- Directed by Rick Bota
- Written by Clive Barker, Joel Soisson, Carl V. Dupre
- Stars Katherun Winnick, Anna Tolputt, Henry Cavill, Lance Henricksen, Doug Bradley
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xxesz7l1Sg
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a step back up from some of the previous movies, but still not nearly as good as the first two. There’s plenty of Pinhead and a couple other cenobites, but mostly just doing stuff in the real world. It was okay, not great.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man digs in the basement. He finds what he wants and screams in victory. Credits roll over footage of a funeral. Adam is dead, apparently from suicide. Jake and Mike are there, and they aren’t holding up too well. The parents didn’t come, it’s just the kids. They complain that they were all addicted to the Hellworld game. Chelsea has no self-control and opens the casket; Adam is inside, and his burned corpse reaches up and grabs her– nope, that was a dream.
Two years later, Chelsea gets a knock at the door. It’s the Chatterer Cenobite; no, it’s really Mike in a rubber mask. They know all about Cenobites and puzzle box; it’s all part of a Hellraiser video game. Mike has been invited to the latest Hellword party at the Leviathan House. Allison and Derrick are on board for the party too. The video game involves opening a virtual version of the Lament Configuration. Chelsea isn’t interested in the game anymore, but Mike really wants her to come along.
The four arrive at the party house, and they’re all excited. Chelsea says “Adam would have loved this.” Allison says, “This party is gonna Kick A!” (At which point I wondered what this movie was rated). Jake shows up, and he’s still all mopey– none of them have seen him since the funeral.
The Host comes out and welcomes everyone to the party. He says he’s the “Ultimate Hellworld Fanatic,” and he has a ridiculous collection of Hellraiser merch. Leviathan House was built by LeMarchand, the same man who made the famous puzzle box. The place was built as a convent, but a crazy nun “tainted” the place. Later, it became a lockup for the criminally insane, and yes, it’s supposed to be haunted. The Host then leads the four into his special room full of jars of faces and body parts. Chelsea admits that she’s impressed and doesn’t believe any of the Hellworld stuff. He… sticks a nail in her, and she hallucinates Pinhead, who says, “Adam was right.”
They go back up to the party, and the Host explains how the mask-and-cellphone game allows for anonymous debauchery. Mike and Derrick are into trying that.
Allison, on the other hand, goes inside the door marked “Keep Out.” She sits in a chair that looks like it came from the producers of “Saw.” The Host comes in and explains how it works. He activates the machine, and Allison gets… bloody. As she dies, Pinhead appears to Allison, asking if she believes Adam now.
Chelsea sees Adam from across the room and follows him. Jakes finds a photo of him and Adam on a computer. The Host knew Adam; Adam was so passionate about Hellword that he made his own puzzle box. “Go ahead, open it.” It sticks him with pins and he, too, gets a vision of Pinhead. Jakes looks out the window and sees the Host outside, digging a grave. Afterward, he goes out to the party, but no one seems to see him.
Derrick dances with a girl but then drops his inhaler just as he has an asthma attack. He follows it down the ventilation shaft into the room with all the lab specimens. As he recovers, Pinhead chops his head off.
Jake notices a strange nun at the party and follows her upstairs. He finds a naked woman up there who lures him into bed for sex.
Mike finds a girl and gets entertained– until Chelsea calls him on the phone for help. She then calls 911 for help, but the connection is bad. Mike’s friend locks him in the specimen room as well, and he soon finds Derrick’s head among the samples. He’s soon visited by one of the Cenobites, who impales him on a big hook.
The police show up from Chelsea’s call, and the Host intercepts them. She beats on the windows, and the cops look right up at her, but they don’t see her. She gets outside, but her car is suddenly out of gas. “It’s like a bad horror movie, isn’t it?” asks the host, who is sitting in the backseat. She runs from him and finds a policeman, who is killed by Pinhead. “There is no way out for you, Chelsea.”
Jake flashes back to the pre-credit sequence, where Adam digs in the basement and then sets himself on fire.
Chelsea runs back into the house, and all the other guests have vanished. She calls Jake, and they decide that the house is haunted. Dead-Mike, Dead-Allison, and Chatterer chase Chelsea through the house. The Host calls Chelsea, and she says this has to be fake because she never opened the puzzle box “Get your lore straight!”
Jake senses a Cenobite behind him, spins, and stabs it– but it’s really Chelsea. Then Chelsea calls him on the phone. That wasn’t real, maybe. Jake agrees that he didn’t open the box; the Hellworld elements aren’t adding up. Could this all tie into Adam’s death? Chelsea figures out that the Host is Adam’s father.
They all run out into the woods with the Host sometimes behind them and sometimes in front of them. They find five graves, each one with a pipe for air leading to it. The old man admits he catfished Jake, who taught him all about Hellworld and the Pinhead lore. We cut to Jake, who is actually buried in one of the graves. The Host kicks Chelsea into the last grave and admits that he drugged them all. All of the group have been buried alive; the rest was accomplished through the power of suggestion over the cell phones. They have since actually died.
We cut to the police, who dig up Chelsea, who’s crazy with fear. Jake wakes up as they load him onto an ambulance. The cop says they’ve been missing for days; the house owner cleared out then. They don’t know who phoned it in. Chelsea sees Adam upstairs; he made the call– from the grave.
We cut to Adam’s father, alone in a hotel room. He’s got a certain puzzle box, and he opens it. The Cenobites appear behind him… “I should have come for you a long time ago.” They cut him to pieces. The police show up shortly after and find a real mess.
Chelsea and Jake get a call on the phone. It’s Adam’s father— no, just another jump scare.
Brian’s Commentary
So… was any of the Pinhead stuff real or just a drug-induced hallucination? The final scene, sure, but that’s it?
This was filmed simultaneously with “Hellraiser: Deader” the seventh film in the franchise. It was also Doug Bradley’s last time playing Pinhead.
Unlike the previous four installments, this one was actually written as a Hellraiser movie. The others were just random scripts with some Pinhead thrown in.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was, at least, an improvement over some of the previous films in the series that had a little Pinhead thrown in as an afterthought. It still lacks the magic of the first two films though, and wasn’t nearly as good as those. I’d call it okay if you’re a big fan and want another little taste but wouldn’t highly recommend it.
Be the first to comment on "2005 Hellraiser VIII: Hellworld"