Reviewing this film is quite a pleasure.  Of all the masters of horror to come around in the last couple decades, Clive Barker seems to be the one you can always count on.  At the time of this review, I had just recently seen The Midnight Meat Train, and enjoyed it quite thoroughly.  The man takes a lot of care and heart with his work, both written and on film.  He doesn't rush every new novel or short story into a film adaptation like Stephen King.  While there were some missteps with Barker's earlier film adaptations, it wasn't directly his fault.  Still, you ask Clive questions about this movie, he'll probably turn you down.  He's sick of discussing it, and feels it is firmly settled in his past.  But neverminding that, Hellraiser still stands as a horror classic.  It was a serious injection of true horror when the rest of the genre was turning campy and being drained of anything resembling a scary movie.  Written & directed by Barker, based on his short story, "The Hellbound Heart".  Possibly, the most gritty horror film since "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but far gorier.  The gore quality is damn near off-the-chart.  I still find myself cringing at how gruesome Hellraiser is.  This film is truly an original piece of classic horror cinema.  As stated by Stephen King himself..."I have seen the future of horror fiction, and his name is Clive Barker."

This film's premise is certainly original in all aspects.  It starts out with a small puzzle box, seemingly harmless, but is said to unlock an experience where pain & pleasure are indivisible.  The man who seeks it is named Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman).  He thought he'd been to the limits of human pleasures, but his fate is unimaginable.  He solves the puzzle box, but what it invites is hell itself, in the form of the Cenboites.  He dies in the third floor room of this house that is soon inhabited by his brother Larry (Andrew Robinson), his wife Julia (Clare Higgins), and his daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence).  After cutting himself trying to haul the mattress upstairs, Larry's blood spills upon the floor that Frank died on.  Unknowingly to them all, that small amount of blood is enough to regenerate some amount of Frank's living body.  He has escaped from hell, and hell doesn't like that.  We learn of a past sexual relationship between Julia & Frank, and well, he uses her devotion to him to regain his full form through unsuspecting men.  Kirsty gets caught in the middle, and things rise to another level when the Cenobites come looking for more victims.

This is a dark, gory, and unbound vision of horror by Clive Barker.  Even the way its filmed makes it even more gritty and grimy.  In retrospect, it is easy for one's focus to shift towards Doug Bradley and the other Cenobites as the star attraction.  For me, it is the performances of the human characters which are the real jewels here.  The emotional and psychological depth the actors bring to their roles are rich and real.  Clare Higgins is devilishly seductive, but also, presents an honest vulnerability and apprehension.  She is captivating and fascinating.  Andrew Robinson is also a marvel.  While his portrayal of Larry Cotton is certainly what it should be, and doesn't seem like much of a standout, he portrays it with a lot of heart.  It's sincere and honest.  Though, it is his turn at the end of the film which really gets the juices flowing.  He becomes deliciously sadistic and sinister.  He really chews it up, and lets nothing stand in his way of delivering an insidious, lustful villain.  Ashley Laurence really draws you in, firstly, with her fresh-faced beauty, but becomes a definitely likable protagonist.  Where she is surrounded by people who are either morally corrupt or faced with emotional conflicts, she shines through as the most innocent.  One you can really get behind, and feel true sympathy for.

The look of the film is very dark and grainy.  The film showcases how rawness and grittiness can create a certain macabre beauty.  The gore of Hellraiser is intense and in abundance.  For the weak of stomach, it could get overwhelming, but the skinless Frank (Oliver Smith) is a genuine work of gruesome art.  Barker has a way to make horror beautiful, in a twisted, demented fashion.  The Cenobite makeup, while in a rawer form than later on, truly adds to the texture of this film.  I rather prefer this look over later installments which got cheap in the costuming department, and sleeker in the makeup design.  By the direct-to-video entries, their appearance became more fake and soft than anything else.  The only dated piece fo effects work comes with the visual effects, which were simple rotoscopic cell animation, but it's all kept to minimum.  It's really apparent in the climax, but it hardly diminishes the enjoyment of the film as a whole.

Speaking of which, the Cenobites are used, essentially, as a plot device, same as the puzzle box.  Tortured, twisted, and mutilated to hellish perfection, the Cenobites are background characters here, but powerful ones.  Doug Bradley begins his legendary role of Pinhead (referred to, simply, as "Lead Cenobite" in the end credits).  In a time where B-level, slasher horror films were the dominant sub-genre in horror, this film came out and changed the standard for horror films.  Fortunately or unfortunately, nothing has yet to equal to Hellraiser, except for its first sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II.  This has allowed Barker's 1987 film to stand out still, to this day, as a bonafide horror classic.

