Hellriser (2017)
By William Pattison
For Horror Bob’s Blog
This time I got a supernatural detective story in the style
of Cove Barker’s Harry De Amour..
When their city is rocked by a series of brutal occult
murders, veteran detective John Locke and his young partner Terri Keyes are
forced to put aside their differences and follow the trail of evidence to a
formerly abandoned asylum, where the new owner Dr Unnseine is conducting his
own brand of Nazi-inspired "medical research" on the unwilling
inmates. One such inmate, the sexy but deadly Annie Dyer, may hold the key to
the murders - and to the doorway to Hell itself - if only Locke and Keyes can
stay alive long enough to discover what it is.
What if Clive Barker and Charlie Band worked on a horror
film together? I would think the results
would be something like this film. After all
title of Hellriser you would think it would have a touch of Barker to
it, or be a tacky Hellblazer rip off.
When I first saw this film among a the thumbnails on Tubi TV
I was amused. I thought this film would be a joke. I was happily surprised how
much I enjoyed this film. It is not a masterpiece, but the story does have a
lot of aspects that remind me of Barker’s De Amour stories. Also, it has the
comic book, low budget feel of the works of Charles Band, which is one of my
favorites.
I was a bit disappointed that they made Detective Locke such
an incompetent police officer. But, what I did like about Locke’s storyline was
that he was a man who lost his faith because of what happened to his daughter.
One of my favorite scenes with Locke was when he warned the prostitute and gave
her his extra copy of The Bible. Though teamed up with Locke the young female
detective worked out well I did not like the fact that the screenwriter made her
the all intelligent woman working with the idiot older white guy. That actually
annoyed me. In the story she did all the research and found all the clues while
Locke waited for phone calls from the coroner and went out for an alcoholic
lunch and checked out after finding each murdered girl.
Now in regard to the nutso doctor at the asylum/specialty
clinic, he was the typical German mad scientist/ Nazi torturer. His “therapy”
device looked like something out of an old 50s sci Fi movie or Marvel comics.
The atmosphere was very art noire and Z grade horror with heavy
shadows and darkened background and heavy red and blue lighting added in. The
FX were definite Z grade low budget, which is actually an asset in this case.
Unfortunately, there is no demonic makeup. There is a lot of naked lady scenes.
All in all if you want a z grade popcorn paranormal mystery
you will enjoy this film. You can currently find this film on Tubi TV…
Keep on Creepin’ Horror Bob’s Blog…
