I've only seen the first three HELLRAISER films at this point, but when I saw the latest sequel, HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT (2018) was showing for free on Amazon Prime, I thought I'd check it out. Boy, I'm glad I didn't pay for this stinker, which feels nothing like the original films. The only link is the character of Pinhead, played by someone else doing a Doug Bradley voice, and as for the director's comment that the replacement actor has something of Cushing and Fiennes to him, I can only say...where?!
I can't even describe the plot because it seems to be barely existent, just playing out in a couple of rooms. Detectives investigate a serial killer who turns out to be...well, you can guess. There's another demon character called 'The Auditor' who seems a copy of the Uncle Frank character in the first film. Flying chains and some gore abound, but this felt more like a SAW rip-off than a HELLRAISER film to me, with none of the religious imagery or good vs. Evil backdrop that made the earlier films so interesting. Here, it's just pure tedium, badly acted and written, with the awful direction the icing on an appalling cake. Even if they had good intentions here, the lack of money let them down.
I can't even describe the plot because it seems to be barely existent, just playing out in a couple of rooms. Detectives investigate a serial killer who turns out to be...well, you can guess. There's another demon character called 'The Auditor' who seems a copy of the Uncle Frank character in the first film. Flying chains and some gore abound, but this felt more like a SAW rip-off than a HELLRAISER film to me, with none of the religious imagery or good vs. Evil backdrop that made the earlier films so interesting. Here, it's just pure tedium, badly acted and written, with the awful direction the icing on an appalling cake. Even if they had good intentions here, the lack of money let them down.