Hellraiser 5 Inferno

Midnite media

Movie Review: Hellraiser 5: Inferno (2000)

Hellraiser 5: Inferno

Written by Paul Harris Boardman & Scott Derrickson
Directed by Scott Derrickson

Detective Joseph Thorne...Craig Sheffer
Tony Nenonen...Nicholas Turturro
Dr. Gregory...James Remar
Pinhead...Dough Bradley

Detective Joseph Thorne is something of a shady cop. He steals evidence from crime scenes, snorts blow, and bangs beautiful young hookers behind the backs of his wife and daughter. When he and his straight shooter partner Tony Nenonen are called to a murder site, they find a puddle of flesh that was once a man, a child's finger ensconced in a candle, and the mysterious puzzle box.

Detective Thorne has always been good at solving puzzles. He's almost obsessive about it, and quite showy, as well. It doesn't take him long to crack the combination of the box, but when he does, he isn't assaulted by leather-clad demons and dragged into hell like most people. Instead, he finds the world around him changing into a surrealistic nightmare ofJacob's Ladder proportions.

In long-running franchises such as this, you can't really go into these sequels expecting too much. A little blood, a few boobs, hopefully a coherent storyline that doesn't completely contradict everything that has come before it. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that this entry was pretty damned enjoyable, offering up a fresh take on the usual Cenobite storyline.

Inferno is like a 1990s neo-noir as seen through the eyes of David Lynch. It is dark, twisted, and nice to look at, beating the shit out of all your senses with a whip. Thorne is a worthy anti-hero, and the mysterious Engineer is one hell of a villain. Pinhead himself had been relegated to a background role this time, but his usual sadomasochistic tropes are all here, so we feel his presence even when he can not be seen.

This may be more mystery than horror for much of its running time, but it's still a welcome addition to the genre fan's library. One of the few sequels that really matter.

"Your flesh is killing your spirit."
--J/Metro

MRQR
Supernatural villain Pinhead finds himself on the wrong side of the law in this, the fifth film in the Hellraiser franchise. Joseph (Craig Sheffer) is a detective with the LAPD who one morning discovers he's no longer living in California -- he's been exiled to Hades, and the only way to escape is by solving the mystery of the all-powerful puzzle box. The box is now in the hands of the fearsome demon Pinhead (Doug Bradley), and Joseph finds himself in a life-and-death struggle with the demon for control of the puzzle box. Hellraiser: Inferno also stars Nicholas Turturro as Tony, Sasha Barrese as Daphne, Noelle Evans as Melanie, and James Remar as Dr. Paul Gregory



Full movie on PutLocker

Hellraiser 4 Bloodline

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

Clive Barker's horrific creation Pinhead (Doug Bradley) returns to the screen for the fourth (and purportedly final) time in this time-juggling horror opus. In 18th century France, Phillip Lemarchand (Bruce Ramsay) constructs a black puzzle box for the wizard Duc de L'Isle (Mickey Cottrell); however, the box has potentially deadly consequences when it's discovered that it can be used to open the gates of hell, freeing the demonic Pinhead. Two hundred years later, the box finds its way into thehands of John (also played by Bruce Ramsay), a New Yorker and distant descendant of Lemarchand who is being pursued by Pinhead and his minions, while another 200 years hence, Dr. Paul Merchant (Ramsay again) is trying to make his way aboard a space station in hopes of reclaiming the puzzle box, hoping to destroy it before it can be used to once again release the demons upon the world; Merchant is also attempting to build a second box that can close the gates that the first box opens. While makeup artist Kevin Yagher made his directorial debut with this film, the final cut was taken away from him and considerably shortened, which in his mind severely compromised the film's complex, time-traveling narrative. He opted to instead credit his work to Alan Smithee, which was the Directors Guild's official pseudonym for directors who feel their work has been tampered with. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

JoBlo Horror-movie

Hellraiser 4: Bloodline (1996)

Written by: The Arrow

Printer-Friendly version

Director: Alan Smithee (aka Kevin Yagher)

Starring:
Bruce Ramsay/Phillip-John-Paul
Valentina Vargas/Angelique
Kim Myers/Bobbi
Doug Bradley/Pinhead

Rating:

> BUY THIS DISC
> BUY HORROR POSTERS
> BUY HORROR COLLECTIBLES
> BUY ARROW MERCHANDISE

PLOT-CRUNCH

We witness the birth of the "puzzle". Then, we follow a war between the demons and Phillip Le Marchand’s bloodline through the ages. And yes…Pinhead does wind up in space?!?

