Rick Bota, director of the last two Hellraiser films (those would be Hellraiser: Deader and Hellraiser: Hellseeker) keeps the franchise alive and sufficiently mediocre with this latest take on the Cenobites, Hellraiser: Hellworld. While the results are middling, this is still the best film to come out of the franchise in a while, though honestly, that's not saying so much.

The premise behind this one is at least a little more original than sending Pinhead into outer space, a la Jason X. When the film starts we're at a funeral for a young man named Adam. We learn that he and the five friends who are mourning him were heavily involved in an online role playing game called Hellworld and that it had something to do with Adam's death – he started to get too into it and taking it too seriously. One of the group of five, Jake (Christopher Jacot) blames the rest of them for not taking a more involved approach to Adam's problem, he feels that his death could have been prevented, but the other kids don't really see it that way.

Skip ahead two years and Chelsea, Mike, Allison and Derrick are all still playing Hellworld and, being the skilled players that they are, they open up the Lament Configuration and voila, they receive an online invitation to a special Hellworld party to be held at a creepy old house on the outskirts of town. All four of the group are stoked about this except for Chelsea, who wants to distance herself from all of this but who eventually, with enough coaxing from her friends, decides to go along for the ride.

They arrive at the house and are greeted by a mysterious man (Lance Henriksen) who seems to be not only the host of the party but an authority on all things Hellworld and the accompanying mythology that surrounds the game. He gives them a tour of the house and sends them out with the rest of the party goers to enjoy themselves, but soon they realize that something is not right here and that there's more to their gracious host than meets they eye. When Jake shows up, having not seen the other four kids since the funeral, tensions arise but the problems they have dealing with him are nothing to the problems that they're going to have dealing with the Cenobites (lead once more by Doug Bradley as Pinhead, armed with a stash of goofy one liners and catch phrases) who start showing up in various rooms of the house…

This one doesn't feel like a Hellraiser movie in that none of the characters really directly interact with the Cenobites, no one is trying to get to Hell outside of the game, and the supernatural aspect of the film is really downplayed compared to some of the earlier entries. That being said, at least they tried something different with this eighth film in the franchise, and the results could have been a lot worse had a few problems with the film been addressed before it was release. First off, aside from Henriksen, the acting in this movie is entirely flat. You don't care about any of the five kids who wind up at the party, and you as such when it all hits the fan for them, it's hard to get into it. None of them are developed enough to be interesting people and quite frankly, they're completely disposable – they could have been played by anyone. The film also has a few too many instances of completely gratuitous sped up camera work and rapid fire edits that suck you out of the movie when they occur. This might sound flashy but it happens at inopportune times where suspense and atmosphere should be building and to an extent they do, only to be squashed by these unnecessary instances of supposed style.

That being said, the final twist is a good one, and I didn't see it coming for a change. The story tries to add something different to the mythology of the characters by taking the Cenobites out of the real world to an extent and turning them into fictional characters within the realm of the film itself. The kill scenes are quite good, they filmmakers didn't shy away from the gore on this one at all and there are a couple of stand out moments of nastiness that at least feel in keeping with the first two films. The sets are also quite moody – the house where the party takes place has got all manner of creepy rooms off of the main area and Henriksen's office and basement are filled with some interesting and unnerving relics that make for a fittingly eerie atmosphere.

The DVD

Video:

This 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer isn't as consistent as you'd expect a brand spankin' new movie to be, as some of the fine detail gets lost in some slightly muddy black levels here and there but overall this isn't a bad looking disc, even if it did leave room for improvement. Flesh tones look good, color reproduction is pretty decent though the reds looked a little too dark, and contrast levels are fine. There aren't any serious edge enhancement problems to complain about though it's there if you want to look for it, and mpeg compression artifacts don't pop up too often either.