I started out liking the previous Hellraiser film ("Deader") and ended up hating it. But the weird thing is, I started out hating this film and ended up liking it.
The poster for the movie is, of course, quite misleading. The only role that virtual reality or computer gaming play in the story is as part of the back story that sets a "real life" revenge scenario in motion. That irritated me for the first 20 minutes, as the movie seemed to be intent on just being another variation of "The Old Dark House" (with goths and raves). But the director and his crew pumped so much visual and aural energy and inventiveness into the setups that I ended up just going with it. And when Bota started throwing in his usual mind games with the viewer (and the characters) about what is real and what isn't, this time the twist was clever enough that he pulled it off and made me enjoy the denouement.
Being a young actor in a film like this is probably a thankless assignment, given that your character will be cardboard and exists only to be impaled, but this cast gives it their best and manages to inhabit their roles with some energy and inventiveness.And Lance Hendricksen is always fun to watch, even if he seems a little subdued here.
I guess that Rick Bota just makes films that are something of a conundrum for me. I think (within limits), he makes the kind of films he wants to make...it's just that sometimes he seems to be repeating the same tropes over and over again.It might be interesting to see what he could do with a different franchise or at least a non-Dimension film.
The poster for the movie is, of course, quite misleading. The only role that virtual reality or computer gaming play in the story is as part of the back story that sets a "real life" revenge scenario in motion. That irritated me for the first 20 minutes, as the movie seemed to be intent on just being another variation of "The Old Dark House" (with goths and raves). But the director and his crew pumped so much visual and aural energy and inventiveness into the setups that I ended up just going with it. And when Bota started throwing in his usual mind games with the viewer (and the characters) about what is real and what isn't, this time the twist was clever enough that he pulled it off and made me enjoy the denouement.
Being a young actor in a film like this is probably a thankless assignment, given that your character will be cardboard and exists only to be impaled, but this cast gives it their best and manages to inhabit their roles with some energy and inventiveness.And Lance Hendricksen is always fun to watch, even if he seems a little subdued here.
I guess that Rick Bota just makes films that are something of a conundrum for me. I think (within limits), he makes the kind of films he wants to make...it's just that sometimes he seems to be repeating the same tropes over and over again.It might be interesting to see what he could do with a different franchise or at least a non-Dimension film.