On the anniversary of Scott Derrickson’s directorial debut, Hellraiser: Inferno, we defend the overlooked sequel’s style, scares, and ambition.

“You are your own king, and this is the Hell you have created for yourself.”

The Hellraiser films have amassed a devoted cult following over the years, but the series never broke through the mainstream in quite the same way that Friday the 13th, Halloween, or A Nightmare on Elm Street did. The earliest Hellraiser pictures set a supremely disturbing foundation for the universe, but from 2000 onward the series was given the death knell of its sequels heading to the direct-to-video market. Hellraiser V: Inferno is the first of these sequels and as a result, many audiences assumed that the quality took a major dive as a result. But surprisingly, Hellraiser: Inferno is actually a highlight of the series and easily the strongest of the direct-to-video efforts. What’s even more exciting about Inferno is that it shows off Scott Derrickson’s talents, previewing the kind of horror filmmaker he’d become in the ensuing years and hinting at his abilities for major blockbuster fare like Doctor Strange. With Hellraiser: Inferno now nearly twenty years old, it’s time that the misunderstood sequel is given a second chance.

Hellraiser V: Inferno is a memorable entry in the series due to how it’s such a drastic pivot from the previous films (Hellraiser IV was not only set in the future and in space, but also takes place far in the past), but it also tells a much more intimate noir-ish story about a crooked detective’s temptations and his hunt for a Cenobite-like serial killer, The Engineer. It even comes complete with a hard-boiled voiceover from the beleaguered detective. The Engineer has a great look to him and makes up for the lack of Pinhead in the picture. Funnily enough, while Inferno is a decent film, many people say that its greatest deterrent is that it is a Hellraiser picture, rather than being its own thing and ridding itself of its connection to the series.

When it came time for a new Hellraiser sequel, the Weinsteins fielded a number of pitches, many of which they considered too expensive to greenlight. The Weinsteins came across Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman‘s script and were impressed enough with it that they gave Derrickson $10,000 to direct a single scene from it as a proof of concept for the film. Derrickson went all-in with the exaggerated, visceral Cenobite horror and was given approval to go ahead with the feature. Rumors (from Doug Bradley, no less) that Inferno didn’t originally begin as a Hellraiser sequel may be disputed, since Derrickson has stated that he wrote this Hellraiser spec while he waited for other projects to move ahead. That being said, Hellraiser: Inferno does feel like another film that’s been given a facelift. For instance, Pinhead is barely in it and feels like an afterthought and something that Derrickson was not interested in. He is more of an arbitrator and judge of sorts, rather than an outright antagonist. Inferno reduces his presence when the other sequels go in the opposite direction, often to a fault. Pinhead doesn’t even show up until over an hour and fifteen minutes into the 100-minute movie. It’s a nice pivot, but not one that all fans were into.

The film apparently had a meager budget of approximately $2 million and production members like Gary J. Tunnicliffe even forewent payment so that his staff could still be paid, after he learned that the budget for special effects was only $50,000. It was clear that many people weren’t taking this film seriously and even Clive Baker spoke negatively about the direct-to-video sequels, saying, “…all of these direct-to-video sequels had huge budgetary issues and had to rush production, sometimes as quickly as two weeks to finish, so its not surprising so many of them are half-baked, repetitive misfires.” Taking all of this into consideration, it’s a wonder that Derrickson was able to turn out a finished product that still has such a voice. The film looks great and features some amazing shot composition and creative camera setups.

Hellraiser: Inferno’s Detective Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer) is nearly corrupt in every possible regard. After committing heinous infidelity, he actually argues that leaving his wife would crush her so much that keeping his affairs a secret is actually good for her. He’s an intelligent guy, but he rationalizes his wicked actions and argues that he’s from a “different time” where this behavior is justified. It’s significant that Thorne’s smart enough to know that what he’s doing is wrong and that he’s not just some blissful idiot. The character is surprisingly layered for a film of this nature and Sheffer helps make him work. In a Hellraiser film, it also doesn’t hurt that Thorne has a knack for puzzles and is often making asides about crosswords, palindromes, chess, and other forms of mental stimulation, making him the kind of perfect test subject for all of this, whereas other Lament Configuration device users just seem to be able to figure it out without explanation.

Thorne finds himself in hot water when his reckless behavior seemingly catches up with him. A prostitute he was with the night before shows up brutally murdered in their hotel room and he has no recollection of what happened. Thorne is eventually put on the track of The Engineer, the gruesome serial killer who might have been responsible for the murder he’s caught up in as well as many others. As Thorne gets in deeper, everyone begins to think that he’s actually the Engineer and that Thorne has lost his mind, as he struggles to prove otherwise.

The film’s final act executes a major twist that’s not exactly needed, but goes a long way. Evidently, a lot of what Thorne has thought to be real is actually an elaborate form of psychological torture courtesy of Pinhead. It’s so thorough that both the kidnapped boy in trouble and the Engineer are implied to be two halves of Joseph, both his innocence and his evil inclinations. The Engineer’s torture of the body is meant to signify how Thorne’s darker side has been destroying the goodness that resides in him. While the film plays out like a cat and mouse game against a deranged serial killer, it’s actually much more an internal study and metaphor for the duality of man and the nature of evil. This is all a very powerful idea, especially as a take on Hellraiser, but it’s easy to see how this was too cerebral for some.