The score by Christopher Young is wonderful and powerful.  Its gothic stylings really would spark off many similar scores such as Danny Elfman's Batman themes, and Graeme Revell's The Crow compositions.  Also, despite Barker's belief that this is an uneven film, and excuse the unintentional pun, I believe he did one HELL of a wonderful job!  I think a director can be his own harshest critic, and I wholly understand that.  Regardless, the storytelling is tight and solid  There's a lot of tension of varying kinds throughout the film, and Barker delivers it all quite well.  Definitely something for him to be proud of for his first feature length directorial work.  Simply said, this is a classic for a reason.  It's damn good with solid talents embuing it with strength and versatility.  You really cannot afford to pass this film up.

This film takes what was done in the first, and takes it to a whole 'nother level!  Instead of just being teased at the horrors of hell, we actually enter into the domain of hell itself!  The horrors, the fears, the torture, and more.  It begins almost where the first left off.  Larry, Frank, & Julia are all dead, and Kirsty is being held within the Channard Institute of Mental Health.  She speaks of the Cenobites, the dead returning to life, the opening of a gateway to hell, and well, who wouldn't think she's a little south of sanity.  Although, one thing gains the attention of Dr. Channard; Kirsty mentions that they must destroy the mattress that Julia died on for she can return just as Frank did.  Channard has the mattress sent to his home, and after allowing one of rather hopeless hallucinatory mental cases (which are held in the basement holding cells) to slash himself with a blade attempting to dispose of the imaginary spiders & maggots upon his body, Julia is regenerated.  Her regeneration moves along faster than Frank's, but this is only one part of the whole picture.

Channard is shown to have much research into our famous puzzle box, properly called the Lament Configuration, and via the puzzle-solving talents of one of his patients, Tina, a speechless young girl, the Lament Configuration is once again solved, and the Cenobites appear.  Pinhead realizes that the girl is not the one who has summoned them, but instead, it's Dr. Channard & Julia.  Soon, all of our main characters venture into hell, Channard & Julia to explore it, Kirsty & Tina to stop the aforementioned duo.  Things are learned about the origins of the Cenobites, especially Pinhead, that they have forgotten.  A pair of great, climatic confrontations makes this a great sequel that's generally accepted as being BETTER than the original.  Some prefer the original over this one, but in any case, this is a suitable sequel that builds on what is only touched upon in the first.  This film is equally as horrifying & original as the first, and it truly shows Clive Barker's vision of hell in all of its twisted, tormented, and horrific glory.

Tony Randel did a superb job as director here, bridging a seemless gap between Barker's Hellraiser and this first sequel.  Christopher Young's score is even more powerful this time out, the cast is just as solid with most everyone returning from the first, the script is quite well-written, and the Channard Cenobite is a chilling foe for all who stand against him.  Barker is only on board as an executive producer, but his influence is still here and respected.  This is a faithful and top notch sequel that's worthy of classic status - a must-see as well.

Something went wrong here.  Clive Barker might be credited as an executive producer, but it essentially means nothing. I can't view any of his influence here, but that's not what's really wrong here.  This film has the elements, the story is good for about half of the film, then, the third quarter is kind of bad, but the last quarter revives.  Everything seemed like it should work, but something went astray. It's obviously the execution, and the divergence from the syle of the previous two films. The script needs an overhaul, and the quality of acting is pretty on-par for a slasher flick (which is what this film descends into). 

