Hellraiser: All Movies Ranked Best to Worst!

The original, the best! The first movie in the series is Clive Barker's true vision by which all others should be stacked against. This really captures his love of the "fantastique", and it establishes the "rules" of the Cenobites and the Lament Configuration. Almost more of a love story that is told through horror, it also established the less-than-linear nature of plots in Hellraiser films going forward, often blurring fantasy with reality.

This one is actually very similar to the first, except with more Cenobites, more kills/gore, and less love story. It's a direct continuation of the story in the first movie, and they are so similar in style that they could likely be watched back to back without noticing much of a shift in tone. In my opinion, the core story of Hellraiser is contained within movies 1 & 2...all of the subsequent movies go on to explain other tertiary aspects of the Lament Configuration/Cenobites, and some of them do tie in somewhat, but the core story is in the first two films. Thankfully, they're also the best two!

This is more of an "aftermath" of movies 1 & 2. It is definitely a Hellraiser film, but the plot is a bit more caustic than the first two films. I felt that it lacked focus and they threw in some plot elements to change things up a little, but there were a lot of plot points that I found myself confused as to why they even happens. There's just a lot of small holes like that throughout the movie, so while it is still enjoyable, I was constantly nagged by random plot elements that didn't seem to make any sense. Still worth a watch though, great effects in this one also!

This movie...really tries, I'll give it that! Yes, "Hellraiser in Space" could be a name for this one, or "Pinhead X" (a nod to "Jason X", the Friday the 13th movie where Jason ends up in space). It does actually remind me a lot of Jason X, just with a lot more exposition and slightly less hilariously ridiculous moments.

About 25% of the movie takes place in France in 1796, 25% takes place in New York City in 1996, and 50% takes place in 2127 in space. (Yes, you just read that sentence correctly.) The present is 2127, and the main character (a descendant of the man who originally built the Lament Configuration) re-tells the story of his ancestors (who lived in 1796 and 1996)...so those scenes are technically flashbacks...but they're so long that they might as well have just told the story in chronological order.

That's what I think holds this movie back, constantly moving between time periods kind of throws off the rhythm of the film, and while they definitely were trying to tie this one in as well, it ends up coming off as kind of silly and a bit confusing.

I actually wish they had made this one ALL in 1796. I liked those scenes the most, and they still could've explained everything they wanted to about the origins of the Lament Configuration without needing to jump around to different time periods...it would've helped maintain the gothic feel of the originals, and we wouldn't have ended up with Pinhead in space...which was mostly just an unnecessary plot device. I would've been more okay, if we had to be in space, with maybe 75% 18th century France and 25% space, or something like that...but splitting it all up and focusing on the space part for almost half the film was the wrong call, I think.

Long story short: I have mixed feelings on it, but it's got fairly good effects and parts of it are enjoyable...and it's at least a Hellraiser movie through-and-through (despite some of the direct-to-video entries in the series coming up later in this list...)

This is one of the direct-to-video entries that started as a non-Hellraiser movie and was then converted into one later, so one must remember that going into this one. That being said, I think this was one of the more successful D2V entries, as they used Pinhead in an appropriate fashion here. They didn't rush him out to screen, and they let the story build up some. I also appreciate the lead actress from the first Hellraiser film playing a central role in this movie, which at least shows that they really tried to tie it into the story here. It's nice to get some continuation to the story, and while some people don't like all the "fake outs" in this one due to the main character's "brain damage", I thought it was overall an enjoyable psychological thriller that features Pinhead and Kirsty. It's definitely not "gothic horror" like the first 3-4 movies were, but this entry still feels like it fits.

Another direct-to-video entry, but at least this one backs off the constant fake-outs of the previous few D2V films. Yes, one might argue that the plot is kind of one giant fake-out (as it gets a little weird at the end of the movie), but the plot plays out just how it seems: a teenage-centric horror thriller movie.

The plot is more straightforward than the unnecessarily convoluted previous few movies, and while the acting here is notably less good than in "Deader" and "Hellseeker", the more accessible plot saves it. There are also more frequent and interesting kills than in most of the other D2V Hellraiser movies, as well...they at least devoted some of the budget to effects in this one, and the Cenobites actually even get more screen time than they have been.

It gets major points off for kind of making gamers look like addicted idiots, and it actually messes up some key Hellraiser facts...such as the NAME OF THE BOX. They actually mispronounce the name of the box in one scene, which just made me cringe. At least get the facts of the Hellraiser mythos correct if you're going to use it!

This one is also influenced by the Scream-led trend of self-aware horror movies that break the fourth wall for the sake of irony, so if you hate that kind of thing, this one might not be for you. All that being said: It's decent and re-watchable...neither the best nor the worst direct-to-video entry.

I do feel that the not-originally-Hellraiser D2V movies actually get slightly better as they go along. The first one ("Inferno") was horrendous in my opinion, though I've read that some people think it's one of the better ones? I couldn't stand the lead actor, which ruined the whole movie for me. "Hellseeker" was a bit better...I felt like it was a little more related to the Hellraiser series, versus "Inferno" which literally felt like it didn't belong in the series at all.

And now we have "Deader"...it employs the same "psychological fakeout" devices as the previous two movies, but they do attempt to tie it into the Hellraiser mythos better than H5 or H6 do. That being said, I spent a good portion of the movie trying to figure out what was a hallucination and what was actually occurring, and they fudge a lot of the rules regarding the Cenobites and the Lament Configuration. However, I feel like giving a shot at tying into the mythos and making up a few rules is a little better than barely addressing it at all, in my opinion.

It also helps that I thought the main actress in this film was very good. She carries a lot of the movie with her good acting, and it makes the confusing plot a little easier to bear. This is more of an attempt to Hellraiser-fy a generic horror movie than the previous two attempts, so I'll give it some credit for that, I suppose...

Okay, so the plot isn't so bad in this one, and it was actually written to be a Hellraiser movie from the start...so it gets points for that! The bad part is that it was only made to retain the licensing rights to the series, and thus was given a VERY low budget and little time to shoot. Because of the rush job, the series-long Pinhead actor Doug Bradley refused to participate, meaning that there's actually a different actor portraying the role in this one. That diminishes greatly from the quality, but the story itself is actually Hellraiser-esque, and the acting is not terrible. I wouldn't say this is the best direct-to-video Hellraiser by any stretch, but also not the worst...assuming you can get over the presence of a different actor playing Pinhead.

Bad bad bad, I HATED this one. It relies solely on the "did this really happen or not" scenes, and the main characters inner monologue destroys the movie for me. It makes it into a badly acted "crime noire" movie, so far from the Hellraiser brand that it's not even amusing. Hellraiser has never been any sort of "crime drama" at all, and making one and just inserting Pinhead unnecessarily into it doesn't make it a Hellraiser movie in my mind. This is one of the worst attempts they made at converted a non-Hellraiser script into a Hellraiser film in my opinion, given that Pinhead and the Cenobites could literally not be in the film at all and you probably wouldn't even notice as they have so very little to do with the plot. They don't make any attempt at all to tie it into any other movie, either. It's worth watching once to say you've seen it, but I'll probably never touch this one again...