Hellraiser : Hellseeker

Alternate titles : Hellraiser 6 : Hellseeker

Tagline : "Evil, Deadly, Immortal."

Hellbound babe Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) returns, but not for long as her husband Trevor (Dean Winters) loses control of their car right at the start of the film and they plunge headfirst into a river.

Only Trevor survives, but is soon being questioned by the police who suspect the crash was no accident. But it seems that accusations of murder are the least of his worries. Although physically recovering from the crash he starts to experience vision inducing headaches that involve Pinhead and multiple flashbacks to his past.

As the story unfolds, the strange visions he gets with his headaches become so frequent and intense it no longer become clear to him (or indeed the viewer) what's real or not anymore. You just knew it was a big mistake buying his wife that lament puzzle box as an anniversary present.

If you were disappointed with part 5 and were expecting a return to the format of the earlier films you're in for another disappointment. Whilst Pinhead does get a bit more on-screen time in this film, the story is basically a re-write of part 5, using the exact same formula. The story also goes against some already established plot lines, regarding Pinhead's relationship with Kirsty.

This film could have easily been made without re-introducing Ashley Laurence's character, but it seems they dragged her into it to try and boost sales after Part 5's lacklustre performance. Whilst the story does redeem itself somewhat with the neat twist in the ending, and proves marginally better than Part 5, it still pails in comparison to the earlier movies.

Overall Marks : 3.5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Director Rick Bota also directed "Tales from the Crypt : Demon Night", "The House on Haunted Hill" remake and "Valentine".
• Dean Winters previously played Detective Cassidy in "Law & Order : Special Victims Unit".
• When the car dives into the river it looks like its about to flip on its roof as it hits the water, but as it cuts to a close up of it sinking, its the right way up. Also, as the car is sinking you can clearly see that it's now raining, but in the before and after shots, the weather is clear. In addition, as the car sinks, the windows are open, but before hitting the water and in the underwater shots the windows are up.
• Ashley Laurence said the amount of money she was paid for filming her scenes wasn't enough to buy a new refrigerator.
• The Surgeon Cenobite was played by effects artist Michael Regan, who also played the new Chatterer in Part 5.
• The film's budget was $3,000,000.
• The role of Kirsty wasn't originally scripted as being Kirsty Cotton from the earlier films, as director Rick Bota didn't think he'd be able to get Ashley Laurence. However, after Doug Bradley managed to talk her into reprising her role, they slightly re-wrote the part to fit her character.
• The scene were Kirsty confronts Pinhead and his new Cenobites wasn't in the original script, as Ashley Laurence hadn't been cast in the role at the time. This scene was written by Doug Bradley and was originally longer, in which Pinhead talks about Larry, Uncle Frank and Julia from the first 2 films. However, the director insisted in deleting these references as he wanted to make it a standalone film. The original scene can be found in full as an extra on the US DVD.

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