Anyway, let's try to make this quick.  Terry Farrell ("Star Trek: DS9") plays failing T.V. news reporter Joey Summerskill in search of that story that will break her out of this obscurity.  While finishing a report on some go-nowhere story at the hospital one night, a young man is carted into the emergency room with chains ripped into his flesh and dangling from his body.  Then, before the eyes of many in the emergency operating room, the man's body is torn apart, and of course, Joey believes this is the caliber of story she's been seeking.  She tracks the young woman, Terri (Paula Marshall), that accompanied the man to the hospital and finds that her boyfriend is night club owner J.P. Munroe (Kevin Bernhardt), who owns a familiar pillar - the pillar of souls which now contains an imprisoned Pinhead who became trapped there after the confrontation with the Channard Cenobite in the previous film.  After the spilling of blood on the pillar, Pinhead begins to reawaken, and with more blood, he can be fully regenerated.  Meanwhile, Joey comes into possession of the Lament Configuration through Terri (who got it from the guy wheeled into the hospital, who took it from the pillar).  Meanwhile, we begin to learn a bit about Pinhead's mortal, human life as British Captain Elliott Spenser.  Elliott exists apart from Pinhead now. Pinhead is now a free being, separeted from Leviathan and Spenser, and thus, has become a far more lively and sadistic being. There is no more reasoning, no more hesitation, and no more bargains. Elliott believes he can defeat Pinhead, but Joey must bring the two together within Elliott's realm to do so.  And so Joey is sent out on her mission to lure Pinhead into a trap, but of course, Pinhead is smarter than that (at least for the most part). 

This could've been a great origin story about Pinhead, and a fine follow-up to the first two films.  Unfortunately, so much of the Hellraiser mythology and atmosphere is abandoned here that it becomes hopeless.  For one, aside from Pinhead, all of the other Cenobites we've seen are gone, and new ones are just created for Pinhead's own convenience.  That alone contradicts the mythology.  Leviathan creates Cenobites, and only those that solve the Lament Configuration have the potential to become one. Pinhead and other Cenobites do not have the power to create other Cenobites at will.  Where this new power comes from for Pinhead is a complete mystery, and it only gets worse in the following film. 

Next up, the characters are no more developed than those of any common slasher flick, and that's what this seems to span out to in the third act.  Bloodbaths, senseless killings, and a high body count (none of which is really in the Hellraiser style).  The studio took Hellraiser, turned it into a slasher franchise, eliminating anything innovative or chilling about the Hellraiser mythos.  They turn Pinhead into the new Freddy Kreuger with one-liners and a group of seriously lame Cenobites.  Pinhead loses his coldness and his seemingly heartless passion for hell.  The film isn't really dark at all, let alone macabre, and even has a self-parodying style. It conforms to the trends of the time, and thus, loses a lot of crediblity for the future of the franchise.  An unrated cut was released on VHS including extra gore and some more character moments, but apparently, Paramount will not release unrated horror films anymore.  So, the DVD they released is an R-rated cut with a few obvious MPAA cuts, and no deleted footage as even a separate bonus feature.

Honestly, this film doesn't warrant a lot of analysis, and so, I'll sum it up with saying that this is probably the most lacking of any film in the series (despite it's possible potential).  It's more like another A Nightmare On Elm Street sequel instead of another Hellraiser film.  Barker's involvement seems non-existent here as Pinhead is forced into too much of a foreground, dominant character instead of the ominous, looming figure in the background where he seems to work best.  His limited screen time in the first two make his presence and character seem more powerful.  He does more in a limited time capacity than he achieves in a lengthy role here (although, that's not consistently true). 

A little less self-parody, a little more Hellraiser-like, but studio interference once again ruins what could've been another fantastic film with a frightening story.  If you ask Clive Barker, this turned into a real mess.  Though as it is, this isn't really a mess, just a bit confused in its organization of things.  Here's the reason.  Special makeup effects artist Kevin Yagher was the original director of the film, but after Dimension Films decided to cutdown the film for time constraints and creative differences, he disowned the film.  They brought in another director, Joe Chapelle (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers), to reshoot several sequences.  Only the "modern day" section of the film stays intact.  The only cut footage is that of the murder of the Merchant's neighbor by Pinhead (who vows a reincarnated revenge against Pinhead, which becomes part of Pinhead's undoing).

In the end, the film is left with the alias director of Alan Smithee (the name attached to films that directors have disowned).  Kevin Yagher never directed anything else after this film.  As far as Barker's involvement goes, he came on as a consultant, but all his ideas and mythology were tossed out.  Barker filed a lawsuit to have his name removed from the film, among other things.  All else I'll say is that his story of Phillip L'Merchant and the creation of the Lament Configuration was so drastically different from what ended up on the screen that it's down right shocking!  Anyway, let's get to the damn film. 

