Hellraiser: Hellseeker

‘Evil. Deadly. Immortal.’

Hellraiser: Hellseeker is a 2002 horror film, directed by Rick Bota (Hellraiser: Deader; Hellraiser: Hellworld) from a screenplay by Carl V. Dupré and Tim Day. It is the sixth film in the Hellraiser series. It also features the return of Kirsty Cotton, the heroine from the first film and its sequel. The film was released straight to DVD by Dimension Home Video on 15 October 2002.

It stars Doug Bradley, Ashley Laurence, Dean Winters, William S. Taylor, Michael Rogers, Rachel Hayward and Trevor White.

Plot teaser:

Trevor Gooden (Dean Winters) survives a car accident that apparently kills his wife Kirsty Cotton-Gooden (Ashley Laurence) when their car plunges off a bridge into the river below. Trevor manages to escape with his life, but even though police divers find both car doors open there is no sign of Kirsty.

A month later, Trevor wakes up in a hospital and realises that his wife is missing, but because of a head injury his memory is uncertain and he cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. Trevor finds himself the prime suspect in a murder case, and has two homicide detectives on his tail.

Many strange events befall him, until the Cenobite Pinhead shows him reality. The reality is that Kirsty is in fact still alive…

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Reviews:

“The film is not excessively gory like the first four instalments were. There’s enough to make us recoil (including a cranium drilling aided with a horrific sound effect) but nothing like the Grand Guignol when Barker was involved.

Also, those looking forward to Laurence’s return may be disappointed that she isn’t on screen more. But when she is on screen is important. She’s not shoved out of the way. She is merely asked to step aside as the story progresses.” Scott W. Davis, Horror Express

“… the movie could have shifted into Act III the moment after Trevor wakes up from the car crash. The body of Hellseeker is a narrative void, which is extremely irksome once we hit the twist and realize there was a whole other interesting story going on that we didn’t get to see because we were focusing on the wrong character.” Joshua Miller, CHUD.com

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“Hellraiser Hellseeker sets to accomplish two things…a reflection of the seedy life Trevor lived and the slow torment of Hell’s effects on him while reflecting on this. The film may have a bit of that…”what’s going on” aspect to it, but I think most viewers will quickly get with the realization that Trevor is in fact experiencing one of those “end of life flashbacks’. This is reaffirmed thru the choking of water, eels coming out of his mouth and this silently narrated path of showing Trevor the events of his life before hand.” HorrorNews.net

“The Se7en-esque look kicks in again with the colors being washed out and the tone being all grim. It still works although it’s starting to get a little tired. Bota handles his directorial duties well by slapping in potent slow motion, giving the images an effective bluish tint, using the occasional blurry cam and delivering stylish camera angles.” The Arrow, Joblo.com