A journalist with a dark past attempts to unravel the mystery behind a cult whose leader has the ability to raise the dead.

I hate to admit it, but my instincts were correct. I was loath to watch this movie. The direct to video Hellraiser sequels have been a mixed lot. ’Inferno’, in my humble opinion, was a masterpiece, and ’Hellseeker’ did a good job of updating the original premise while still remaining its own film. I had strong hopes for any further installments, but a stronger sense of trepidation. “DtV” productions aren’t the best in the world, and even aside from ’Bloodline’, the series was due for a flop.

Deader isn’t a bad movie, it’s just not very good. There’s some good use of disturbing imagery, but as a whole, the film just isn’t all that engrossing. Most of the fault lies with the script. Many of Clive Barker’s past works have featured a surrealistic dream-like structure. The more recent installments in the ’Hellraiser’ saga have well paid homage to their original benefactor. While the disjointed symbolism of ‘Deader’ is well crafted, the plot it accents just doesn’t pull its weight. While previous entries used surrealism to add spice to the gumbo, ‘Deader’ uses it as a crutch. There is ever so much jumping around between phony dream sequences and bizarre happenings in order to pad out the proceedings. Much too much, in fact.

The writing falls flat when it comes to character as well. Acting is good for the most part, but these folks just aren’t that compelling. While the protagonist is driven in self-loathing by a childhood trauma (At this point I’m positive the people working on this series are ‘Silent Hill 2’ fans) it doesn’t really make her any more likable. Those she meets during the course of the film are mostly Eurotrash twits. While Barker’s work has always had a large kink quotient, these pseudo-goth shmucks are incredibly tiring. (Think if all the insufferably fey self-obsessed twats from all three of those gotdamned ‘Blade’ movies appeared all at once in the same scene. Yes, that tiresome.) The Cenobites themselves are wasted in the production. Pinhead and the crew hover around the margins of the story, never really figuring in the proceedings. When they do finally show up during the final confrontation, the scene is a string of clichés. No one seems to have much reason to be here, and nothing much to do after they show up. Frankly, everyone in this film is doomed because they do dumb things out of boredom. There is simply no emotional connection between the characters and the viewer. And since this is the case, nothing which happens in the film has any real impact.

The world of ‘Hellraiser: Deader’ is a dim and grungy place filled with stupid, ugly people. This may be true of the previous films, but many of their miscreants were interesting. ‘Deader’ commits the only mortal sin of the horror genre, the sin of being uninteresting.