11/11/2023 0 Comments Pain and pleasure indivisibleSteven collecting flesh for Nico is a nod to Frank and Julia from the original film, and the story isn’t big and grand, like the sequels, but more quiet and personal. While not 100% original, after the convoluted plots of the previous sequels, this film explores the mythology of the Cenobites and what they’re after. In some ways REVELATIONS is a very loose remake, or at the least, a throwback to the original film. The fact that this script was written as a HELLRAISER movie shows, especially in comparison to the other later sequels. The film also has a better visual style than the previous films, which screamed late night cable cheapies the digital slickness adds some production value to this low-budget outing. The film does fall into a little of the home invasion style thriller, but it never seems forced and helps provide a frame for the story of Pinhead and the Cenobites. Thankfully, the found footage is only one part of the story, and used as an effective storytelling tool. INFERNO and HELLSEEKER are procedural detective stories like SE7EN, HELLWORLD has elements of torture porn, and DEADER has a touch of HOSTEL. The film opens with a handheld camcorder shot, and I immediately worried, “Oh no, found footage…” This wouldn’t have been unheard of for a low-budget shocker, particularly as the HELLRAISER movies have always been reactionary to what was going on in horror sub-genre’s at the time. It was also the first script since HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE to be written expressly to be a HELLRAISER movie, unlike the other later sequels where Pinhead was simply shoehorned into already-existing scripts. HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS was written and shot in a matter of weeks, simply to ensure that Dimension Films would hold onto the rights to the HELLRAISER franchise for the inevitable remake. Eventually though, Pinhead comes to collect his deficit of flesh. Steven shows up at the dinner party, but it is eventually reveled that he is actually Nico, on the run from the Cenobites, wearing Steven’s flesh, regenerating his body by collecting the blood and flesh of the people he murdered. Steven and Nico disappear, and one year later, the families of both the boys meet for dinner, including Emma, Steven’s sister and Nico’s girlfriend. HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS tell the story of two friends, Steven and Nico, who travel down to Mexico in search of a wild weekend of partying. Instead, they come upon the puzzle box and eventually summon the Cenobites, as is prone to happen in the HELLRAISER saga. For the most part I did not enjoy the later sequels, so HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS came as a pleasant surprise, like the sixth mile of a 10k. I know I had given up after the fourth entry, BLOODLINE, and recently sat through all nine films again for the inaugural episode of the Revenge Of The Pod People podcast that fellow Daily Grindhouse writer Katie Rife and I are hosting. I can't wait to see where they go with both shows.In the past year or so, the Internet hive mind has found people suffering through all nine HELLRAISER movies, either for masochistic kicks - much like the Lament Configuration - or out of true fandom. Put Hellraiser at one end of the spectrum and Quartermain at the other and suddenly you have a massive, and fascinating pulp spectrum to play in. Especially as Deadline are reporting that the company are also developing a series based on H.Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain. This has a lot of potential and I'm fascinated to see what Sonar do with it. It could be Supernatural with extra perversion, True Blood with the handbrake off. The canvas is huge, the central premise has HBO or Starz written through it like Brighton through rock and it has a built in, if somewhat fatigued fanbase. It's also full on crazy pulp genius and anyone who says different hasn't seen the first four movies, especially the one with the gigantic space station that's actually a Lament Configuration puzzle cube.Īctually, thinking about it, this may be the perfect horror property to move across to TV. The movies have a constantly cycling cast of characters, they play with time frames and dimensions and the central concept is one which is both inherently tragic and profoundly disturbing the point at which pleasure and pain become indistinguishable and where the wash of sensation, regardless of consequence, is all. That's a fascinating, and frankly brave, choice to give the TV treatment. Game of Thrones, with it's vast array of characters and locations, is one. There are certain properties that are completely logical to bring across to TV, others which looks like they'll fail and do, and very, very occasionally, ones that have no right to be successful and are. Alasdair Stuart writes for Bleeding Cool.
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