Hellraiser: Deader Review Country : USA Year: 2005 Genre: Horror/Fantasy Format: Video Running Time: 88 minutes Distributor: Dimension A journalist is gradually drawn into the unholy world of a cult who claim the ability to resurrect the dead, only to uncover an unspeakable evil.... Credits Directed by Rick Bota. Written by Neal Marshall Stevens and Tim Day. Starring Doug Bradley, Kari Wuhrer, Simon Kunz, Paul Rhys, Georgina Rylance and Marc Warren. After the Hellraiser franchise spiraled into direct to video madness, I had pretty much given up on any hope of seeing another good entry in the series. Inferno and Hellseeker proved me wrong, even though most fans will say the franchise stalled after 1988's Hellbound, and after years of sitting on the shelf, the seventh entry in the series, Deader finally hit and I was excited. From the buzz about the film, this was supposed to be the one that would catapult the series back to cult infamy. Well, sorry to burst your bubble. This is the worst one yet. Journalist Amy Klein (Kari Wurher) uncovers an underground group whom can bring back the dead and slowly becomes drawn into their world. The films also features the return of everyone’s favorite Demon Pinhead (Doug Bradley) whose performance is very brief and sadly, almost laughable. The film falls flat on its face when it tries to tie into the Hellraiser mythos. Doug Bradley should really save himself some time in the make up chair and start hosting a show like "Tales from the Crypt" or something. In case you didn’t know, Deader started out as an original screenplay by Neal Marshall Stevens that Dimension Films bought for a little under a million dollars. Tim Day was subsequently hired to then re-write it as a Hellraiser film. Just like Inferno, this film would have been so much better as a stand-alone piece. The only saving grace in the film is the direction of Rick Bota and one scene with Wurher getting stabbed in the back and having to remove the knife on her own. The DVD is jam packed with some pretty cool extras though, which is rare for any DTV sequel. An interesting ‘Making of’ featurette, a hilarious gag reel, a visual F/X feature, and some boring deleted scenes with one of the dumbest looking cenobites I have ever seen. In short, it’s worth watching, but hardly worth shelling out the insane price tag of $24.99. (Best Buy) Stick this somewhere in your Netflix rental queue and save it for a rainy day. MORE INFO HELLRAISER ON PIT OF HORROR Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com