Blyss's Movie Review for:

Main Cast of Characters:

Doug Bradley...........Pinhead

Craig Sheffer.........Joseph Thorne

Nicholas Turturro..........Tony Nenonen

James Remar.........Dr. Paul Gregory

Nicholas Sadler..........Bernie

Sasha Barrese...............Daphne

Noelle Evans...............Melanie

J.B. Gaynor...............Young Joseph Thorne

2000. Rated: R. Genre: Horror, Suspense.

Is there such a thing as Hell?

That is something that Joseph Thorne apparently never worries about. He is a cop who snorts coke and takes advantage of young prostitutes when he has a wife and child waiting at home. At the beginning of the movie, he is called onto the scene of Jay Cho's ( a person he knew in high school) death. He seems to feel nothing as they go through the crime scene even though he knew the guy. Afterwards, when the evidence is brought back and inventoried from the crime, he takes money from the wallet and corrects the inventory to reflect that. A child's finger was found at the scene of the crime but he does not appear concerned. He then takes the money he stole and buys a hooker, spending the night with her. Afterwards he plays with the puzzle box he found at the Cho crime scene and it opens. He has a nightmare and then wakes up back on the bathroom floor. He leaves her sleeping and goes to work. Then later he receives a call from Daphne from the hotel and he hears her getting killed. He and his partner Tony go to check it out and find her body. Joseph is afraid he will take the fall for her murder since he was the last one to see her alive so he frames Tony, only after finding another child's finger at the scene. He starts to track down possible suspects and hears of a person called "The Engineer". Thorne knows he would like to talk to this person but everyone is secret about him. Who is the Engineer? Is he the Devil or worse? Maybe he is just a figment of Thorne's imagination? Is this Hell or is there more Hell to come?

I watched this movie with my family and their thoughts were mixed. It was quite different than any of the other Hellraisers I had seen. I thought that was what made it unique. The element of gore was still there and we still had Pinhead and his Cenobites taunting someone. But it seems that usually Pinhead is preying on people some innocent and a few evil. Joseph Thorne had become inherently evil over the years and it seemed that Pinhead in this film was a type of "moral messenger". He was trying to show Joseph Thorne that he needed to change his life. Thorne was already living in his own personal hell because of what he had done with his life. If he could turn things around, maybe, just maybe the outcome would change. The best part of the whole movie is the ending when Thorne and Pinhead meet face-to-face and you realize the meaning for the whole movie.

Even thought it may not have been a '10' on the horror scale, this movie was still incredible. Craig Sheffer played a wonderful Joseph Thorne, really helping to bring out the bad and good sides of the character. I really liked the fact that there seemed to be a moral to the whole movie which is something you have not really gotten with the other films. I won't say this one is the best of the bunch, but its close.

I rate this film: 8

Blyss