Hellraiser: Inferno Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
The Terrifying New Chapter In The "Hellraiser" Legacy!
A shady police detective becomes embroiled in a strange world of murder, sadism and madness after being assigned a murder investigation against a madman known only as "The Engineer".
| Craig Sheffer | Det. Joseph Thorne |
| Nicholas Turturro | Det. Tony Nenonen |
| James Remar | Dr. Paul Gregory |
| Doug Bradley | Pinhead |
| Nicholas Sadler | Bernie |
| Noelle Evans | Melanie Thorne |
| Lindsay Taylor | Chloe |
| Matt George | Leon Gaultier |
| Michael Shamus Wiles | Mr. Parmagi |
| Sasha Barrese | Daphne Sharp |
| Kathryn Joosten | Mother |
| Jessica Elliot | Young Joseph's Mother |
| Carmen Argenziano | Captain |
| Christopher Neiman | Pathologist |
| Christopher Kriesa | Older Detective |
| Scott Derrickson |
5.40 out of 10 (3750 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Much better then I expected
posted on 22 May 2009I have to disagree with some of the user comments here: Hellraiser: Inferno surprised me. I thought the series went to hell after the second installment (pun intended) and I didn't even bother to watch the fourth one. This one is different from the others as it plays more like a cross between Angel Heart and Jacobs Ladder, which a touch of The Devil's Advocate. Craig Sheffer was much better then in Nightbreed and the rest of the actors were top notch too. I can imagine you don't like this if you expect another slashfeast with lots of Cenobites and Pinhead, but if you don't, you're in for a nice surprise.
Had a good plot it was just drawn out too much.
posted on 24 Apr 2009I am a big fan of the Hellraiser series and after the end of the 4th one I thought there were'nt going to be anymore movies made, well to my surprise I was wrong. I was first excited at seeing a new Hellraiser movie after enjoying the previous one but my expectations went in a 180 degree turn after seeing this movie. I wanted to watch the movie thinking it would get better in the process but all it did was drag out a perfectly good senario for the Hellraiser storyline. I was also disappointed that Pin Head was only in the movie for a total of 7 minutes and most of that being towards the very end of the movie. The lead character Joseph played by Greg Shaffier who was also in Clive Barkers Night Breed basiclly played the role of a cop being tormented with his corrupt ways and trying to solve a series of murders that only he can see and predict after he opened up the puzzlebox. The movie had it's moments but in all it just was too dragged out and the whole ending got confusing and ridiculous making me believe the writer for this movie just ran out of ideas and started writing nonsence.In all I would rate this movie a 3 out of a 10 I hope no more sequels are made like this one was.
Beats Bloodline
posted on 24 Apr 2009The fifth Hellraiser film is one fun ride. After suffering through part four I was hesitant to rent this one. When it came out, all the little fan boys out there hollered about how bad it was, how Pinhead only showed up for a few seconds, how it was a betrayal of the series. Well, betrayal or not, I thought this was a great movie with suspence, cleaver visuals, and a good sense of mystery and pacing. Every scene built on the previous and kept the plot moving. Crag Shaffer was very good in this, playing an unlikable antihero that was a refreshing change from the standard boring white hat that we are usually saddled with in movies. The best parts in this one are the trippy visuals and watching Crag slowly lose all control and composure and eventually loose it. This really feels like you are watching the absolute worst day this scumbag has ever had, and that is very entertaining. So what if Pinhead isn't in it that much, the rest of it holds up well, and if you watch the first Hellraiser, he is hardly in that one as well. What do the fan boys want; more like part four? No thank you. I give props to the filmmakers for having the guts to steer the series away from Freddy land and back into a somewhat Barker universe.
The Fifth Sense
posted on 27 Mar 2009Nobody expects the fifth -direct to video- entry in a film series to be any good. That's obvious and doubly so from the comments displayed here.However, 'Inferno' succeeds by raising the stakes to a new level for the Hellraiser movies. All-but-gone is Pinhead, who desperately claws an audience-pleasing few minutes here and displays perfectly why less is more. Stripped of his gloating, franchise-hungry performance, Doug Bradley actually manages to instill in Pinhead a sense of menace and reminds us why he was hardly used in the original. Show him too much, give him too much material, and he's just Freddy Krueger in a dress, despite all the "English elocution" to the contrary.In truth, 'Inferno' owes more to subtle, disturbing chillers such as 'Stir of Echoes', 'Jacob's Ladder' and 'The Sixth Sense'. Bits of this are genuinely frightening and stick with you long after the tape's rewound, which is a welcome and rare event in these days of glib 'Scream' crap. And there's an all-round high standard of acting from the cast- especially Craig Sheffer- who's gotten chunky since his prettyboy 'Nightbreed' days and now looks like Davis Boreanz from 'Angel'.Rent it or buy it and feel secure that it's the best Hellraiser movie since the first. In fact, despite the fact that it lacks the originality of Barker's film (quite obviously, being a sequel), I'd go as far as to say it's the superior of the two. And it's certainly a damn site better than the dreadful 'Hellbound' and 'Hell on Earth'.
A new direction to the Hellraiser series
posted on 03 Feb 2009This sequel goes for a psychological approach to the series like Jacob's Ladder and I don't mind since they're trying to add something new to the Francise and go in a new direction. Joesph is a crooked cop that likes to take drugs and sleep with prostitutes while ignoring his Wife and Daughter but when he's called to murder where a body is torn to pieces with Hooks on Chains everywhere he finds the Puzzle box and after sleeping with a prostitute he opens the Puzzle Box and soon strange things start happening to Joesph.After seeing Pinhead and the Cenobites he wakes up in the bathroom again, thinking it was a dream he goes to work and gets a call from the women he slept with being killed in the Motel he goes there with his Partner Tony to find her in the bathroom with a severed finger next to her. Scanning the print they discover that it belongs to a kid that is being held by the killer called the Engineer.The Enginner is a mysterious man that seems to be playing a game with Joesph, he's told that "Hunt for the Engineer and the Engineer will hunt you." In a bar he's given a tape of a Faceless Man killing his friend then putting another finger in the cash register but when he shows his Capatin the tape there's nothing on it at all. Joesph also starts seeing weird things like the Cenobites watching him and other things that question his mind.Joesph has to find the Engineer before he cuts off all the fingers and kills the kid and he must find him before he loses his mind. Hellraiser: Inferno is a interesting new direction to the series that is very good.
a different turn for the series
posted on 30 Jan 2009I am a big fan of horror movies and if you are, then you actually can't ignore the Hellraiser series. The original (which was based on the novel of the director, Clive Barker) was an original and frightening tale about hell, demons and the confrontation with these things by people. After this, there was a sequel made, which stood up fairly against the original, but didn't have the same quality, but it kept the same atmosphere and grim look of the original. The third and forth edition were actually Pinhead-based slashers. These movies were entertaining on their own (everybody likes to see a slasher movie once in a while), but it was obvious that these movies didn't reach the same level of quality as the 2 first. Well, the first thing you say then when you see that there is a fifth installment in the making "How more downhill can you go if they went already pretty far??"This is what a lot of people said if you read the reviews on this page, but i'm glad to say that they are quite wrong. A lot of people seem to have a problem with the fact that during this movie, there are very little scenes with the Cenobites and , of course, Pinhead. These people seem to forget that in the original the actual screen time for these Cenobites is also quite short, 10-15 minutes. In this movie, you have quite the same amount of time, only there are other Cenobites here then in the previous 4 (only Pinhead returns, for 2-3 minutes, but these minutes are quite effective).This movie (and his director) also wants to take the known elements (Lemarchand's configuration, Cenobites,...) and use it to make a more psychological horror movie. OK, maybe this doesn't succeed in every way, but it takes courage to try to make something different and , especially, again taking the level of quality back to the level set by the first 2. Also, this doesn't succeed (the atmosphere of the first 2 is never matched), but if your honest, you can give Hellraiser : Inferno the number 3 because it is actually the 3rd best of the series.I can assure you : the movie stands very good on it's own and it contains solid performances from the cast, not exceptional but good enough. The story itself builds up quite nicely and the gore is better and more frightening then in most horror flicks these days. And the idea of the movie (Lemarchand's configuration takes the person who opens it to his own personal hell) is not that bad.You can't go wrong with this. And for the ones who still think that the 3rd and 4th installment are better, they can wait for number 6, which i think will pick up the line of number 4, acting like 5 doesn't exist. And that's something that Scott Derrickson's brave attempt here doesn't deserve.
When is a hellraiser movie not a hellraiser movie
posted on 12 Jan 2009When its a lame rip-off of the Christmas Carol or a bad episode of the twilight zone. The director of this thing had the gall to say that Clive Barker didn't know what he was doing anymore. The writer/director of this movie seemed not to have even seen the other four - he just knew there was a Pinhead and a magic box and he inserted them into a script he had already written that had nothing to do with the original Helllraiser movies at all.Pinhead was on about three minutes.The puzzle box was on about five.The story has been done to death many times - I knew the "it didn't really happen now I can change, wait it did happen, its too late" ending would finish this film about half way through it (although I hoped I was wrong.)Why would a b-movie/genre film villain-star like James Remar be in this film playing the small part he played - maybe the part has a surprise to it?
Saw that one coming too.This was the worst film in the series, not because it was totally awful - some scenes and make-up were kind of scary - but because it had nothing to do with any of the events and the mythology established in the movies that came before it.
Are you sure that you understand the Engineer's...message?
posted on 10 Jan 2009I have always been a fan of the Hellraiser series, (Well, maybe not Bloodlines.) and I think that this movie was a great follow up to the Hellraiser series. It took the series into a new direction and actually succeeded. It gave moral values instead of the constant use of gore. It gives you a view of "Don't do this or...." The acting was good. The special effects were great. (Not like the fake looking lasers in Bloodlines.) And the story was excellent. The only complaint is that Pinhead wasn't in it more. You just can't have a Hellraiser film without Pinhead. ***** out of *****Oh yeah...another (sort of) complaint. What was the deal with the retro cowboy ninja guys? That, I didn't understand.
This is Hellraiser at it's best...
posted on 01 Dec 2008I don't understand how people can trash this movie, (except the part about the cheesy, less than scary cenobites) it is very engaging and keeps your mind wondering what is going on. It keeps the concept of what Hell is fresh and gives it a new approach, as opposed to the usual "someone opens the box and gets yanked away by the hooks and chains." People say it's incoherent. That's the whole point. Thorne is in Hell after he opens the box, so it should be incoherent, because neither Thorne nor the audience knows this at the outset. But looking back on the times he 'died' and woke up on the bathroom floor of the motel, it adds up... how all the evil deeds he did destroyed his own spirit and innocence and created his version of hell. Remember in "Hell on Earth" where Capt. Spencer said "The truly innocent were safe..." and when Tiffany isn't killed by the Cenobites in Hellbound even though she opened the box (because she had no evil intention)? This installment keeps things new but stays true to the 'rules' set forth in the previous installments. It goes back to the way Pinhead was in the first two, which is not a bad thing. He is often far more sinister by saying less, than by being pseudo-poetic as in "Hell on Earth" (although I don't consider that particularly bad). I'd say this is arguably the best in the series, although I thoroughly enjoy all of them. I can't wait for Deader and Hellworld.
Unfortunate
posted on 13 Nov 2008I knew there was a serious problem with the Hellraiser films when part 3 came out. Though that film had neat special effects, it was really stupid.
Part 4 was even worse, which is even more tragic because given the plot and special effects, it really didn't have to be (this was otherwise known as The Film That Got Edited Into Oblivion).Inferno is just plain terrible. The nicest thing I can say about it is that it maintains a shred of plot consistency with the first two films (though I didn't realize this until LATE in the film). The acting is sub-par, the plot is stupid, and the script is like something a fourth grader hopped up on caffeine might write at a sleepover.If I were Clive Barker, I would be mortified that anybody could ever connect my name with this garbage. I would also be upset that two of the greatest horror films ever degenerated into...this. It's just beyond upsetting.
X-Files Maybe, Hellraiser No
posted on 05 Nov 2008What is up with this installment in the Hellraiser saga? There is no continuity with the previous stories.The cenobites are ridiculous and look more like aliens from an episode of X-Files than tortured human souls. Obviously the writer didn't "get" the cenobites and that their lost humanity is what makes them compelling monsters. Also, they are in so little of the movie that they are incidental characters rather than the demons that we've come to know and love.Also the puzzle box doesn't open the doorway to the Lament Configuration and call the cenobites. This is a standard. If nothing else is consistent, this must be for a Hellraiser tale! We like the darkness, the doorway that appears and all the smoke!!The acting is wooden, the directing is unimaginative, and the story is uneven and incoherent. If you are a Hellraiser fan, skip this one and hope that the next one is not a dog.
Such a disappointment
posted on 05 Nov 2008Well it seems to ring true that "horror films do not good sequels make". As a huge fan of the first three Hellraiser films I was utterly disappointed to spend 91 minutes watching this "film" (and I do use the term loosely). Perhaps, suspense isn't the best thing to have in a film which in the past has given you a good idea of the storyline fairly early into the film. Unfortunately, the Hellraiser films have also strayed to far away from the origins to actually be classed as interesting to watch.Still i hope the next one I see will be better.I give this a rating of 0/10 (I'm sure Clive Barker would turn in his grave after witnessing this)
People really don't realize when they've seen a good sequel
posted on 22 Oct 2008Hellraiser: Inferno was a good movie!!! no matter what people say it was good. A lot of people complained about how it wasn't a Hellraiser film which is absolutely stupid it is the most self-contained of the sequels and actually has good acting (something i felt part 4 didn't have) I will not go into detail about the plot because i'm sure you all know it by now. What i will tell you is this the rumors of Doug Bradley saying it is a piece of s**t is a complete lie if you don't believe so check out Clive Barker's web site. I can understand why people had a hard time warming up to this movie because I did too.....at first because it was more a Se7en clone than Hellraiser but thats o.k. and at first Craig Sheffer's character is a dick and you don't like him but as the movie goes on you see he's not as bad as he seems he's just flawed like we all are. The last 15 mins. of the movie reminded me of The Cell in ways (but then again The Cell reminded me of Hellraiser also) and was really cool because it shows hell as a place of suffering through your past experiences and not a fire and brimstone place like in other movies. The score is also another thing fans complained about but it didn't bother me and the best piece of music is at the end when Craig Sheffer is hooked in the face and Pinhead tells him "one finger left" the music sounds kinda like an organ playing but is creepy and touching at the same time...i hope you can figure out the piece i'm talking about. I really like this movie and it was mostly good now what was bad well I think it had too many daytime scenes and the cowboys were REALLY hokey especially the 2 kung-fu ones, i have no clue what the writters were thinking when they put that in (it should have been a goth club or somewhere like that not high noon) and most of all i was glad to know Chatterer would be coming back but not as a torso that was stupid because i felt Chatterer was like the muscles of the Cenobites (notice in part one he's the one who grabs people and holds onto them while the others stand around). Also fans complain Pinhead is only in the movie for 2 or 3 mins. or so which is also a lie (technically he's in the entire movie if you know what i mean) he plays a huge part in the story and has about the same amount of screen time as he did in part 1 which makes him more menacing. So now you know how i feel about Hellraiser: Inferno and i wouldn't mind a part 6 (but one thing if there is a 6 please put Butterball back in it and give Chatterer a friggin' body with legs). Hellraiser: Inferno is a good movie and yes it is flawed in parts but name a movie that isn't.
What's the 'Inferno' bit got to do with anything?
posted on 12 Oct 2008Opinion seems to be firmly split on this one, but despite the die-hards protesting that this kind of low-key noir morbidity is exactly what Hellraiser's all about (compared to the messy excess of Hell on Earth and Bloodline), there can't really be much doubt that this is a film which started out with a script completely unrelated to the Hellraiser franchise. It's a cop film. One with supernatural elements, yes, but a cop film nonetheless. Pinhead just doesn't belong here.It's still interesting, though. Most of the shocks have been seen before, Craig Sheffer's basically a poor man's Tom Berenger and the promising storyline eventually dwindles to an anticlimax, but there are some worthwhile moments along the way. The use of wet, bone-popping sound effects over in-your-face gore works particularly well, and there's generally more structure and depth than your average slasher outing.However: is it just me, or is the Lament Configuration not even a puzzle any more? I thought it was supposed to be some vast ancient mystery, but all you've got to do these days is rub your thumb over it and you can pretty much wave bye-bye to your dangly bits...
A different kind of Hellraiser film
posted on 24 Sep 2008Hellraiser: Inferno is really a Pinhead filmit's a Hellraiser film in touch with the Clive Barker classic The apprerance of Pinhead in the last five mintues was great. But thinking back to the first film and viewing this once again these films were inteneded to be about someone who sins and the price the have to pay. While the first two Hellraiser films were kinda about that, Part 3 & 4 were Pinhead's back this film stand own it one. While the film could have used some T& A it still makes one think.
Why call it Hellraiser
posted on 18 Sep 2008POSSIBLE SPOILER!!! Probably the worst one of the series. Horror movies are supposed to have deaths. not this wannabe LA LAW meets late night soft-core suspense thriller. Craig Sheffer is a decent actor though, pity for him in this worthless remake of Bad Lieutenant... not for nothing, but i'm a fan of good stories in movies, but when you get a horror movie with a known villain you think of seeing alot of deaths.. there wasn't enough...
A suspenseful mind trip...
posted on 09 Aug 2008I am so happy that the straight to video sequels are branching out away from the mistake that was the third movie "Hell on Earth". Rather than including random acts of violence and gore, this particular movie borrows more from the graphic novel series. Using the first two movies as a base, the comics explore the different levels of hell, including stories of the personal hell of those that come across the box. This movie documents the personal hell of a cop gone bad. I wont get into the details, but it is one heck of a ride. There is more suspense as opposed to blood and gore as they set the stage for a very suprising, and messy ending.The quality is very good considering this was straight to video. The Cenobites, as always (with the exception of the silly CD tossing guy in part three)are very creative creatures. Although you dont get more than a couple of visits from Pinhead, you know he is running the whole show. After all, he is a very busy man. Hell is a big place.
A dark journey into the depths of the mind
posted on 10 Jul 2008Yesterday I watched the movie "Hellraiser: Inferno" again. I already saw it some years ago, but I saw its trailer the day before yesterday with my cousin and decided to re-watch. The story is about a detective, who likes puzzles. One day he visits a crime scene of a brutal murder and finds a candle with a child's finger in it. He also finds a weird box attached to the candleholder. (Hellraiser fans already know that it is Lamarchand's magic box, the "Lament Configuration".) His life from this moment takes a big spin. He experiences horrible daylight visions and nightmares that seem to come true. Yet he ferociously intends to uncover the secrets of this unusual case that turns to be the biggest puzzle of his life. He is not aware that he encountered a supernatural power that is beyond his imagination. The strings lead him to a mysterious person called "The Engineer" and to the final conclusion that he has trapped in the neverending game of hell.The plot is very dark and there are brutal scenes and audiovisual effects in this film so I don't recommend it to children or adults with weak nervous system.It was special for me seeing this movie again. I liked the way it demonstrated how the detective slowly becomes crazy and loses every aspects of reality he has ever known. It reminded me to my bipolar schizophrenic experiences I survived some years ago. For me the director succeeded to give the similar fantastic and horrifying vision about the dark depths of human psyche as Clive Barker did with his novels. It was good after watching it to stand in the kitchen alone, drinking slowly a glass of orange juice and watching my shadow changing its place as I moved. I felt alive.
Far from worthy of its bad reputation.
posted on 30 Jun 2008I've just seen this for the first time. I'll share my view of the Hellraiser mythos so you can decide how much you value my opinion.I really like the original. It's my favourite of the series. (They probably shouldn't have made any more afterwards but that's a moot point.) It's not perfect by any means, in fact the line "They'll never find us, not in the whole wide world," is one of the worst lines in film history, and the ending is a bit disappointing. Some of the acting is a bit dodgy. But apart from that I can't fault it. I appreciate the pain-as-pleasure philosophy. I love the imagination of the thing. I used to like the second film better than the first, and I'm still a big fan, especially of the final 30 or 40 minutes. The third is almost wholly worthless in my opinion. I'm not a fan of the religious, literal-Hell interpretation of the Cenobites' world that began with this one, partly because I'm not religious, but also because it somewhat misses the point. The fourth I enjoy a lot, despite the studio interference and other little annoyances. Actually it's one of those films in which the bad acting is entertaining. In any case, Hell on Earth raped the franchise so much there's not a lot more damage Bloodline could have done.I watched Inferno with a very open mind, since I thought if I expected too much after the previous two, especially with the average rating it has on IMDb, I would end up angry and disappointed. I really needn't have worried. This film is well-written, well-directed and well-acted, things you couldn't really say with confidence about ANY of the preceding films. It manages high production values without slipping into the big, shiny Hollywood dross of the third film. It manages exceedingly well to create a creepy atmosphere: in truth it's quite frightening (and I haven't been frightened by a film since I first saw Jaws when I was nine, and I've seen a lot - more than a well-adjusted person should have - of horror/splatter films and general nastiness since then). It's psychologically frightening.Not to give too much away, this leans more towards the religious view of Hell, which as I mentioned I don't really appreciate. But it does it very well. I think if the series had stuck strictly to the style of the original, or if it had let Pinhead become a normal, bit-of-a-joke movie monster like Krueger, which could easily have happened, it could have grown increasingly more tired and pointless. This film does something completely new with the ideas, and remains interesting, which is very brave considering the following Hellraiser has, and for that I think it deserves a lot more praise than it has received. I'll be watching it again.
"Hunt for the Engineer and the Engineer will hunt you."
posted on 18 Aug 2009~Spoiler~ A fifth installment of a dead series has surprised me. I had heard some hardcore horror fans really dog this movie so you can imagine my shock when I loved it. Hellraiser: Inferno is absolutely beautiful to look at. I applaud director Scott Derrickson for writing and directing something that is much more than a direct-to-video horror sequel. I think these are the best production values we've seen thus far and the director handles the material perfectly. It definitely did not look like a straight-to-video popcorn flick. There are scenes in which it is snowing inside a house that really look astounding. The storyline is 75% Jacob's Ladder, 15% Hellraiser, and a touch of Seven and maybe even a little bit of The Usual Suspects (the myth of The Engineer was very Keyser Söze-esque). I suppose I can see why people didn't like this entry. Pinhead is largely absent, but it's not really a big deal. I didn't really miss him. If you think about it, Pinhead is not featured in the original Hellraiser that often (that's why he was so damn scary). But the fans wanted more Pinhead. That's the reason they made part 3 and turned Pinhead into just another slasher. There are four other movies (and at least two more coming out) that you can go back and watch to see Pinhead. Now get over it and leave this one movie alone. The star of this movie is Craig Sheffer (not Pinhead). He plays a crooked cop who stumbles upon the Lament Configuration and into his own personal hell. This is, simply put, a morality tale; your sins will catch up to you. Sure you can figure out where it's going, but who cares. It's the ride there that matters. And what a marvelous ride it is. It just proves the old adage you can't please all the people.