Movie Review - Hellraiser: Revelations

Hellraiser:  Revelations

2011

The Cast

Out of an original idea and story comes another unoriginal take on the Cenobite mythos...

It's spring break and teenage friends, Nico Bradley (Gillespie) and Stephen Craven (Eversman), are vacation-bound.  However, Nico has a different idea of their destination.  No longer will they be partying on the beach but will be having an adventure in Mexico.  Whilst enjoying themselves in a strip joint, they're approached by a vagrant who offers them visions and sensations beyond their wildest imaginings...  Upon accepting the L'Merchant Configuration, Nico starts his journey into hell.  Months pass and the boys are missing and feared dead.  Their parents are having a dinner party when things start to take a dark and nasty turn as the Craven's daughter Emma starts asking some awkward questions... then things get worse when Stephen returns... covered in blood.

This goes across ground covered in the first two films and Inferno and it wouldn't have been so bad had the Director, Garcia, brought across some of the imagination and style of the first two movies.  However, he doesn't.  What the audience gets instead is pretty standard direction with a much too slow pace, which only adds to the boredom factor.  If it weren't for the acting this would have been a dire affair.

None of the cast actually stand out except for Stephan Smith Collins.  Unfortunately, it's for all the wrong reasons.  Collins has to be the worst choice ever to replace Bradley as Pinhead.  Where Bradley had the presence and power to make Pinhead ominous and to ooze threat and force.  Collins has about as much presence as a wet lettuce.  His Pinhead couldn't scare a Scaredy-Cat or a Cowardly Custard.  It's this that has the worst effect on the film.  The audience suffers the direction and pace in the hopes of something interesting happening... then it doesn't.  At least with the previous movies, no matter how bad, you still had a powerful character in Pinhead.  What's even worse is that Collins couldn't carry off Pinhead's voice so they brought in the vocal actor Fred Tatasciore... who also couldn't do the voice justice...

Then to add insult to injury we're introduced to Mini-Pinhead... yeah, that's right... just to put the cherry on the cake.  They couldn't even come up with a new and different Cenobite.  This too could have been better had the writer, Tunnicliffe, decided to have Nico remind Pinhead of his human-self... this could have, at least, added a little more interest into the two characters.

There's not much going for this film so I'd not recommend it.  As usual, it's the original films that are worth your time and attention.

I give this a Boring Box of Unchained Monotony a 4 out of 10.

The Trailer

Oh, My God!  Even The Trailer Is Boring...

Movie Review - The Road

The Road

2011

GMA Films : Freestyle Releasing / Freestyle Digital Media

8.5 / 10

If you're like me and enjoy a good movie, no matter what the language, then you should check out this Filipino gem.

What this film gives the audience is a story in three very different acts.

The first act is the present day where three friends "borrow" a car to go joy riding.  Though their version of joyriding isn't creating havoc on the road but to actually practise their driving.  While they're tootling around the town they see a police car and decide to try and find a quieter section of town.  They come across a fenced off lane and think it would be a good place to improve their driving skills.  However, it's not long before they find themselves in some scary and creepy situations.  The director Yam Laranas does a fantastic job of creating an eerie atmosphere, using shadows and light to their fullest.  The only thing I found annoying with the film was in this act... the girls really can scream... you need to turn the volume down before all the glass in your house explodes...

The second act starts to tell of the events that have led up to the present day events.  We travel back in time a couple of years to when two sisters disappear while travelling the road.  Adding to the creepiness of the earlier act the story now adds a dark and ominous feel as things become dangerous and deadly for the sisters.

The third act goes back twelve years to the very beginning and shows the psychological effects that a dysfunctional family in turmoil can experience, especially if one of the family is mentally unstable.  This is one of the strongest sections of the film as it resolves the mysterious parts of the story.  Laranas does a brilliant job of building atmosphere, once again.  This time he uses brightness and shadows to convey feeling.  Add the great acting of Carmina Villaroel who plays Carmela, a strong controlling independent woman caught in a loveless marriage due to having a child, a woman who runs hot and cold at the flick of a switch.

All of this makes the story much more interesting.   The writers, Aloy Adlawan and Yam Laranas, easily blend the styles and intricacies into a strong and believeable story that spread through the horror, thriller, psychological, and crime genres.

I would recommend this to all horror lovers and even to fans of thrillers, who wouldn't usually watch a horror movie.  This film really does work on so many levels.

This trailer does not portray how good this film really is.