Jay watches the Hellraiser series: Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker (2002) Film Review

Another stand alone and straight-to-DVD sequel to the dying series.

Hellseeker gives us the return of Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) and this is the last film that Clive Barker has any involvement on, but despite these supposed perks, the film still sucks.

We follow Trevor (Dean Winters) who is married to Kirsty, but she dies in a car crash at the start of the film. I have seen Winters in other things, and he usually isn’t sleepwalking through the films he is in. He handles his wife’s disappearance (because he can’t remember seeing her drown) with the same emotional investment of changing a clock.

What Trevor should have done is watched Jacob’s Ladder or one of the other films this one rips off. The other Hellraiser sequels have been stupid, predictable, or cliché, but they haven’t been horribly boring before.

The characters are simply awful. Honestly, I pined for detective Thorne over the people in this one. Trevor’s coworkers are absolute idiots—the man was just in a car crash and they act dumb around him. The police officers go between completely inept to overbearing and back again. The investigation seems to be playing by the same hallucinogenic rat race rules that Trevor’s brain is—which of course it is.

Anyone who has seen the last film knows what the twist is going to be. The damn thing is telegraphed from just about the get-go, and I can’t imagine anyone being surprised to learn that it is in fact Trevor who is dead. Spoiler warning, I guess. I can’t imagine too many people being interested in watching this one.

This is the first film in the series that absolutely does not feel like a Hellraiser film. Even Inferno has moments that seemed to capture the feel of the universe. This one is a convoluted and stupid mess. It wants to be an interesting psychological thriller, but the script, acting, directing, and dialogue just aren’t up to that level. Instead we get to watch a confused Trevor stare blankly in differing environments for a slogging 90 minutes.

Pinhead is interesting—for about the five minutes he is in the film. Bradley still has the cool lines, but once again a 15 minute short would have been a lot better overall. The final act has some cool imagery (this also seems to be the only area where Barker gave any input), but after 70 minutes of boredom it isn’t enough to wake you up.

Perhaps the worst part of the film is that is continues to actively undermine the established lore. People can’t bargain out of the puzzle box by bringing innocent souls—there are supposed to be rules to the game. This film (like many of sequels) is just making it up as it goes. The series is now a decayed husk of what is once was. 2/10.