The “Hellraiser” saga has a strange ability to tell the same story over and over but not in precisely the same way. For “Hellraiser: Deader” (2005), the seventh installment, director Rick Bota (in his second of three straight “Hellraisers”) leans into the surreal even more so than the “Sixth Sense” Lite entry “Hellseeker” (2002).
The 11th “Hellraiser,” from 2022, gets excellent production value out of unfortunately (but evocatively) war-torn and rundown Eastern Europe. But “Deader” got there first, filming in Bucharest, where the story takes place. One American actress – Kari Wuhrer, every boy’s Nineties crush thanks to MTV News and “Sliders” – teams with British and Romanian actors for an intentionally discombobulating hodgepodge.
Pretty gal in an ugly city
Wuhrer plays Amy, a reporter for one of those gritty city tabloids – recently reassigned from New York to London along with her editor, Simon Kunz’s Charles. Amy sees what appears to be a snuff videotape, then pursues it like Nicolas Cage in “8MM.”
“Hellraiser: Deader” (2005)
Director: Rick Bota
Writers: Neal Marshall Stevens, Tim Day
Stars: Kari Wuhrer, Simon Kunz, Paul Rhys
Screenwriter Tim Day returns from “Hellseeker” – now co-writing with B-horror veteran Neal Marshall Stevens – for another instance of Weird Dark Horror. It’s compelling enough to hold my attention even though I always suspect the final answer will be “Pinhead is doing it.”
Day takes us on a side trip first, though, so much so that one could argue “Deader” need not even be a “Hellraiser” film. (This charge can be leveled at a lot of the sequels. But I don’t think it’s a negative that Pinhead and the Cenobites are garnishes rather than the main course. A little of them goes a long way.) The Deaders (led by Paul Rhys’ Winter) use underexplained dark magic to kill themselves then come back to life. This irks Pinhead (Doug Bradley), who doesn’t like competition.
One of the Deaders, Georgina Rylance’s Marla (who we first meet in corpse form), tells Amy that when you’re far enough in the darkness, there’s no difference between life and death. Bota keeps that surreal idea going while getting respectable performances out of the cast. Though she doesn’t propel a plot the way Craig Sheffer and Dean Winters do, Wuhrer is surprisingly solid if you entered with the assumption that she gets roles for her looks.
Bota delivers an “X-Files”-ish tone (Henning Lohner slathers on the score, though its more traditional than Mark Snow’s), although the story is so hard to put in a nutshell that even “The X-Files” wouldn’t touch it. Eventually, Amy is stabbed and bleeding all over the place, yet not hindered by pain or injury. There’s no explanation other than a vague sense that she’s in some sort of purgatory since opening the Puzzle Box.
New entryways to the weirdness
Amy actually is a decent person compared to the corrupt cop of “Inferno” and the amnesiac who doesn’t realize he’s a scumbag in “Hellseeker.” She’s a reporter who doesn’t know when to stop, and while she doesn’t have a sunny personality, she also wants to help the Deader cult members who are in over their heads.
The “Hellraisers” have been consistent with their gory imagery, and “Deader” gives us something a little new – a horror version of the “Snowpiercer” train. These subway cars are filled with Deaders engaged in pain-based sexual activities and overseen by Joey (Marc Warren), who believes that in purgatory nothing matters, so everyone might as well have a good time.
Joey crystalizes the subversive sharpness of the “Hellraiser” saga. These films spotlight disturbing and repulsive aspects of life, then challenge us to come up with an argument to reject them. Within the saga’s internal context, we can’t, because Pinhead is the only god in this mythology. Thus we must reflect: Even if life is good, it’s a thin veil away from being horrific.
At the same time, the films are so mired in this darkness that they risk muddying even that statement. With most “Hellraisers” – but particularly “Deader” – they might be impactful psych-horror films if they were the only “Hellraiser” film. Instead, each of them is just another “Hellraiser” film.
Still, “Deader” finds slightly fresh (via decent human being Amy) and artistically grotesque (via the purgatory bus) angles into Pinhead’s familiar beats.