We start out in the year 2127 on the space station Minos with Dr. Paul Merchant (Bruce Ramsay) using a remote controlled droid to open the Lament Configuration in a sealed chamber.  The droid succeeds only to be blown to pieces as "a most unsatisfying victim," as Pinhead puts it.  Meanwhile, the station is stormed by a small group of Marines sent to capture Dr. Merchant for hijacking the very station he designed.  He's captured before he can put his potential plan into action, and thus, pleads with them to allow him to finish his work.  After enough pleading, he convinces the female marine to hear his story.  Merchant tells of how his ancestor, Phillip L'Marchant (also played by Bruce Ramsay), created the puzzle box in the eighteenth century based on the specific instructions of the most famous magician in France, Duc De L'Isle (Mickey Cottrel).  Phillip never could've imagined what it would unlock.  De L'Isle used the box to bring forth a demon in a woman's skin, and named her Angelique (Valentina Vargas).  Paul says that Phillip witnessed this devilry and attempted to undo it by designing the Elysium Configuration - something he would be incapable of implementing as it had to do with the reflecting of light beams to be a counteracting prison for these demons...the Cenobites.  The design was passed down through the family's bloodline (hence, the subtitle), and eventually, the twentieith century decendant, John Merchant (Ramsay, again), a achitect / computer designer, had potentially built what could become the Elysium Configuration, but Pinhead states that it could be a very large doorway (the office bulding featured at the conclusion of the previous film).  Angelique attempts to seduce its secrets from John, but Pinhead states that seduction is useless as pain and suffering are the way of hell now.  Pinhead attempts to trap John by holding his family prisoner, but in the end, both sides lose.  In the twenty-second century, Dr. Paul Merchant believes that he can destroy the Cenobites once and for all, but the marines' untimely arrival have prevented that.  Naturally, no one believes his elaborate story, but he must find a way to destroy the Cenobites or else the bloodline will end with him. 

This one had the potential to be an amazing mythology story, and possibly the best Hellraiser film ever.  Sadly, it faultered.  When Dimension Films pulled rank, and forced the film to be dramatically and drastically altered, that's when all the problems began.  Barker's original vision was something far more grisly and seedy than what was shot.  Still, the film holds together with a decent story.  The scenes in eighteenth century France are probably the best in the film as they are the most Hellraiser-like.  It also has the richest art direction, and actually contains no Pinhead.  To me, it is the most fascinating segment of the film.  Though, as the film goes on, we see the further divergence from the original, established mythology. Pinhead once again creates his own Cenobites despite not having the power to do so.  As stated in my review of Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth, Leviathan is the only one with that kind of power.  Performance wise, Doug Bradley seems quite comfortable here, playing Pinhead somewhat less outrageous than the last film, bringing back the coldness, but it still lacks the fierce intimidation of the first two films.  Bruce Ramsay shows a great flexiblity as he portrays Phillip, John, and Paul.  Each one is a different type of character.  Phillip being the niave "little man," John being the protective father, and Paul being the intelligent and cunning one of the lot.  I hand it to him for showing the diversity of his acting abilities.

The overall style and look of the film is very slick and smooth.  It sets the style for the following direct-to-video sequels, but it's not very favorable over the earlier films.  There's less artistry and more commercial sensibilities in place with the cinematography and direction.  I think the low budget tends to show through most in the future space station scenes.  They're all very small sets with shadowy corners hiding parts of the set which don't exist.  It certainly does not rival anything in the better Alien films.  Atmosphere is very light, working more off of stylized lighting and camera angles than solid directing.

This had the basis for a great installment, but the execution was flawed in post production.  There are several cut scenes including "Angelique's Party" in the first time period, and in fact, the story was to be totally chronological instead of starting with Paul's narration from the future.  More things were undoubtedly cut, and it would be wonderful to see a Director's Cut someday, but it seems highly unlikely.  Also, these marines are idiots, and it would've been better if they were more like the Marines out of Aliens or the team from Predator.  Capable, intelligent, believable, and highly aware.  These marines are just meat ready to be ripped apart by Pinhead's chains.  Even the grunts from Jason X would've been greatly better than these slaughtered lambs.  Anyway, it had potential, and probably still does in that aforementioned, yet unseen director's cut.  All that I will mention about Clive Barker's vision, if it had been adhered to, is it woulve' been a far more visceral and nasty film with Phillip L'Merchant being a highly disturbed serial killer obsessed with creating dozens of puzzle boxes, and a deeper, more textured backstory overall being explored.  As it stands now, Hellraiser: Bloodline fails in some places, has some shining moments, but all in all, still delivers some chilling scenes with a good story, great makeup work, and good visual effects.  I say check it out, but don't expect all around greatness from this one.  Could've been exponentially more powerful had Dimension not interfered so terribly much. 