THE LOWDOWN

Kevin Yagher removed his name from the film (see BULL'S-EYE) and the name of shame takes its place: Alan Smithee. I expected a disaster…

Hellraiser 4 has a few things going for it. The story is told through three time periods (past-present-future) and the core of it is very interesting. I loved the 18th century segment, it’s the darkest of the film. It introduces a delicious looking demon that goes by the name of Angelique (sizzling), it has very nasty gore (the skin being filled by the demon’s soul) and a bitter, cruel streak. Seeing "Hellraiser"-like events happen in that time period really worked for me…it just clicked. I wish the whole flick took place in the 18th century.

The flick started losing me when it jumped to the present. I almost felt like the story didn’t know where to go. Pinhead shows up with his endless monologues (still hasn’t learned to shut up) and there are way too many scenes of him interacting with Angelique. I felt like I was watching a soap opera with the heavies flirting and scheming their evil plans. Pinhead even resorts to kidnapping the hero’s wife and young son in order to blackmail him. What is this..."Days Of Our Lives"???

Pinhead is no longer hell’s referee, the impartial demon that goes by the rules. He’s now the token bad guy (who likes to pet pigeons???). I’ll go as far as saying that Pinhead is this entry's weakest element. Every time he shows up, the story stops so he can ramble on and on and on.

The story doesn’t only stop for Pin boy, it also stops to show gore for gore’s sakes. Now I love gore, but I love good storytelling way more. Did we really need that scene with the two twins being turned into Cenobites? Yes, it's pretty kool and messy but it stops the flow of the film and doesn’t serve the story. It felt like "let's put the flick on hold to show some gnarly stuff"…clumsy…

The opening segment in space is a good teaser but the ending (also in space) is a let down. All about Pinhead and his crew stalking paper-thin soldiers through a space station. Even though the murders are kool, the ending stalk sequences did not please me. When did Hellraiser become Friday The 13th?? Another thing that didn’t sit well with me is Pinhead’s demise. Has all these years in hell made him numb and dumb? I mean Marchand is right there in his face preparing his end but Pin is too busy talking Marchand’s ear off to notice. Pinhead=fool? U bet.

The chatterer demon dog is kool, Angelique is mouth watering (even with her skin peeled off) and the gore is plentiful, but all in all, this is an average sequel and like most sequels, it forgets where it came from. The Hellraiser movies were always flawed (in my opinion) but at least they were ambitious and different. This sequel doesn’t have a pinch of what made the first two special. Hellraiser has lost its way and Pinhead is now a proud graduate of the "Generic Villain" school. Where’s my tissue…Where’s my gun???

GORE

This film doesn’t shy away from the gore. Violent choking, bitten off cheek, twin men melded together…my fave is the guy that gets his head cut off by a "special" mirror. Special commendation to the chatterer demon dog. It looks good and the scenes with it are fun times. I’m also happy to report that the Cenobites are closer to the original ones…no CD man here…

- See more at: http://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/reviews/hellraiser-4-bloodline#sthash.LxQQSbp9.dpuf

