Hellraiser: Hellseeker is an American psychological horror film from director Rick Bota. It's the sixth film in the Hellraiser series. However, this is a departure xs it doesn’t do a good job of referencing the previous films. A trope that would continue in future releases. This film stars Doug Bradley, Ashley Laurence, Dean Winters, and William S. Taylor. It was released straight-to-video on October 15th, 2002. The film received a lot of negative reviews. However, Clive Barker reportedly enjoyed this film. Strange.

I am watching the 2002 DVD release from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. Much like this film, this DVD comes in featureless plastic with absolutely no frills. Such a shame. I was already dreading watching this one.

Synopsis

Trevor Gooden is a businessman that’s been having episodes of amnesia following a car crash that killed his wife, Kirsty Cotton-Gooden. Through the film, we follow Trevor in-and-out of a series of frustratingly bad dream sequences. We watch as he struggles to unlock the secrets of the accident and his own life.

Analysis

The story is incoherent and meandering. Quite boring too. The hazy dream sequences are annoying and keep me from gaining any foothold on the storyline. The acting leaves a lot to be desired. Dean Winters is a really poor leading man. He's great in his insurance commercials. But could they not afford anyone better?

The cenobites are in the film briefly and Pinhead played still by Doug Bradley, is mismanaged and makes little more than a cameo appearance. He plays two roles. But it's nothing like his appearances in previous installments to the series. Ashley Lawrence returns to this franchise but like Pinhead she is merely a bit part. Another misstep in a sequel that shouldn't have happened.

Everything else is so generic and boring. A cheap thriller that has a few horrific effects. But it's ultimately too confusing and lackluster to be scary. A damn shame for a franchise with such potential.

Overall

Hellseeker is a car wreck of a picture. A mishmash of various scenes that are poorly edited together to create some resemblance of a feature film. As is customary for latter films in this franchise, the plot delves even farther from the source material. A serious misstep for this and its predecessors. Parts of this movie would almost make sense if it wasn't tied to the Hellraiser name and didn’t feature endless dream sequences. I cannot become invested in the film since nothing is real. You have no emotional attachment to the characters. It’s bad. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this one. There is a good reason why this has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.