hellraiser

THE FLICKS: Tonight two failing horror franchises go head to head (or horns to horns, as the case may be) in an attempt to resurrect themselves from a fate worse than death: direct-to-video obscurity! In this corner, The Prophecy: Uprising, the fourth chapter in the moderately successful franchise headlined by Christopher Walken...only Chris has left the building this time around. And in this corner, wearing the leather S & M outfit and headgear, we have Pinhead in his sixth outing, Hellraiser: Deader. Neither franchise is much of a pay-per-view event at this point, having been abandoned by their creators and bled dry in sequel after sequel. Particularly Hellraiser, whose originator Clive Barker invested the material with a uniquely twisted form of gothic necrophilia, only to see his demonic creation pimped out like a two-for-one-rental ‘ho. Such a waste of good suffering indeed! So it’s The Prophecy: Uprising that seems lightest on its feet, starting with a fresh set of characters and some promising actors (other than Kari Wuhrer, who somehow slept her way into both films!) that take the concept of a war in heaven and run with it. Director Joel Soisson gets a good vibe going from the first herky-jerky chase scene, setting up the conflict between a body-swapping demon and a morally conflicted Romanian cop out to protect a historically significant book called the Lexicon. Doug Bradley, aka ‘ol Pinhead himself, also takes on a fairly prominent role sans make-up for a change. Not so much a horror film as a supernatural thriller, Uprising makes the most of its European location and keeps the plot muddled enough that the material seems smarter than it really is. It’s a classy production that doesn’t rely on cheap scares or gore. Plus Kari Wuhrer only gets maybe two or three lines on camera. Hellraiser: Deader isn’t so lucky. Kari is on full display as a tough-talkin’ investigative reporter tracking down a cult of “deaders” – Romanian teens who commit suicide and are then brought back to life by their mysterious frontman. But once she infiltrates the club, she finds membership comes with a pretty steep price. Your soul! And where there’s a soul, there’s Cenobites. But Pinhead makes a poor appearance in Deader - which was an original script adapted to fit the Hellraiser franchise – only totaling about 4 minutes of screen time. Director Rick Bota stages some creepy scenes (a close-encounter with a bloated corpse on a toilet makes quite an impression) but doesn’t have the necessary erotic edge that the material demands. Unstructured, episodic dream sequences run wild over the poor excuse for a screenplay, attempting to find its scares by accident. Nothing about Deader works. And the fact the part seven, Hellworld, is just around the corner is enough to make you hold on to your soul just a little bit tighter. THE FEATURES: Uprising may have taken the first round, but Deader makes good in the extras department. Deleted scenes, a gag reel, 20-minute Making Of, two commentaries and more attempt to compensate for the poor excuse of a movie they support. This is as feature-packed a DVD you’ll see for a direct-to-video horror flick, all very well produced. Uprising has its fair share of perks, including deleted scenes (with more grandstanding by Doug Bradley), cast auditions (which feature interesting script changes), a brief Making Of (concentrating on the weather related challenges faced by the 27 day shoot), and a cast/crew commentary. Not bad, but not a knockout. SPIDERMAN: THE VENOM SAGA – The early ‘90s Saturday morning Spidey cartoon did a lot of things right: non-stop sarcastic banter (something Tobey Maguire just can’t pull off), tons of superhero cameos (Iron Man, X-Men and more), plus pulling some of the more contemporary twists from the comics onto the TV screen. The Venom Saga consists of five episodes in which Spiderman becomes attached – quite literally – to a new black costume. This costume is actually an alien organism that affects our hero’s sense of right and wrong, turning him into a mean-spirited avenger. And once the costume is removed things get even more dangerous! Energetically animated with villains aplenty, including Kingpin, Shocker and the Rhino, this is the next best thing to having the entire series on DVD. Extras include episode introductions by Stan Lee, Stan’s Soapbox (in which the legendary Marvel-man chats about seemingly anything and everything) and facts about Venom’s origins. Previous releases included select episodes from the classic ‘60s Spiderman cartoons, but those however now exist on their own DVD box set. Track them down in you’re interested!