Full Movie on Watch32

Hellraiser 3 Hell On Earth

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

A sleazy nightclub owner purchases a strange, disturbing sculpture, which he soon discovers contains a mysterious, ornate puzzle box. This box is a legendary object that promises the secrets of ultimate pain and pleasure, but is in fact a gateway to hell. Soon the box's new owner has unleashed the evil Pinhead, a member of a race of supernatural beings known as Cenobites. Pinhead proceeds to murder numerous clubgoers in an attempt to gain power and fully free himself into the earthly realm. He faces unexpected opposition, however, from a television reporter investigating the mysterious club murders. When she discovers the truth behind the enigmatic puzzle box, she realizes that only she can stop the carnage. However, she must not only defeat Pinhead, but his fellow Cenobites, including the barbed-wire-wrapped Barbie and the horrific CD-Head. (Yes, CD-Head does indeed kill people by shooting CDs from his head.) Though this third entry in the Hellraiser series pays lip service to the intricate mythology of the first two films, especially through a series of flashbacks to Pinhead's human past, the film soon reverts to a fairly standard slasher formula. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Wikipedia 

Plot[edit]

The revelation of his own former humanity in Hellraiser II has resulted in the Cenobite named Pinhead being split into two distinct entities: His former self, World War I British Army Captain Eliot Spencer, and a manifestation of Spencer's id, which takes on the form of Pinhead. While Spencer ends up in limbo, Pinhead is trapped, along with the puzzle box, amongst the writhing figures and distorted faces etched into the surface of an intricately carved pillar — the Pillar of Souls.

The pillar is bought by the rich and spoiled J.P. Monroe, owner of a popular nightclub called The Boiler Room. During her investigation, an ambitious young television reporter, Joey Summerskill, slowly begins to learn about Pinhead and the mysterious puzzle box. Joey is introduced to the pain the box can bring when she views a teenage clubgoer being ripped apart by the box's chains in a hospital emergency room. Joey tracks the box and a young woman named Terri to The Boiler Room nightclub. Terri had previously stolen the box from the nightclub.

Video tape interviews are recovered from the Channard Institute of one of Pinhead's former victims Kirsty Cotton. Joey and Terri learn through the videos about the demonic Cenobites and the power of the Lament Configuration puzzle box and that it is the only means of sending Pinhead back to Hell. Pinhead remains dormant until one night several hooked chains shoot out of the pillar and rip into one of the club goers, Sandy, whom Monroe had just recently slept with. After killing Sandy, Pinhead consumes her flesh and her distorted face appears on the pillar. Pinhead convinces Monroe to bring him more club members so he can feed on them and be freed from the pillar.

Meanwhile, Joey is contacted by the spirit of Eliot Spencer, who tells her that this "Pinhead" is a separate entity than the one encountered by Kirsty previously. Without Spencer's humanity to act as a balancing influence, this Pinhead is completely evil and has no sense of order. Rather than abide by the laws of the Cenobite realm, he will indiscriminately wreak havoc on Earth for his own pleasure unless he is stopped. In order to defeat him, Joey must reunite Spencer's spirit with Pinhead, fusing them back into a single entity.

At the climax of the film, Pinhead and Joey confront each other in a boiler room. The "Pinhead" demon tells Joey to give him the box, she then breaks away and begins to flee. Pinhead resurrects the corpses of his victims into Cenobites, but they are then quickly sent to hell. Joey finds herself in a heaven like realm and comes face to face with an apparition who appears to be her dead father. The apparition tells Joey to give him the Lament Configuration, aka the puzzle box, and is revealed to be Pinhead in disguise. Pinhead catches her in machinery and prepares to turn her into a cenobite, but is confronted by Spencer's spirit who forcibly fuses himself into Pinhead. Joey breaks free and stabs Pinhead, sending him back to hell. With Pinhead's humanity restored, Joey buries the Puzzle Box in cement.

The final scene of the film shows a new building built where Joey buried the box, with the interior design of the building being the same as the Lament Configuration (foreshadowing the events of the following film, Hellraiser: Bloodline).

Full movie on Viooz

Reality Kills

Horror View Review
Take seven of the most different stereotypes imaginable, throw them in hickville and add a killer. That’s Reality Kills for you. Here’s the rundown; prissy blonde sheltered girl, white trash pirate radio rebel guy, overly stated yoga/martial artist/tai chi master Japanese girl, bisexual fashion mogul goth dude, thoughtful introverted brunette chick, hardcore ghetto gangsta would-be guy, and Latina dreadlock rich bitch.

