This is less Hellraiser and more Murder Mystery Movie of the Week

It's quite a good Silent hill movie! I really loved it!

Joseph: “I don't understand.” Pinhead: “Ah, the eternal refrain of humanity. Pleading ignorance, begging for mercy. ‘Please, help me. I don't understand’." I was shocked when director Scott Derrickson's name appeared on the screen. Yep, the same director as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, Doctor Strange, and The Black Phone. I guess we all must start somewhere. So, this is the straight-to-video era of the Hellraiser movies, with ‘Bloodline’ being the last to have a theatrical release. It's also the era that the franchise started to go lucid “what is reality?” psychological phrase. The biggest challenge of watching the movie is putting up with the main character, the biggest scumbag you will ever see. In the past, we had movies where the main characters were anti-heroes or straight-up villains, and we don’t like them, but we can’t bring ourselves to stop watching. Here, you do not get that. So, whenever something horrific happened to the character, I didn’t care, and that was throughout the film. Weirdly this feels like two different movies. Because even though this is a Hellraiser movie, the cenobites and Pinhead feel forced in.

Less is certainly more in this instalment A strange twist to make this a Hellraiser movie. It certainly felt like it was all ready to shoot and then the franchise was bolted on. Never the less it's a refreshing change of pace and actually held attention fairly well. It also does a great job of portraying the uselessness of man when faced with Hell (if such a thing can be said)

After Bloodline sent the franchise completely off the rails, Hellraiser: Inferno feels like a much-needed reinvention. This marks the start of the straight-to-video era, and instead of trying to outdo the mythology or escalate the spectacle, it smartly pivots into a grounded psychological thriller that happens to tie into the Hellraiser universe. That approach really works here. The story is cohesive, the tone is darker and more restrained, and the film feels far more focused than the previous entry. While it’s clearly a different kind of Hellraiser movie, that’s exactly why it succeeds. It strips things back, leans into atmosphere and character, and lets the horror simmer rather than explode. For me, this sits comfortably just behind the original as my next favorite in the series so far. Rating: 3/5 – 70% – Worth Watching