No, it's not a typo, it IS 8.5 out of 10.  Granted this one doesn't have a lot of Hellraiser-style gore, but gore alone does not make a Hellraiser film (although, one early scene might spurr thoughts from Hellbound).  This is the BEST since Hellbound!  Yes, this shares some elements with Inferno, but this blends everything together nicely.  A whole twisting story that wraps itself with past mythology & storylines.  Not to mention that Ashley Laurence is STILL HOT!!!  Although, Doug Bradley is getting a bit chubby, but he's still as cold and as evil as ever in the guise of Pinhead.  So, where do we start?  At the beginning?  No, been there already, but let us continue the story here.

We open to Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) and her now husband, Trevor (Dean Winters, TV's Oz & Law & Order: SVU), driving down the road speaking vaguely of things we are yet to understand.  They start playfully fooling around, start kissing, but Trevor narrowly misses a head-on collision with an SUV which swerves the car off the bridge into the river.  To make a long story short, the car sinks, Trevor escapes, but is unable to free Kirsty.  Naturally, Trevor believes she drowned to death, but her body cannot be found.  Trevor wakes up to some amnesia along with several disturbing experiences, and just takes them as nightmares due to his headaches.  As the story progresses we learn of Trevor's sexually aggressive boss, Gwen, his sexy young neighbor in his apartment complex, and his somewhat oddly-behaving co-worker/friend.  Trevor is plagued by bizarre images and nightmarish experiences all the while more and more of his memory returns.  He can't explain why someone dies in his apartment, but only moments later, they're alive with no memory of being there.  Why he sees an image in the video camera happening right before him, but yet, it isn't.  Why he feels he's being watched or followed by a faceless, dark figure.  None of it makes sense to him.  One cop believes he's done nothing wrong, but another believes he killed his wife.  The further it all progresses, the more it comes together like any sort of puzzle.  It's all cleverly woven into a worthy sequel to the first two films.  Hell, not to mention that Doug Bradley plays two significant characters that are strangely similar.

To put it simply, this redeems the franchise for the screw-up that was Inferno.  This time we get a main character that we care about instead of some crooked cop who cares about nothing for no one.  Even in the end, I didn't really despise him despite what he tried to do to Kirsty, and the confrontation between Pinhead & Kirsty takes you back to the first two films.  The best thing is to get the DVD because it has the full-length versions of the cut-down flashback scenes (including the just mentioned scene).  Although, those hoping that the Chatterer has some good scenes here, don't because he's in all of one shot for about three seconds (with no chattering sound effect either).  In any case, this has a good host of Cenobites, and this is a well-made film by competent people.  This truly gives me HIGH hopes for Hellraiser: Deader.  Also, this installment does feature MUCH more Pinhead than Inferno did (how could it have much less?), and I have to say that Pinhead's entrance into the film is both inventive and dramatic.  Yes, CGI is once again involved, but it is done pretty good for a direct-to-video budget.  Also, the music is nothing of the style of Christopher Young's score for the original, but it is effective nonetheless as it contains some good electric guitar combined with your standard orchestral score.

All in all, this is a damn good sequel.  Now, don't go thinking that this is a comparison to the first two films because it's not.  Those are different styles of stories than this.  Here you're not swarmed with the chambers of hell like in Hellbound, but it is more in the vein of the original's kind of story.  Not so dependent on the Cenobites, but yet, it adds in those elements from Inferno.  This is what Inferno SHOULD have been, but failed greatly by detaching itself from any backstory or mythology that the series had been built on.  That's what Hellraiser is, it's a story built on mythology as well as inner and outer conflicts.  To lose the mythology and the backstory really doesn't make it feel like Hellraiser.  From the very beginning of the original Hellraiser, we've got mythology and backstory.  That's what gives this series its strength, and that's why Jason, Myers, and Freddy have grown less impactful.  Their continuities and histories have been disjointed and trivialized.  There's no mythology there for these characters to have a given strength or edge to them.  They're too familiar, but Pinhead and the rest of the Hellraiser myhtos have so much that is yet to be known.  There's so much fertile ground that can still be harvested for further stories.  With something as vast and as dark as hell, there's got to be much that can be told about it.

