Hellraiser: Judgment

By: Gavin Seetaram

Hellraiser: Judgment. This was not an easy task as the plot was a bit muddled. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked this film, as it took quite a bit of time for me to warm up to it – let alone even understand what was going on. When the dust settled, the film made for a rollercoaster ride that left me with the yin and yang perspective of there can’t be evil without good and there can’t be good without evil.

After a tour in the military, Detective Sean Carter (Damon Carney) returns home. Happy to be back with his loving wife Alison (Rheagan Wallace), he learns that she has been cheating on him. In some sort of PTSD breakdown, Sean decides to exact revenge on his spouse by murdering her lover. With the idea now that he is somehow doing something for the greater good of humanity, Sean begins killing people he sees as evil.

The demonic Pinhead (Paul T. Taylor) finds his way to Sean and sends his soul for judgement. The Auditor (Gary J. Tunnicliffe, who also wrote and directed the film) is then tasked with listening to Sean’s tale of woe. Then, The Accessor (John Gulager) consumes his sins and vomits them into a basin. At this point, a band of half naked oracles place their hands in the vomit basin to determine guilt or innocence. If Sean is found guilty he will be taken to a place where his skin is removed and his face is peeled away. Not fun.

Sean gets lucky when angle Jophiel (Helena Grace Donald) appears and deems him worthy of safety. The demonic jury is concerned and heads to speak with Pinhead to let him know they must let Sean depart. The Auditor disagrees, but concedes to letting Sean leave as he knows he will be back.

Sean returns to his pursuit of those he has decided are unworthy of living. This includes his younger brother David (Randy Wayne) as he has learned he was also having an affair with his wife while he was deployed. At this point, Sean takes a gun and puts his brother and wife in a room with Pinhead’s box of evil. What happens next would give too much of the plot away, but it is here that we are reminded of the duality of good and evil.

Tunnicliffe as director makes the film reminiscent of past good and evil dynamics of the movie Seven. There is that essence of Biblical style murders and detectives hunting down individuals deemed in the wrong. As previously noted, it took me a bit of time into the film to decide whether this was a film I enjoyed or whether it was more of a curse. In the end, it was a mediocre film with a C+ value to viewing.