Hellworld is the worst Hellraiser I’ve seen far, no contest. The next two have to be really special if they’re going to be worse than Hellworld. The film is a directionless slasher that thinks it’s as deep and complex as the original Hellraiser, totally unaware of its cheap production value and shallow, pretentious characters.

Several players of an online game known as ‘Hellworld’ are invited to a private party hosted by the makers of the game. Taking place in an old mansion, the attendees discover that the virtual phenomenon they’re celebrating is based more in reality than they assumed.

What I Expected

I knew quite a bit about Hellworld going in. I knew that Lance Henriksen was in it, the main cast consisted of young twenty-somethings and the plot concerned a Hellraiser-themed video game.

I wasn’t expecting high art but I was hoping for some camp like in Hell On Earth. Maybe the younger characters would be over-the-top caricatures of slasher archetypes and the gore would be ridiculously extreme and well done. I was hoping for something fun.

What I Got

Hellworld is not camp. Hellworld is not fun. Hellworld thinks it has a story to tell with characters you will like and empathize with. It doesn’t.

All the characters fit the slasher archetypes that were mocked beautifully in Cabin in the Woods. There’s the comic relief, the goth, the jock and the final girl. Unlike Cabin in the Woods however, the script treats them seriously and tries to get you invested in them. Hellworld attempts this by giving the cast witty relatable dialogue, which is neither witty or relatable, and giving them a shared traumatic backstory. We learn that the youngsters had a friend who became so obsessed with the Hellworld game that they committed suicide. The group feel guilty for not being able to prevent their friend’s demise. They feel even more guilty for continuing to play the game that killed him and attend a party in its honour.

Could these characters, combined with the outlandish cyberspace concept, make for a good Hellraiser film? No, but if it embraced its concept’s absurdity and took itself less seriously Hellworld could’ve been fun.

When the group enter the mansion the plot plays out like Hellbound, in that it’s a series of random interconnected scenes that do nothing but kill off characters and display creepy imagery. This isn’t to say Hellbound is terrible, I have issues with it but it’s a way better viewing experience since we already know and like the characters.

This thread of pointless scenes and cheap gore leads to a twist that, like the concept and the characters, could’ve been affective if the rest of the film was more well written.

The only qualities that make Hellworld notable are its wacky premise and certain members of its cast, specifically Lance Henriksen, Henry Cavill (of all people!) and Doug Bradley which, at time of writing, is his final appearance as Pinhead.

I don’t care if they have no artistic integrity, for my sake I hope that both of the remaining two sequels I have to cover are entertaining because regardless of its campy concept, Hellworld is a postponed yawn that lasts for thirty-five minutes. It’s pathetic.

I give Hellraiser: Hellworld an awful 3 out of 10.

8 down. 8 more sleeps.