This film really stands up, and it's good that you learn things along with Trevor.  You're about as confused as he is.  What's this image mean, or what the hell just happened here?  It's all a puzzle that both you and Trevor discover together.  I'm liking this film, and I will definitely choose this over Hell On Earth or Inferno any day.  I still like Bloodline for its potential, but it got screwed-up behind-the-scenes.  Anyway, Hellraiser: Hellseeker is one to see for any Hellraiser fan!

The apparent final installment in the original Hellraiser film continuity, and there's a very real reason for that.  This is like The Matrix meets New Nightmare crossed with the worse entries in this franchise.  Don't be fooled by the presence of Lance Henriksen - he's made plenty of bad movies (i.e. Alien vs. Predator).  While it is nice to see Lance & Pinhead share a scene, it's brief and doesn't save the film one bit.  In fact, it confuses the issue even further - what reality is this set in?

A young man named Adam (Stelian Urian) commits suicide after forging a deep obsession with the Hellraiser mythos and an internet game called Hellworld.  His friends fail to act when Adam was spiraling out of control, aside from Jake (Christopher Jacot), who ultimately blames them for everything.  This is all, supposedly, a reality where the films are real and everything else is fiction, but we're not sure (seems to become contradictory).  Adam's friends grieve his death, and two years later, are invited to a mansion-filled Hellworld party by The Host (Lance Henriksen).  They are greeted by the mysterious, cryptic gentleman, and are shown into his private, macabre collection to explore freely.  Though, what they see and experience soon horrifies them.  Somehow, they have entered into a manufactured hell, designed to take their sanity and their lives, but what is the true reality here?

What honestly drags the value of this film down into the dumps really is the story.  Setting it in a world such as Wes Craven's New Nightmare where Hellraiser is an actual film series and internet presence.  Making it where the Cenobites, supposedly, are not real, they are just a device for which Henriksen's character seeks revenge.  It really has nothing to do with the mythology of the series, or anything of a personal hell.  If this was produced as a film with no connection of any kind to Hellraiser, it might be pretty decent, but you can't follow this film's logic.  You can't setup a world where the Cenobites, Leviathan, the Lament Configuration, and so forth are merely fictional creations, but then, turn around and show that they are completely real.  New Nightmare handled it differently, and had actual explanations for how it was possible for Freddy (or a demon the guise thereof) to transcend the realities.  This film's ending has some satisfaction, but as I said, it's too short-lived to make a real impact on the quality of the film.

Regardless of the plot or script, the film is as generally well-acted as any of the last few sequels.  Henriksen, obviously, presents a strong performance that helps to gravitate the film's events and characters.  As I said, despite the quality of Lance's acting, he has done his fair share of bad films.  Might be time for a new agent.  Moving on, we still get faithful Doug Bradley in his usual role.  Not much to say about it.  Same old, reliable thing, as expected.  The supporting cast is your usual horror film youngster all looking pretty, and ready to get ripped to shreds.  No one exceptionally stands out, but they all hold their own well enough.  I don't mean to be cavalier about it, but it's mostly your standard horror movie performances.  Not a great deal of room to stretch your acting abilities.

The effects here are about standard for the direct-to-video end of the series.  Very little that will jump out and amaze you at its awesomeness.  Also, at times, there is fast cutting, trying to give the film a more disorienting experience, but I can't say it's all that favorable.  It works as good as it can.  Though, it does little but to confuse an audience.  Computer generated imagery is, inevitably, made use of in this film.  You can't escape it, especially on the lower budgets of these direct-to-video films.  Simply allows the filmmakers to do more while spending less, in comparison to practical, physical effects.

Now, despite the whole mixed bag of crap we have here, I do have to say that the cinematography and general look of the film is very good.  Probably one of the better entries to establish a visual self-identity.  The use of dark and light along with a select color palette truly allow the imagery to pop and be eye-catching.  Granted, we're not talking Blade Runner here, but it certainly lends towards a workable and generally effective atmosphere.  While the production values are still rather sleek, the lighting helps to shadow almost anything that may, potentially, appear to be too cheap or fabricated.

Taking all things into account, there's really too much going against the film to make a recommendation.  The franchise just fizzled out completely with this film.  Granted, there's plenty of ways to rebound, but Dimension Films probably felt it was beating a dead horse.  Personally, I would have liked to see Doug Bradley have more to work with, such as in the third film when we're exploring Elliot Spenser.  In any case, there are worthwhile qualities within this film, but the negatives bog it down far too much.