This one had to grow on me a bit. The first viewing, I thought it sucked. Then after thinking about it, and watching a couple of online reviews to learn others perspective of it, I watched this a second time, and it set a little better with me. I still don't think it's a great entry in this series, as it does still feel wildly out of place, it's worthwhile checking out. My biggest problem with this one is that we keep waking up and realising the previous moments were all a dream. In the earliest Hellraisers, we knew what they were experiencing was real, not imagined. Physical, not psychological. Here, we go off into Jacob's Ladder territory for most of its duration, and learn this character is in his own mental Hell, forced to relive his mistakes for eternity. An odd new direction for the series, and while it's not entirely a success, it isn't a complete misfire, either. Just don't go into it expecting it to match the tone of previous entries. Pinhead, in his two brief appearances, appears almost glowing white. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it's a great effect.

Though I haven't seen number four, about the only HR that wasn't an R, this is a refreshing Hellraiser, but not for better. Shady cop (Sheffer- who's really good) finds his life falling apart, after taking something from a grisly murder scene? Guess what? He's experiencing a lot of delusions or are some real? His colleague (Turturro- a straight shooter for once) becomes really concerned, as so does Sheffer's family. I found this Firth HR exciting and bloody, but a lot of puff, where a lot of the story isn't explained, where we're the ones who have to piece the puzzle. Those demons in Sheffer's delusions, I thought were stupid, where a lot of stuff in this one doesn't make sense. But it's Sheffer who coolly steers this bad HR. James Remar was fantastic as a shrink, who could be Sheffer's one salvation, while Nicholas Sadler, an actor who's not used enough, was very good as a coke head, slumming it out in an ice cream van. This one has a few nasty themes, but is still is an exciting watch, where Sheffer really does hos role justice, and makes the film watchable. It was a relief to see Pinhead, in his most minor of HR screen time. May'be he too is ashamed of this HR. You will be short changed with this Hellraiser, mostly cause of it's very hazy told story, and it's stupidity versus corniness It feels less a Hellraiser, than all of them, esp, too when you consider Pinhead's almost, non pivotal role.

Getting involved in a strange case, a police detective gradually comes to realize that he's far more involved in the crimes due to Pinhead and his demons and tries to stop it before it consumes him and his family.This one is an utterly abysmal and barely worthwhile effort that doesn't have a lot of redeeming values. About the only thing that really works is the tension built up over the Cenobites and their few appearances here which are quite chilling in most cases. From the quick-shot glances of the faceless demon to the multitude of psychological tortures inflicted throughout the scenes in the hospital room or his flashback into his childhood home, these scenes with the Cenobites showing off their psychotic tendencies and mind-games are incredibly enjoyable and really seem to come from a better movie altogether. That's mainly due to the massive amount of flaws present which are so damaging and detrimental that there's hardly anything about this that's worthwhile. The biggest issue here is this one spends so much time on the investigation and his mental stability that the film doesn't even feel like part of the rest of the series. There's so little time here with the creatures here who have at most five minutes of screen-time that their presence is wasted on such a film, so there's barely a real connection here to the series in this manner anyway. Those scenes focusing on his descent into madness are some of the most boring, dragged out scenes in the series that they just don't have any real more or suspense to them continually appearing for about twenty second sand causing him to go off on a long tangent that just makes for an utterly boring and cringe-worth series of scenes. In the midst of all this searching, we get useless scenes just to show that he has a tortured family life, then it's back to the investigation, being almost as maddening as the search. To make it even worse, the investigation scenes, which took up the majority of the movie, were just criminally slow and boring, and it can be pretty hard to see this one all the way through. Those issues by themselves would give this one a seriously bad name, but then it throws on top of those issues one more act here with the heinous factor of using the entire plot as a morality tale just makes this one unbearable. Not only is the choice to do this incredibly insipid and wasteful, but the entire purpose for including it is outright illogical as this was never a part of the series to begin with as they were always about punishing people so the need to teach him a lesion despite being the perfect person to torment makes this the single biggest flaw in here and that makes this one near impossible to come back from.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, drug use and children-in-jeopardy.

This is quite a unique departure from the usual over-the-top blood and gore that the first four Hellraiser films have satisfied fans of Clive Barker's visionary interpretation of desire and doom over the years. Director, Scott Derrickson takes us into the life of a brilliant but amoral police detective, Joseph Thorne, played by Craig Sheffer (who's no stranger to Clive Barker's surreal world from his role in "Nightbreed") Thorne is a master chess player and puzzle solver which brings us to his story. He also cheats on his beautiful wife with hookers and neglects his family, but when he stumbles across the infamous "Lament Configuration" puzzle box, he begins his descent into hell, which is ultimately an illogical mixture of reality and fantasy as he has to solve ghastly murders of people in which he was acquainted with and the disappearance of a child. It is somehow all designed by a character referred to as the "Engineer" that is actually the one and only Pinhead. This seems to be more for fans of the psychological thinking man's horror film than the traditional Gothic gore thriller. Craig Sheffer handles the material well as he must put together the impossibly complex world that is ultimately his chosen hell. The cenobite demons in this installment are strangely erotic shape-shifters of some sort, and many scenes have a convoluted dream-like quality. Pinhead gets very little screen-time, but when he emerges for the finale confrontation, its all the well worth the wait. Features good turns from Nicholas Turturro, James Remar and not to mention Doug Bradley's exquisitely demented Pinhead. Most fans should approve. Derrickson will go on to write and direct "Sinister" and the excellent, "Exorcism of Emily Rose"