r/hellraiser

And although the lyrics of the song itself have nothing to do with the Hellraiser films, the official music video features Lermashan's Box, Pinhead, and The Cenobites.

I’ve recently watched the Hellraiser films in preparation of the house at Halloween Horror Nights this year and want to give my rankings of the films, especially as a newcomer to the series.

1. Hellbound Hellraiser 2. Probably the best way to follow-up the original film! The setting, the Cenobites, the new characters, the return of Julia and Kirsty.
2. Hellraiser Judgement. WOW, wasn’t expecting such a late sequel to make it this high for me. It’s artistically good, a breath of fresh air and a good story.
3. Hellraiser 1987. Such a nice film with great gore effect. A little slow at times but different filming techniques and pacing which I ignore for what it’s doing with the story and character.
4. Hellraiser Hell on Earth. As a direct continuation of the first two it pales, but as its own thing it works pretty well. The pseudo Cenobites were cool and that chase sequence at the end was a highlight. Joey was a great follow up to Kirsty and gives us an idea what it’s like when the outside starts to investigate the paranormal activities in a horror film, something that’s still hard to find.
5. Hellraiser Bloodline Workprint Version. Works so much better than the theatrical cut. I just wish the quality was better. Angelique being more prominent is quite the boon since she just vanishes during the future portions of the theatrical cut.
6. Hellraiser Hellworld. Now some might be wondering why this is so high but the thing is I was entertained by it. It’s got that trashy 2000’s horror film that’s fun to watch. Yes Pinhead was shoved in here Willy nilly but with the hallucination angle it makes sense that these people are misremembering what Pinhead is like and works better than the ones below this in terms of post Bloodline is concerned.
7. Hellraiser Bloodline Theatrical Cut. It was okay. I don’t like the idea of the LC being built by a Toymaker in the 1800’s since it should be a much older item than that. I timed the Pinhead appearance in both cuts and he shows up later in this one which was supposed to be something they supposedly fixed?
8. Hellraiser Hellseeker. A much improved version of the story used in Inferno. If I wasn’t paying attention I wouldn’t have realized that was Kirsty Cotton so the weakest of her films for me. They kept talking about three women being sacrificed to Pinhead but I only recalled two women dying so I must’ve missed something.
9. Hellraiser Deader. Probably the first I’d say is on the not entertaining side. If I did a rewatch of the series I’d not watch it except for Bradley’s parts. The mental stuff the lead was going through was interesting but not enough for me to like the film more.
10. Hellraiser Inferno. God was this film boring to watch. It had some good visuals but I was so bored while watching this one. The story also felt convoluted, Hellseeker did it better, and weird as a Hellraiser movie, like I watched a random cop movie with Pinhead randomly thrown in.
11. Hellraiser Revelation. What a turdfire of a film. Seriously how did this get made anyway? I can understand why Bradley didn’t return for this thing.

I love Hellraiser, but unfortunately like a lot of fans I love the untapped potential of the series itself much more than the actual series itself. And I am one fan who puts Hellbound on par with the original. To me, the series loses itself after that point. Everything after this is just competing for third place.