Hellriser (2017)
By William Pattison
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…
