Baffled pity are the best words to describe my reaction to Hellraiser: Hellseeker. It’s a film that looks to have been made by talented and competent people with a screenplay that seems to have been written with a lot of consideration, yet the final result is unengaging, difficult to follow and at times unintentionally comical.

A husband and wife are involved in a car accident. The husband is left with amnesia while the wife is missing. The husband tries to patch his memory as the police suspect he murdered his wife. His struggle to prove his innocence leads him into a world of paranoia and madness.

What I Remember

Hellseeker is the last of the Hellraisers I saw. I haven’t seen any of the sequels beyond this one. I actually recall very little from my first viewing of Hellseeker.

I remember that Ashley Laurence returned and reprised her role of Kirsty. I remember that her role was small as her husband’s character was the protagonist. I felt the film was like Inferno in that it had a dark look, involved police procedure and had a mind-bending plot that led to a big twist. A part from that, I remember nothing.

What I Saw

Unlike Inferno, which was better than I recalled, Hellseeker was worse.

Kirsty shouldn’t be in this. It’s not her story. Here she’s just a stereotypical lost love. Whenever we see her it’s almost always in a schmaltzy flashback where she’s smiling or making love. She could’ve been replaced by an original character and the film wouldn’t be that different. It seems she was just shoehorned in for fan service.

Kirsty’s husband, Trevor, could be an interesting protagonist if written better. Despite knowing his desire and weakness, I never found him fun to watch. Joseph Thorne from Inferno wasn’t perfectly written but I was at least curious about what was going to happen to him and how he would react. I felt very little of that for Trevor. This is rather tragic because towards the end of Hellseeker you begin to realise that whoever wrote the script made an effort. Setups are paid off, questions are answered, mysteries are solved. The skill and talent is there, it just fails to perform.

In addition to the weak script, there are moments that are camp and were clearly not intended to be. In the opening scene, we see that Trevor and Kirsty’s car crash is caused by Trevor losing control of the car while kissing his wife. How can anyone take that seriously?

Later in the film, a co-worker attempts to seduce Trevor by shoving him up against a vending machine. Trevor casually responds with “my wife just died.” My jaw dropped.

Hellseeker has to be the worst Hellraiser I’ve seen so far because while Hellbound and Hell On Earth had their issues, they were at least entertaining. Hellseeker is like the original but if you drained all the character and drama from it. The result is painfully boring.

I give Hellraiser: Hellseeker a tiresome 5 out of 10.

This is the last of the Hellraisers I’ve seen, the remaining sequels are a no man’s land for me so expect short, straight-to-the-point reviews of the remaining four similar to my Friday The 13^th reviews. October 31^st is just a couple of weeks away. Get your costumes!