Furthermore, the big takeaway is that everything here is basically all Joseph’s fault and that “the acts of his flesh have killed his spirit.” This makes for an extremely bleak conclusion, but one that’s actually kind of altruistic in a messed up way as Joseph sees defeat and succumbs to Pinhead. Even if he might temporarily view this as a win, he is in fact, trapped in Hell in an endless loop. It’s almost like an ending of The Twilight Zone (or a darker take on Jacob’s Ladder), especially with the concluding voice-over that it goes out on.

Craig Sheffer seriously kills it as Detective Joseph Thorne and even though he’s an asshole, the film still makes you care enough for him. He gives an increasingly unhinged performance as the film goes on and it’s satisfying to see him get weathered down and beaten by all of this. The fact that Thorne has a wife and daughter who love him also goes a long way here, too. He’s not isolated and others depend on him in a way where his death will really hurt them. On that note, all of the characters here are actually people you get invested in and have depth to them, which is saying a lot for a Hellraiser sequel. It tries hard to make you care, but it succeeds.

The Hellraiser films are often cited for their extreme and almost comical levels of violence and tortured characters and Inferno does not disappoint in that regard. The first exposure to violence in the film is heavy, gruesome, and doesn’t hold back. The pair of Cenobites who sensually caress Thorne’s chest, both over and under his skin, is the perfect disturbing representation of the Cenobite’s “pain is pleasure” mantra. There’s a surprising beheading that happens in a flashback scene that’s also pretty intense and feels like something out of Se7en more than it does a Hellraiser film, especially with how severed body parts are repackaged as “gifts.” The Engineer’s major gimmick revolves around severing the fingers of a young boy until Thorne is able to catch and stop him before the boy runs out of fingers. It’s very disturbing stuff. There are even lots of trippy David Lynch-like dream sequences and the first arrival of Cenobites is really effective. Derrickson makes them look simultaneously terrifying, but also sleek and pleasing in a way that connects with Thorne—it’s a very grisly way to introduce this dark side of the world. The “blood bed” set piece is super creepy, too.

These disturbing visuals stand out, but Inferno also contains a really nightmarish and graphic sound design of torture that makes even the scenes where you don’t see what happens hard to stomach. At times the film almost feels like a Saw sequel (or Dexter episode) and it kind of carries that aesthetic before it was even out there (it’s actually a little shocking that Derrickson wasn’t approached to direct a Saw film, or maybe he just wasn’t interested after covering similar territory here and in Sinister).

The gore in Hellraiser: Inferno is intense, ridiculous, and unbelievable (even for Hellraiser standards), but Derrickson has very intentional reasoning for this. In the film theory book, Through A Screen Darkly, Derrickson provides some insight on Inferno’s over the top carnage:

“I think that the story itself has to dictate to what level a filmmaker ought to go…in the portrayal of evil and the portrayal of graphic material. When I made Hellraiser: Inferno, I went as far in that film as I would ever go as a filmmaker in terms of the graphic nature. It’s a very grotesque movie. I don’t like that kind of stuff, graphic violence, personally. But I was making a movie about Hell. One of my ambitions [with] that movie was to create a portrayal of Hell that had some personal significance for me.”

Derrickson goes on to explain that the old archetypal images associated with hell-like flames and the devil, are no longer frightening or as relevant. They’re almost parodies at this point, which is why he worked so hard to present an image of hell that’s actually terrifying, and it’s a dedication to his craft that’s also absolutely present in Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister. At the same time, Inferno also really gets into the moral underpinnings of Heaven and Hell, which the other Hellraiser films often overlook in favor of their gothic depiction of Leviathan Hell.

Derrickson also strangely invites a lot of Lynch connections in the film, with a lot of nods to Lost Highway; Thorne even has to speak to a Cowboy for guidance, like in Mulholland Dr. (which then turns into a bizarre cowboy kung-fu fight sequence). There are some decent, creative scares throughout the film as Thorne becomes increasingly erratic and show his declining mental state. For instance, the stretched face man who laughs like a child is a terrifying example of Thorne being unclear if he’s lost his mind or slipped into the bowels of Hell. In the final stage of his torment, he’s forced to fight against demonic versions of his friends and family, whether it’s his son, or his parents, and he’s put through a real gauntlet. Thorne must confront his personal demons and support systems before getting through all of this.

Derrickson’s DNA is all over the construction of these scares and there are clear precursors for his later films. The videotape with the engineer on it is straight-up terrifying (the smoking tongue effect is especially creepy and unique), but the videocassette grain and filter adds even more layers to it. It’s a personal presentation style that he’d later return to for even greater effect in Sinister, but you can see the start of that fascination here. Thorne even has a peculiar fascination with close-up magic that helps ground himself in the moment that could even be seen as a precursor for what’s to come with Doctor Strange. Inferno utilizes other trippy, kaleidoscope-esque horror sequences that are even more reminiscent of the work he’d later do in the Marvel film. It’s great to see Derrickson experiment with all of these tools and interests that he’d later incorporate into much larger properties.

Hellraiser: Inferno might not have much of a reputation nearly 20 years later and I wouldn’t hold out hope for a legacy sequel for this picture to come to pass. However, the film still has more depth and layers to analyze now than when it was initially released thanks to the trajectory of Scott Derrickson’s career. Inferno is still a formidable outlier in the Hellraiser canon that’s thankfully looked at a little more fondly than the other sequels in the series (but not by far). Hellraiser: Inferno doesn’t revolutionize the genre, or even the franchise, but it’s still a fun schlocky horror film that’s able to hold up two decades later.