J Gep

I'm always excited when a dormant/squandered franchise I respect gets a chance to dust itself off and hopefully resurrect itself for a new generation. Sadly, while the new Hellraiser isn't a bust, it doesn't move the needle in a memorable enough way for more entries to be made. Visually, the cenobites and a mansion somewhat relevant to the plot are stunning and could've helped create a greater atmosphere of fear and existential horror, but they are given little to do in the plot despite the movie clocking in at over 2 hours. A key antagonist and his lackey are well acted, but similarly underutilized (the casting overall is very good). Again, this might be forgiveable in a movie like Lights Out that blazes by in under an hour and a half, but again, how does so little plot or, lacking this, feeling of dread manage to occur in such a long movie? There's an easy half hour to cut and while this still wouldn't make it a great movie, it might have managed to give more mileage to the relatively few, but well-executed, shocking scenes. Overall, if you love the source material and originals, there's enough to make a watch worthwhile, but it's not a film I'm going to revisit anytime soon. It's the best entry after Hellraiser 1 & 2, but that's more due to the failures of the rest of the sequels than this one standing out. One defense of the film: It doesn't suffer (nor is it particularly helped) by having a new/female Pinhead; the actress and her look work just fine. It's not the end of the world.