This could be the cast of any Big Brother or Real World, except that every character is totally overblown and amplified past the point of realism. Add in Bogey, the creepy groundskeeper, Brock the rapper host, the limey cameraman, and a couple of hot boom girls. The whole group is thrown into a house where a bunch of people killed themselves during an orgy in the Liquid Sky massacre.

The characters each reveal their personalities quickly, meaning that the Crash Man (DePriest), aka white trash pirate radio moron guy, is annoying from the moment he’s on screen. The filmmakers recognize the limitations of the set-up, and put the girls in panties as quickly as possible. The film also wastes no time whacking people, which is a blessing, given the other option of more exposure to the characters.

It takes no time at all for off-camera events to start setting up each of the supporting characters as the potential killers. Brock is an arrogant prick trying to ramp up the intensity of the show, and he’s into bondage. Other than coming off as a complete inbred, Bogey doesn’t do a damn thing. Meanwhile, tension builds and friendships form among the cast.

None of the acting jobs is terrible, but each is written into such a targeted stereotype that there’s little flexibility. Given this limitation, several of them do a very good job at making the character their own, including goth boy Gar (Dushku) and Brock (Fingaz). Of course, it’s each actor playing themselves playing another part, which makes a nice tongue-in-cheek on some levels. Once the bodies start falling and everyone starts wigging out, the dialogue ramps up with some good one-liners. The action shots and soundtrack, however, take a step back toward cheese.

The killer’s wardrobe and modus operandi make him one of the least appealing horror villains in recent memory. If not for the tie-in to the Liquid Sky cult, the murderer would just be a re-enactment of 1982’s comedy/mystery Private Eyes, with Tim Conway and Don Knotts.

The bit part of associate director is played by Kristen Miller, whose resume’ includes “She Spies” and “That’s My Bush!”. Poor thing. She gets a whopping 45 seconds to herself but makes the most of it. Nate Dushku is, of course, the brother of Eliza Dushku, best known as Faith in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

Sure, readers may think this whole thing was done before with bigger names and a bigger budget in Halloween: Resurrection. Still, the intrigue of an unknown killer, more nudity and cute chicks, and the chance for some unknown actors to make a name for themselves gives Reality Kills a better result. Not that that’s exactly aiming high.

Fright Review

REALITY KILLS

I’m sure there exists a great horror movie about the reality TV phenomenon.  REALITY KILLS, however, isn’t it!

The Package      This 2002 film, which plays off the formula of BIG BROTHER and other recent reality television programs, at least has an impressive pedigree.  It was co-produced, appropriately enough, by John Langley, the creator of COPS, which is viewed by many as the show that kicked off the reality trend.  The director was the talented (though highly erratic) Canadian Rafael Zelinsky, whose many low budget feats include SCREWBALLS (1983) and FUN (1994).  As for REALITY KILLS’ largely unknown cast, the less said the better!

The Story
     TRUE LIVIN’ is a top rated reality TV program in which seven people are pitted against each other in an isolated setting.  For TRUE LIVIN’S latest season, the locale is an isolated barn where a past massacre is rumored to have taken place.
     Among the twentysomething contestants are the wannabe actress Serendipity, the DJ Crash, the lesbian Gar and the apparently virginal Charlotte.  All initially clash, and than the gals begin pairing off with the guys--all but Charlotte, who it seems will remain forever a virgin, and Crash, who nobody can stand.  The latter is inevitably voted off in the first elimination round, and isn’t at all happy about it!
     But then the body of a cameraman is found hanging in the barn, and chaos takes over.  Everybody begins turning on everybody else as suspicion for the killing runs rampant and paranoia takes over.  In the meantime more bodies are discovered.  Clearly one of the participants (or possibly even two) is responsible...and the body count continues to rise.

