So, if Revelations was Hellraiser One but bad, Judgment was Inferno, but good. Because it is almost three in the morning, I'll be brief.
There's a serial killer going around whose MO is acting out the Ten Commandments, which means that Judgment is basically Se7en, but with Cenobites. This one ends predictably enough, with the killer basically being exactly who you would expect it to be.
Where Revelations took the somewhat neutral stance on the nail-headed Hell Priest's purposes, this one once more takes the Bibilcal Hell approach, sort of. We actually meet an agent of heaven in this one, which is the final pin in the coffin to me on any hopes of returning to the Labyrinthy hell of Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
Yeah, I know Scarlet Gospels had Lucifer and all that jazz, don't remind me that even Barker himself changed his mind on the mythology. Shush, no interrupting my Lozenge Lord Octahedron dreams!
There's an additional faction of Hell at play who Audits the sinful, and this entire sequence is both interesting in how it attempts to add complexity to the Hellraiser mythology, and truly disgusting. I nearly vomited watching Sean "get cleaned on the inside". That is not something I want to watch again.
The banter between the Preceptor and Jophiel, and really, The nail-headed Hell Priest and the Auditor as well, had at least an amusing edge to it. Guy things he's been forgiven by God for the atrocities he's committed and she clears that right up, pleasingly enough, and it's actually kind of funny.
So, as punishment for defying the Will of Heaven, the movie ends with the nail-headed Hell Priest being stripped of his nails and restored to life as a human. Is this a continuity with Elliot Spencer? No idea!
Love the call-back to Hell on Earth (though admittedly "Are you The Way?" is less cool than Doug Bradley's "I am the Way," and yes, I'm aware that that's a scriptural thing, but there's no way this line exists unintentionally). Jophiel repeating Frank's last line from Hellraiser One, on the other hand, is so damn forced, as it is such a random thing to say for any reason other than to be a call-back to Hellraiser One.
We see some cool Cenobite designs, again, we must have a Chattering Cenobite, mustn't we? Though, obviously more focus is given to the newcomers: the Auditor and his brood. The Auditor sort of gives a lovely Christoph Waltz/Mads Mikkelsen impression, and he has an appealing design.
Eh, solid for a sequel. Better than the preceding film, at least. It's safe.
Which means I guess I have only 2022's Hellraiser left. Which, again, I've already seen, and liked a lot, so I'm just going to preemptively say it's better than either of the three I've just watched tonight.
Also, yes, movie! Another use of a turn on the Lemarchand Box that's not the standard two-move opening! I'm so proud of you!! The nail-headed Hell Priest performs a unique turn on the cube when returning the Preceptor to earth that's not seen elsewhere: a 180° turn on the diagonal axis of the cube, which feels a bit like the last film's corner twist, but I'm certain is not the same. I've devoted too much time to this non-issue, but it bothers me, okay?
On an unrelated note, I've recently purchased a six film Alien collection to hold up until Romulus becomes available on Blu-Ray, so I sense Xenomorphs in my future!!
