Ugh. I have to admit I'm looking at this movie really jaded. This is the NINTH installment in the Hellraiser franchise, and I've not really been impressed by anything past the third movie. Ok, Hellraiser Judgment...let's do this.
Brothers and police detectives Sean and David Carter are investigating what could be one of the darkest cases of their entire careers. They are hunting for a gruesome serial killer terrorizing the city with murders that have a pattern connected to The 10 Commandments. Now joining forces with the newly-assigned Detective Christine Egerton, they begin to delve deeper into a spiraling maze of horror that they then have to consider may not even be of this world and could very well lead to the actual depths of Hell itself...could the judgment that the killer gives out to his victims also be awaiting Sean?
Right, before I even say anything else nobody and I mean NOBODY is the Hellpriest (yes, that is his name, not Pinhead.) except Doug Bradley. There may have been two other people who took on this role, but they are pale imitations. Now that's not to say the performance in this movie (despite how tiny it is) isn't good, but quite simply, it is not Bradley, and he is and always will be the quintessential Hellpriest. With that out the way, let's get on with my thoughts on this movie.
As much as I wasn't exactly anticipating too much from this, I truly did my utmost to give Hellraiser: Judgement as fair a chance as possible, despite (for me personally) the Hellraiser movies not being particularly good after the third installment and getting increasingly worse.
However, despite me slating the Post-III Hellraiser sequels, this is the best of them, but in all fairness, that really isn't saying too much. It's really odd too as it doesn't feel like a Hellraiser movie, just like some kind of mystery movie with Hellraiser bits tacked onto it which is strange when you consider the script for Hellraiser Judgement started out as an actual Hellraiser story unlike several of the previous installments that weren't and were then retrofitted accordingly.
Something that truly mystified me was Heather Langenkamp's third billing on this movie...she is only on screen in one scene about 27 minutes in, for less than 45 seconds, and is hardly recognizable in aging makeup. Major billing? Errrrr....no. I guess they were counting on the power of a horror legend to help with this film.
There is a bit right at the end of the credits which had a pun that made me groan.
Now, there was supposed to be a sequel to this (yes, you heard right) that continued directly from the end of Hellraiser Judgement (and that would have been interesting in quite a few ways) but that idea has been shelved in favor of a reboot. I'm not entirely sure if that's a good or bad thing...surely sometimes a franchise can be allowed to actually rest in peace?
Hellraiser Judgement is rated 18 and is available on VOD now and is released on Blu-Ray 1 March 2021, you can pre-order a copy HERE