The Direction      The biggest problem with this shot-on-handheld-video production is that it emulates its real life forebears (BIG BROTHER, etc.) too closely.  This means all the characters are annoying twerps with whom it’s impossible to sympathize.  Nor does the film improve any once the killing starts; it turns from an irritating gab fest into an even more grating BLAIR WITCH-like swirl of screaming and shouting, with a “surprise” ending that’s not especially surprising or satisfying.
     Rafael Zelinsky is capable of far better than this.  The pic, aside from satirizing reality television, is very much in the mode of the hipper-than-thou SCREAM films, with constant nods to past horror movies (including a somewhat witty BLAIR WITCH reference).  The results are dull and irritating by turns, but never especially scary or entertaining.

Popmatters

'Reality Kills': The Slasher Movie Gets House-Broken

By Phil Mason 31 March 2013

Given its reliance on effect to keep its audience satisfied, the genre that probably has the most in common with reality TV is horror. 

As early in cinema history as Conrad Veidt staring-down the viewer in Dr. Caligari, scary movies have never had a problem with taking a brain-flecked sledgehammer to the fourth wall. At the same time, the horror film’s exploitation of its audience’s latent voyeurism means that it’s always going to occupy a ghetto roughly adjacent to its hidden camera cousin. Invariably, fans of both want it cheap, they want it anonymous—relatively well-known faces but no stars—and above all they want it messy.

This is something that both film and TV producers cottoned on to quickly, and in the last decade or so we’ve seen any number of crossovers, from Halloween: Resurrection to Ghost Hunters. To be fair, none of these have exactly set the world on fire, presenting as they do the very image of form over content. However, very few can have been as bad as Reality Kills (aka The Burningmoore Incident).

Taking the form of a faux true crime documentary, the film centres around James Parrish, a family man who, five years before the ‘show’ in question, murdered his wife and children before seemingly disappearing into the aether. Via a series of interviews, we learn of his apparent lack of motive other than an obsession with Greek mythology—something that, prior to the killings, had found its most obvious expression in the word Moros tattooed on the back of his head.

With the background exposition safely out of the way, the action moves to the property in Queens, where the original murders took place. It’s been standing derelict for five years, giving a TV company the opportunity to move in and film an episode of their home makeover showGettin’ Hammered. This, rather inevitably, turns out to be a mistake. James is still sniffing around—and as a local creepy homeless guy says, it’s never stopped being his house.

There are two of massive and linked flaws in Reality Kills. The most apparent problem is that beyond a vague god complex, we never learn enough about James Parrish to make him interesting as a villain. 

Director Jonathan Williams has said that when it comes to horror, what fascinates him is when ‘real people’ do bad things out of the blue, which is fair enough. The x-factor that makes his obviously-favourite films so compelling though is the way they poke around in their monsters’ respective psyches. In Reality Kills, Parrish stands in direct contrast to Hannibal Lecter and John Doe—characters of such psychological depth the audience actually struggles not to empathise with them. (It doesn’t help that Parrish—inexplicably played by Geoff Tate out of Queensryche—is generally shown via camera shots so long or grainy you can barely even tell that it’s him).

The lack of meaningful context in relation to the murderer is reflected elsewhere. The pre-credit warning to the audience is clearly a nod to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the next scene—a couple murdered while about to go at it in the abandoned house—a less than deft pastiche ofFriday the 13th. By the massacre at the end meanwhile, you’re looking at an awkward cross between The Toolbox Murders and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In other words, rather than building a convincing narrative, the movie attempts to fly held together with little more than a string of arbitrary references. 

