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Now this is surprising. I recently decided to do some checking and came up with the realisation there still are at least three films from the Hallraiser series I hadn't seen. It's not like I'm a fan of the series. I like the first one, and #3 was one of my guilty pleasures back then when these films still got a theatrical release. Of course, I can see why they didn't bother with that in the next instalments. The Hellraiser franchise hasn't been as ruined as say the Nightmare on Elm street or the Friday the 13th series, but it's been a long time since I found the idea of watching another Hellraiser film attractive.

So I ended up somehow with a DVD copy of "Hellraiser VI - Hellseeker", and boy, it felt good. Really. Regulars of the series probably won't like it much, because Pinhead is only in a few scenes and does nothing particularly remarkable. In fact, the whole Cenobit angle is kept pretty much hidden from the viewer until the very end.

Instead "Hellseeker" focuses on the survivor of a car crash that killed his wife. He can barely remember anything of his previous life, and when he tries to resume his normal life strange things start to happen. He has blackouts and he sees visions of R rated stuff. And then he starts thinking he may not be the good guy in this, because almost every woman he meets wants to get in his pants and hints they have past history.

So yeah, corny, but well played. Very well, indeed. It's all very suspenseful and, obvious low budget nothwistanding, pretty well executed. If they had bothered to get a better ending (the one it has is pretty good, but not exactly original) it could have been one of the best entries in the seriers, only surpassed by the original. It's that good.

Now, I wonder if the following films in the series are this good or they just go downhill (again) after this one.

I thought that was was fairly interesting as well.  A bizarre movie, but bizarre is sometimes good.  The seventh one, Deader, well, it's got Kari Wuhrer in it, she's always nice to look at.  The story was mildly interesting, but I thought it was a fairly pedestrian film in concept.  It didn't draw you into that spooky world that the earlier ones did.  The last one, Hellworld, egads.  Think Halloween:  Resurrection, except with Pinhead.  It's self-aware, it's idiotic, it's just awfully awful.

Really?  Try watching the later entries in Hellraiser.   :bouncegiggle:

For my money, Hellraiser IV on my relative scale is about equal to Friday the 13th V or VIII, or Nightmare on Elm Street V/VI.  It has more money in it, of course, but it's very poorly directed and edited, and has too many problems to really list them all. 

And Freddy VS Jason is better than any of those.

But yeah, Hellraiser VI isn't a bad film.  Actually, I'd say it is amazingly good considering the other direct-to-video Hellraiser films.

Didn't Pinhead become a non-factor by part V?

Hell, isn't he only in one scene in part 8?

Thanks, Neville.

A friend of mine gave me a copy of this for my birthday and she told me to pay close attention to what the bad guy's name was. I said "OK, Pinhead, played by Doug Bradley." She told me to rather focus on Dean Winters' character name.  The most chilling line I have ever heard is Doug Bradley as Pinhead saying to Dean Winters: "I used you, Trevor." :buggedout: :buggedout: