Movie Info
Movie Name: Hellraiser: Hellseeker
Studio: Dimension Home Video
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movie
Release Date(s): October 15, 2002
MPAA Rating: R
This isn’t the type of mayhem I was talking about!
The happy couple of Kristy and Trevor Gooden (Ashley Laurence and Dean Winters) are involved in a horrible accident in which their car crashes into the river. Trevor tells the police he saw Kristy die, but no body has been found. Now Trevor is having strange visions, senses he’s being followed, and keeps seeing people he knows dead. Detective Lange (William S. Taylor and Detective Givens (Michael Rogers) suspect he is guilty, and the only person who thinks he’s innocent is a nurse no one seems to remember (Rachel Hayward).
Directed by Rick Bota, Hellraiser: Hellseeker (or Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker) features the return of Hellraiser‘s original actress Ashley Laurence and is actually a converted script owned by Dimension. The movie follows Hellraiser: Inferno (2000).
A box? What, does everyone know about these things? Seriously how do they keep popping up in my life?
It was nice to see Kristy back in this Hellraiser, but she’s not in the picture very much. She appears in the beginning, in flashbacks and videos, and then in end. The few scenes she was in were the best scenes of the movie. It wasn’t that Dean Winters was bad, but Laurence’s scenes provided the meat of the plot.
The story of Hellraiser: Hellseeker actually works…to some extent. The movie gets kind of boring in the middle. Like Hellraiser: Inferno, it isn’t as gory as previous Hellraisers. The weirdness for Winters’ character just goes on and on. It is fun for awhile, but it just keeps going and going. He’ll suffer a piercing headache, talk to the police, and then talk to the guy at work…over-and-over again. Also Pinhead fans will be upset that Doug Bradley really doesn’t show up to the surprise ending.
Good cop/Bad cop…all in one!
The ending is set up a little, but I think they really could have worked into the story more. I liked that the mystery nurse was someone talking to Gooden’s body and that other people in the fantasy were at the death scene (a la The Wizard of Oz). This twist brings Kristy back in to play and has a nice interaction with her old adversary Pinhead. I doubt that Pinhead would continue to make deals with Kristy however since every time he gets screwed.
Hellraiser: Hellseeker is a nice attempt. Of the sequels up to this point, this might be my favorite after Hellbound. It doesn’t quite work, but it works better than Hellraiser: Inferno. I have to give the makers credit for trying to do something different with each sequel and going more into the idea of what the box means to the people who use it. Hellraiser: Hellseeker was followed by Hellraiser: Deader in 2005.
Related Links:
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