The dangers of this approach are obvious. Parrish notwithstanding, it’s difficult to feel much for any of the characters, given that none of the victims are any less of a cipher than he is. This in turn inevitably has a knock-on effect on its success as a horror film, because if you don’t care about the people on screen at all, it’s difficult to feel that much dread at the prospect of their not-nearly-bloody-enough demise

 Full Movie on YouTube

HellRaiser 2 Hellbound

There are Fans of the Hellraisers for  Cliver Barker
Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

Horror fantasist Clive Barker, director of the original Hellraiser, maintained creative control over this worthy sequel as executive producer, but was unable to occupy the director's chair due to his involvement on other projects. His creative touch is still quite evident here, as the original film's story is expanded in scope and intensity. The story picks up immediately after the events of the original, with the mentally unbalanced Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) confined to a mental hospital after her experiences in the hellish domain of the grotesque Cenobites, which included the gruesome death of her father. Her case attracts the attention of hospital director Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham), whose marked interest in her story has more than a little to do with his research into the occult. The chief focus of this extracurricular activity seems centered on his impressive collection of puzzle boxes, many of which are versions of the Lament Configuration -- the device which opens the gateway to the Cenobites' dimension. To further realize his diabolical obsession, Channard conducts grisly human sacrifices to resurrect the body of Kirsty's evil stepmother, Julia (Clare Higgins) -- who has literally been through hell and back. He also recruits mute autistic patient Tiffany (Imogen Boorman), an expert at solving puzzles, to decipher the correct version of the box. Haunted by visions of her mutilated father suffering in hell, Kirsty joins Tiffany in hopes of rescuing him from the Cenobites' dimension. Tiffany gains them access to the portal, and they make the nightmarish journey down the corridors of hell. Narrowly escaping the diabolical Pinhead (Doug Bradley), they come face to face with Julia, who has already handed Dr. Channard over to the Cenobites to be transformed into a hideous new creation. First-time director Tony Randel acquits himself nicely, and seems to have a real flair for the surreal material; the script by longtime Barker collaborator Peter Atkins elaborates on elements only hinted at in its predecessor. It should follow that the slightly larger budget would allow ample room for this expansion, but the production values actually appear somewhat slimmer. What the film lacks in refined style it makes up for in utter dementia, particularly in its depiction of graphic bloodletting -- numerous scenes were trimmed or deleted altogether in order to obtain an R rating from the MPAA. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

RogerEbert Review

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of nightmares: the kind that you actually have, and the kind they make into movies. Real nightmares usually involve frustration or public embarrassment. In the frustrating ones, a loved one is trying to tell you something and you can't understand them, or they're in danger and you can't help them. In the embarrassing ones, it's the day of the final exam and you forgot to attend the classes, or you're in front of a crowd and can't think of anything to say, or you wandered into the hotel lobby without any clothes on and nobody has noticed you yet - but they're about to.

Those are scary nightmares, all right, and sometimes they turn up in the movies. But "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" contains the kinds of nightmares that occur only in movies, because our real dreams have low budgets and we can't afford expensive special effects. The movie begins a few hours after the original "Hellbound" ended. A young girl named Kirsty has been placed in a hospital after a night in which she was tortured by the flayed corpses of her parents, who were under the supervision of the demons of hell. What this girl needs is a lot of rest and a set of those positive-thinking cassettes they advertise late at night on cable TV.

But no such luck. The hospital is simply another manifestation of the underworld, hell is all around us, we are powerless in its grip, and before long Kristy and a newfound friend named Tiffany are hurtling down the corridors of the damned. Give or take a detail or two, that's the story. "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" is like some kind of avant-garde film strip in which there is no beginning, no middle, no end, but simply a series of gruesome images that can be watched in any order.

The images have been constructed with a certain amount of care and craftsmanship; the technical credits on this movie run to four single-spaced pages. We see lots of bodies that have been skinned alive, so that the blood still glistens on the exposed muscles. We see creatures who have been burned and mutilated and twisted into grotesque shapes and condemned for eternity to unspeakable and hopeless tortures.

We hear deep, rasping laughter as the denizens of hell chortle over the plight of the terrified girls. And we hear their desperate voices calling to each other.

"Kirsty!" we hear. And "Tiffany!" And "Kirsty!!!" and "Tiffany!!!" And "Kirstiyyyyyyy!!!!!" And "Tiffanyyyyyyy!!!!!" I'm afraid this is another one of those movies that violates the First Rule of Repetition of Names, which states that when the same names are repeated in a movie more than four times a minute for more than three minutes in a row, the audience breaks out into sarcastic laughter, and some of the ruder members are likely to start shouting "Kirsty!" and "Tiffany!" at the screen.

