2 1/2 Stars

The fifth official entry in the Hellraiser series is the first to debut straight-to-DVD and it’s too bad because this frequently disturbing film would have benefited from a larger budget. Purists of the franchise will no doubt discard Inferno as inferior due to the lack of Pinhead and other cenobites that have dominated previous sequels. To be fair thats a valid argument, there is very little that ties this picture into the overall mythology built up over parts one through four. The story feels like it was originally set as a straight forward police procedural before the Hellraiser segments were grafted on in order to sell the film to a built in fan base. If that is not the case then the screenplay by Paul Harris Boardman and director Scott Derrickson builds steadily for an hour before totally going off the rails in the last act. Situations become confused and the main character awakes from an ‘it was only a dream’ stupor nearly half of a dozen times. It gets to the point that the audience doesn’t know whats supposed to be played on the level of reality and what is happening in this dream state, which ultimately causes indifference. Continue reading →