Witch 2 actually did it well, but not everyone would agree with me.) I just think this is incredibly bizarre as a movie, because even though it was written from the start as a Hellraiser film, it fits the series so poorly compared to 5, 6, and 7 (which were unrelated scripts altered to be Hellraiser movies).

The characters are all incredibly one-note and, as is customary of movies of this vintage, I don't know why any of them are friends. The "party" they go to makes no sense in-universe or out, and the reveal of what exactly is going on is so broad and nonsensical that it blurs any criticism of the events of the movie (because anything that's stupid and makes no sense could just be explained away as part of the hallucination, or whatever). The twist ending felt like nothing but fanservice, and I will be very surprised if the remaining movies refer back to this in any way.

If I ever watched this movie again (which I doubt I will) then I could see myself beginning to value it as a ridiculous overdramatic romp to put on in the background while I turn my brain off for a while, but after a single viewing this movie was just plain dumb.

Overall Rating: 3/10 Lamont Configurations

Favorite Piece of IMDB Trivia: "At the wrap party, a life sized Pin Head pinata was given to Lance Henriksen, who had to throw it out because he is allergic to chocolate." (I assume this to mean that the "pinata" was made of chocolate rather than cardboard, but who knows.)

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