- Directed by: Gary J. Tunnicliffe
- Written by: Clive Barker, Gary J. Tunnicliffe
- Stars: Damon Carney, Randy Wayne, Alexandra Harris
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 21 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouka80qoVOY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Here we get to see some of the workings of Hell with other characters in the process besides the Cenobites, plus we get our first heavenly creature of the series and the lines between good and evil get blurred. It’s the tenth in the original series, and probably the last because things got rebooted. It’s not the best of them, but not the worst either, about in the middle.
Spoilery Synopsis
Pinhead and The Auditor talk about the 21st century and the changes it’s brought. Technology has advanced, but humans still sin. Elsewhere, a homeless man, Watkins, gets a message offering to help him. He goes inside a run down house and ends up tied to a chair. The Auditor explains that he knows Watkins’ crimes, and he offers him a reward. He quickly makes Watkins confess to murdering and raping children, typing them out into words with Watkin’s blood as the ink.
Next, The Assessor comes in, and he’s got the tears of children in a bottle. They taste goooood. He eats The Auditor’s report and then vomits it right back up into a basin. Three scarred women, the jury, then dig in the vomit and pronounce Watkins “Guilty.” Bad things happen after that. Credits roll.
A woman goes home to find someone in her house that wants to make a lesson out of her. Two detectives arrive soon after to check out her body. Detective Christine Edgerton comes in and interrupts the first two, who are brothers, Sean and David. “The Preceptor” is a serial killer that they’ve all been following. They watch as a little dog digs its way out of the corpse.
Sean goes home to see his very unhappy wife, Alison. Meanwhile David fills in Christine about The Preceptor. We get a detecting montage. They soon get called to a new crime scene, full of the hands and eyes of four thieves. After a little research, they go to Watkins’ apartment.
Sean finds an address, and it’s the place where we saw Watkins tortured a while back. He, too, finds himself tied up in front of The Auditor. Soon, Sean is confessing his sins. The Assessor comes in, as before, and eats the report. This time, however, it makes his mouth bleed and he can’t finish it. He vomits up what little he had, and the Jury can’t handle it either. Upset, The Auditor talks to a glowing woman who tells him to release Sean. He then goes to report to Pinhead, who discovers that Sean has already escaped– with a puzzle box.
Sean picks up his brother David and goes back to the house, which is now completely deserted. There’s no sign that anyone has ever been there, and Sean won’t explain to David why. That night, Sean dreams of the Cenobites. This leads to weird sex with his wife, who has no idea what’s going on.
David and Christine talk about how weird Sean has been acting since he got back from the war. She says the higher-ups in the department are concerned that Sean’s losing his mind over this case.
The medical examiner calls, They found the dead woman’s phone lodged inside her (it wasn’t just the dog), so they have some GPS coordinates from where she died. This leads Sean and Christine to the killer’s lair, and there are photos of all the victims there.
They find a photo of David with Sean’s wife, and then Sean beats up Christine, who wasn’t supposed to see that. Yes, Sean’s been the killer all along. David comes along, and Sean pulls his gun on him. Sean calls Alison, his wife, to join them. Sean explains his motivations and then hands David the puzzle box, ordering them to open it.
Pinhead shows up. Sean offers David and Alison to him in exchange for his freedom. Pinhead and The Auditor explain that’s not how this all works. Hooks and chains pop out of the walls, and now Sean’s a prisoner. David and Alison get taken away quickly, “Amateurs,” mocks Pinhead. But he’ll give them some suffering because Sean is such a prize.
Suddenly, Jophiel, the angel, shows up. She wants Sean released, making a mess of things. God needs there to be evil so that good can exist. Pinhead’s not eager to comply. She clarifies that Sean’s not being forgiven, just used. Suddenly, Sean’s back in the real world. BOOM! Christine shoots him repeatedly; she wasn’t dead after all.
Jophiel accuses Pinhead of knowing that would happen, and he doesn’t deny it. He turns the hooks and chains on her and then puts some of his “pins” in her forehead. He tears her apart. “You probably should not have done that,” quips The Auditor.
Pinhead gets banished back to the mortal world. We see him on the street as a homeless man…
Brian’s Commentary
So it appears that there’s a whole bureaucracy behind Pinhead and Hell, and we get to see some of it here with the Assessor, Auditor, Jury, and the rest. They recast Pinhead again, but we don’t really get very much of him in this. He’s much better than the previous guy, but he’s still no Doug Bradley.
The mystery isn’t really much of a mystery, and we never really care about any of the characters. The behind-the-scenes of Hell makes this one interesting, but it doesn’t look like we’ll get another sequel since they rebooted the series instead of continuing.
It’s not the worst of the bunch, but it’s not great. I’d put it at probably 4th or 5th best of the series after 1,2,3, and maybe 9.
Kevin’s Commentary
I, too, would put it at about my 5th favorite of the series. The re-recasting of Pinhead is an improvement; the effects are good, and the story is decent. I did find myself caring about characters. I was entertained throughout.