But this movie violates more rules than the First Rule of Repetition. It also violates a basic convention of story construction, which suggests that we should get at least a vague idea of where the story began and where it might be headed. This movie has no plot in a conventional sense. It is simply a series of ugly and bloody episodes strung together one after another like ademo tape by a perverted special-effects man. There is nothing the heroines can do to understand or change their plight and no way we can get involved in their story.

That makes "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" an ideal movie for audiences with little taste and atrophied attention spans who want to glance at the screen occasionally and ascertain that something is still happening up there. If you fit that description, you have probably not read this far, but what the heck, we believe in full-service reviews around here.

You're welcome.

Full Movie on YouTube

Vampire Hunter D

It may be Anime but it is fun

YouTube Post
Main article: Vampire Hunter D (1985 film)
One of the first anime films released outside of Japan, Vampire Hunter D remains a cult classic among English-speaking audiences. Billed by the Japanese producers as a "dark future science-fiction romance" Vampire Hunter D is set in the year 12,090 A.D., in a post-nuclear holocaust world where vampires, mutants and demons "slither through a world of darkness" (in the words of the film's opening introduction).
The film features strong classical Western overtones and memorable voice-acting performances in both English and Japanese, most especially in regards to the title character, D. It was ground-breaking in that it effectively brought together elements of Gothic horror and dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction in a Western framework that some have argued appears to be largely a homage to the film Shane

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

Long a favorite with Japanimation aficionados, Vampire Hunter D is based on the third of Hideyuki Kikuchi's novels about a futuristic human-vampire hybrid warrior. In the year 12,090, vampires are the rulers of the night, something to which Vampire Hunter D is helping to put an end. After the daughter of a rich man is kidnapped by vampire Meier Link, Vampire Hunter D is hired for ten million dollars to find the girl and bring her back to safety

Animenewsnetwork

The plot of Vampire Hunter D is well enough written, however the events which take place in the movie are rather unimportant. A movie of this type would have been far better if the plot was more "epic"; if the events had a major impact on the main character or the world he inhabits. However all this story is about is merely another Vampiric kidnapping and just another job as far as D is concerned. In this sense, this would have made an excellent episode in a series, unfortunately Vampire Hunter D is meant to stand on its own, not as part of a series.

Character development of a personality like D's is very hard, D is the typical strong silent type. Nonetheless Yoshiaki Kawajiri managed to write a script which actually developed D's personality a bit, this is an impressive feat. Some of the other characters on the other hand are very well developed; over the course of the 90-minute film the viewer is made to feel of the characters' grief, misery and pain (the movie is rather gloomy in this way).

.The classical soundtrack may not be for all, however the music does a very good job of setting the mood for the suspense and the action scenes which are periodically sprinkled throughout the film. There is enough to keep action junkies satisfied however the action scenes tend to be very short and cinematographic rather then edge of your seat intense.

Artistically, Vampire Hunter D is a beautiful movie. The characters are very well designed and original, as well as beautifully drawn. The backgrounds are stunningly detailed and the CGI affects are well done so that they flawlessly mesh with the cel animation. In essence there is nothing to complain about in the very fluid and beautiful animation of this film.

The version of Vampire Hunter D which premiered at Fantasia and will be playing theatrically is the English language version rather then Japanese with English Subtitles. While I didn't particularly like all the voices the voice actors were capable and delivered their lines in a believable fashion. Unfortunately they didn't always have the best lines to deliver. With the exception of a few well written monologues, Vampire Hunter D is full of really corny dialog which at times becomes so bad it is either hilarious or painful. Hopefully some of the dialog will be improved during final editing.

Final editing of Vampire Hunter D remains to be done, given a few improvements this could be a very enjoyable film. If you like movies which are a mix of action / drama thenVampire Hunter D is worth the price of admission or rental.

Full movie on YouTube