Hellraiser – The Gateway to Hell and its first sequels still enjoy a strong following and rightly have a cult following. After 20 years of franchise history, however, producers tried to expand the story of the series with Hellworld through the meat grinder of burgeoning 2000s trends. The result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s wonderfully whimsical in places.
The franchise story about a group of demons who kidnap unwary people into their hellish dimension of torture is nothing more than the plot of a video game called Hellworld. Thanks to an impressive high score, a group of friends led by Chelsea (Katheryn Winnick) and Mike (Cavill) are invited to an exclusive party. Yet instead of the pixel version, real blood will soon flow there. And not too tight.
Cavill fans will enjoy his rather unusual role as a video game fanatic and arrogant darling. That being said, the film is just plain entertainingly trashy 17 years later. Box Computer, Pixelated CGI, omnipresent internet craze and a pumping trance soundtrack embody the style of the new millennium magnificently.
Loud trends and an appearance by genre veteran Lance Henriksen don’t save a film, however, as the negative critical echo makes clear (via Rotten Tomatoes). Whether Cavill occasionally thinks about his early role is unknown. He certainly hasn’t lost his love for video games.
The 10 best films coming to Netflix and Co. in 2022
Before the streaming year ends, we bring you another 10 upcoming titles we’re most excited about in 2022.
At this point you will find external content that complements the article. You can show it and hide it again with one click.
In this installment of the Moviepilot podcast Stream Gefluer we talk about Guillermo del Toro’s dark new version of Pinocchio, the Will Smith comeback Emancipation, the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion with Daniel Craig and the horror hype Barbarian, among others.
*. . .
What do you think of Hellraiser: Hellworld?