Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)

Satanic, Sick, and pointless... Just like Hollywood.

To the makers of the film - you think that was hell? Please.I work a 37.5 hour a week job, in which I do the same work every day, yet the amount of work never reduces. On top of that, I spend an hour a day pedalling relentlessly on an exercise bike & try to make sensible food choices when all I want to do is eat cheeseburgers....This is all I could think whilst watching this film on the bike. Take that however you will - perhaps it was the awful acting (I have seen better actors at a school nativity play) or my own personal rage *shrugs*.

In the intro Pinhead complains that in this corrupt digital era, a wooden box doesn't really to much, that it's obsolete when people can easily satisfy their every desire.Some bum gets a typewritten letter from a "friend" asking him to go to some address. He does. Then he finds himself bound to a chair and a creepy scarfaced character asks him about his crimes and types all that on a typewriter. He is The Auditor. The bum turns out to be a child molester. Then the Assessor arrives, some nasty fat guy who drops children's tears on the confession and then eats it. Then he vomits into a funnel and the vomit ends up in another room where three girls (The Jury) put their hands in it and declare a verdict. Then another set of three girls (The Cleaners) presumably lick the bum "clean" and do something else off-camera to clean him from the inside as well. Then The Butcher arrives from his back crawls out The Surgeon a creepy figure that delivers the sentence and slices the skin off the bum. Pinhead is nearby just sitting there listening to all this. All this is filmed in a pretty cool way in a sepia tone. Then we meet two brothers who are also detectives. They are partnered up for some reason but don't get along all that much, at least one them, Sean, has nothing to say to the other, David. At the crime scene, a dead woman is on the floor, in blood is written "I am a jealous God." Then a female detective, Christine, arrives, who's been sent to be part of the investigation. It turns out the cops have been pursuing a serial killer called "The Preceptor" and this is his 12th killing. The killing are based on the biblical commandments. He provides some literary letter with every killing. But they also find the woman's dog inside her womb. The cops have little to go on. We learn that Sean is an army veteran who is in marital troubles with his wife. The next crime by The Preceptor they find on a playground involves some limbs that are holding organs and some jars with blood, all this relates to missing children.When Sean goes back to the bum's pad he finds an address and goes there. It's where The Auditor and his gang are. They take him and Sean starts his confession, which apparently is pretty gruesome, and it ends up causing The Assessor to choke to death. Still Pinhead decides to let Sean go, suspecting that he will come back.By now the detectives make a discovery that finally advances their case against the Preceptor, with one last commandment to go. There's a surprise and a confrontation between the parties involved. And finally Pinhead makes his hellish entrance and forces two people to open the Lament Configuration. Then another character appears, something of a rival to Pinhead and some surprising things are said about the dynamic between good and evil. Pinhead doesn't budge and in turn suffers judgment himself.Hellraiser: Judgment is something of an improvement overall considering where the franchise has been going. The entire audition process looks cool and is pretty strange and new. At the same time why introduce this new group of Pinhead underlings instead of just sticking with Pinhead and his cenobites? At least the sepia coloring is a welcome departure from Pinhead's domain which is cold blue/grey/black. Also, why focus on cops again instead of on regular people doing bad stuff, no to mention that here we arrive so late to The Preceptor's shenanigans. Gary J. Tunnicliffe, now promoted to director, does a good job. Unfortunately he also figured he'd take on the role of The Auditor and that was a mistake. Aside from him, acting overall is strong. Alexandra Harris is a just lovely as Christine. This movie makes for a good horror thriller one that is more like a spin-off from Hellraiser really. As a Hellraiser movie it's of course disappointing because again Pinhead, the Lament Configuration, and the Cenobites are barely featured, and again they picked some actor entirely unsuited to play Pinhead. Doug Bradley has been in some terrible Hellraiser sequels, not sure why he thought the last two weren't worth participating. But if that's the case surely there are actors who can do a better job and look more appropriate. There's also not a whole lot of gore and violence. Us usual with some of the recent sequels there aren't many good lines for Pinhead. But I like the twist that the new character represented where the issue of good and evil comes up. However the ending is just terrible, and makes you wonder about where this franchise will go, especially if they can't come up with a good reboot, which looks to be on hold again. Perhaps Pascal Laugier is available. I can't think of a better writer/director to take on a Hellraiser reboot.

First and foremost I am a diehard fan of the Hellraiser Franchise and even with the later sequels not being anywhere near as amazing as the original, (honestly some are pretty bad) they are all watchable for me, and each one has a different aspect that I think gives it a place in the Hellrasier/Clive Barker universe.Now with that being said Hellraiser: Judgement is a step in the right direction. Not only is it a better movie than the last few, it's the best Hellraiser film since Part 3 Hell on Earth. This movie has a lot of upsides to it, Paul Taylor as Pinhead is a major improvement when compared to the last one. The introduction of The Auditor is great, he adds some much needed flare to the rest of the Cenobites, the new process we see captives go through is interesting, and the film storyline is better as a whole. Now don't get me wrong, this is not the Hellraiser that was shown to us in 1987, but it's a hell of a lot better than what came before it and with the budget and timeframe this movie had to get finished it's pretty good. I think the Director Gary J. Tunnicliffe has a vision that he just hasn't been given the assets to accomplish. Mainly because of who owns the rights to the franchise.Finally this movie isn't without its problems. The plot of is much like Hellraiser films we have seen before and the first half feels like a rip off of Seven. The lighting in it has an orange, yellow muted tone that makes me feel like I am watching an early 2000's Saw movie, which is a far cry from the light blue, cold feeling the first ones gave me. Pinheads screen time is pretty short, which personally I don't consider that a problem, but a lot of people will. There isn't much gore throughout the movie which again I don't mind, and finally I would have loved to have seen a few new cenobites besides Pinhead and the Auditor.With a bigger budget and more time this movie would have been much better and even with the issues I enjoy Hellraiser: Judgement quite a bit. It will have its haters and probably split the fans of the franchise down the middle, some loving, and others not so much. At the least this movie will get fans talking, which will hopefully generate some momentum and get another sequel off the ground with more support than this one had. Diehard fans like myself will enjoy Hellraiser: Judgement it has pleasure and pain, but much more pleasure.