This was kind of unnecessary, and here is why.
First, what made the first three or so Hellraiser movies work is you cared about the protagonists. Christie was sympathetic in that she was trying to save her father. Joey in the third you liked because she was trying to stop Pinhead, and she was played by Terry Farrell.
This film, I don't care about any of the characters. The protagonist is completely unlikeable, and you are just waiting for Pinhead and friends to pick off the characters.
The other problem are the Cenobites themselves. Yes, they had much better effects technology than they had available in the 1980's, but so what? Doug Bradley was commanding as Pinhead. The person they have playing the role now has nowhere near the sense of menace.
Yes, this movie has far better production values than most of the straight to video dreck that followed the fourth one, but what it lacks is compelling characters. The gore effects are nice, and they are truly in love with their CGI Lament Configuration. But in the end, if you don't care about the characters, even find them unlikeable, you really don't care how brutal their demises are. It just becomes cheap torture porn.
First, what made the first three or so Hellraiser movies work is you cared about the protagonists. Christie was sympathetic in that she was trying to save her father. Joey in the third you liked because she was trying to stop Pinhead, and she was played by Terry Farrell.
This film, I don't care about any of the characters. The protagonist is completely unlikeable, and you are just waiting for Pinhead and friends to pick off the characters.
The other problem are the Cenobites themselves. Yes, they had much better effects technology than they had available in the 1980's, but so what? Doug Bradley was commanding as Pinhead. The person they have playing the role now has nowhere near the sense of menace.
Yes, this movie has far better production values than most of the straight to video dreck that followed the fourth one, but what it lacks is compelling characters. The gore effects are nice, and they are truly in love with their CGI Lament Configuration. But in the end, if you don't care about the characters, even find them unlikeable, you really don't care how brutal their demises are. It just becomes cheap torture porn.