Well, we finally got there. We hit the point in the Hellraiser series where Doug Bradley finally jumped ship and no longer lends himself to the Pinhead character. You might also notice there was a longer time between this movie and most of the other sequels. This one was apparently made entirely so that Dimension Films could retain the rights to the franchise and was slapped together over the course of a couple weeks. You might be able to ascertain what that means for the overall production value on this particular entry.

Our movie concerns itself mostly with two friends, Nico and Steven. The boys have been missing after they ran away from home and the only thing that was found was some of their belongings including a familiar puzzle box and video camera showing that they are the worst kind of shitty, rich white kids that go to Mexico and also that something happened when they opened the box. When the families of the boys get together one night, the daughter Emma begins messing with the box and suddenly Steven shows up babbling incoherently about not going back and that they are coming to get him. Steven’s family home is conveniently located outside cellphone range and now the landline is down and also everyone’s cars are gone and the nearest neighbor is 4 miles away and it’s too dangerous to walk for help in the dark and please just let us do this movie in the house we rented, we already spent all the location budget on the “Mexico” scenes. Anyway, clearance rack Pinhead shows up eventually and there’s some big twists.

Hey, Spoilers for this (not that I expect anyone watching the 10th Hellraiser movie requires a pure watching experience but the twist is about the only thing this movie has going for it).

I will say, the one thing this movie has going for it that pretty much none of the other other sequels do, is that it hews closer to the concept of the original film. The Cenobites only really give a shit about taking people that call to them. Nico is shown to be an unrepentant asshole, murderer, and sex fiend; making him a perfect Cenobite candidate. When Nico is taken, Steven ends up being able to bring him back with blood by killing people like Julia did with Uncle Frank. Then they want to hunt him down and take him back because they don’t like losing souls that are theirs. The big twist reveal is that the “Steven” we see coming back home is actually Nico having skinned Steven and wearing it after being resurrected. Meanwhile, Steven, left skinless and dying, called to the Cenobites and became Pinhead Jr. (which sucks an absolute pile of shit, design wise, but at least it’s creating a new Cenobite from a willing supplicant rather than just turning some random murder victim into one). Nico was dating Emma and we get a scene of Nico in Steven’s skin making out with Emma for a bit of added incest to the movie for more fucked up sex shit and setting up Emma as being a future Cenobite victim.

In all, the base idea of the plot isn’t the worst. However, the actual production and execution of the film is another matter entirely. The entire thing looks like it was shot with someone’s “almost professional grade” camera set-up even though they didn’t have all the equipment necessary but assured everyone it’s fine because they “have very steady hands”. None of the acting in this gets above soap opera level grade but that makes sense given that the script went from finished to shooting in a matter of a couple weeks and finished shooting over another three so the actors probably learned the lines as they were saying them. While the gore effects aren’t bad, the actual Pinhead makeup looks laughable here which is the one thing you really shouldn’t be fucking up. Obviously the movie looks and feels rushed because it was. If this had been a half hour fan-made movie, I would have been really impressed. As is, it feels doubly insulting to know that they could have been making a movie that plays by the original Hellraiser rules but just didn’t until this steaming pile.

Last weird thing. Steven’s family names is Bradley. Great, couldn’t get Doug so give him a nod in the character name. Nico’s family name is Craven. What? Wes Craven has nothing to do with this series. You couldn’t name them Barker or even Cotton as a reference to the original? Just an odd choice. Like naming them Romero or something.

Score: 2 out of 5