Reviews

I have just finished watching this and I really enjoyed it. A young demon, Veronica, defies her father and leaves hell with her dog, Hellraiser to see the world under the yellow orb with the blue roof. She discovers a world rife with sin and chooses to send those sinners to their reward in hell. Along the way she meets a young doctor in the emergency room and she moves into his flat. He finds himself drawn towards the strange girl and her innocence and certainty.

The film did have its problems - some the acting of some peripheral characters was pretty poor. On the other hand some the acting was pretty good. I liked the guys who played the two detectives on the trail of the brutal demonic killer. The guy playing doctor did a fair job too. The best thing about the film was the story with its unique take on the story of the innocent abroad in the modern world, where that innocent is an unforgiving slayer of those who commit sin.

A couple of computer scientists working with the army borrow their expensive experimental computer equipment to map out a haunted prison, that was secretly used to torture terrorists to death, so they can create an authentic environment to play a virtual reality first person shooter with their stoner buddies. Turns out the prison was haunted by the vengeful spirit of a cyber- terrorist who died there. She hacks into their game system leading to exciting adventures for our plucky band of heroes.

The atmosphere of the prison is excellent, I assume it is a prison in Northern Ireland. Rachael Taylor, playing an army private, love interest and experimental subject really stood amongst the acting performances. The others were playing such very thinly written characters that we learn almost nothing about any of them. Perhaps all the other characters were merely game characters and the whole film takes place in a virtual reality game she has been playing from the start.

The story seems very similar to other films and it really pales in comparison to some of those. The ghost was okay and I suppose the CGI gore is really to be expected in the context of the film. Some of the early action sequences really do capture the authentic feel of the first person shooter games.

I saw the cast list and that really was the main draw to this film.

I think it is definitely the script which lets this film down badly There are three plots in this film. While one sub-plot certainly did a nice job of setting up a red herring and lots of soft-core T&A, the third plot was off on its own little island with almost no connection to the events in the main plot. It only slowed the film right down and destroyed any tension being built up in the main plot. The main plot itself was not very original done but if more of the film was spent with it would definitely have been a better film to watch Many scenes appeared to have no connection to any part of the story at all. Most of the acting was competent but the male lead while pretty enough was just not very convincing. While Forsythe certainly acted better and got more screen time unfortunately this was all part of the irrelevant sub-plot. Actually both leads were boring sketches of characters and the more interesting supporting cast were all sidelined in favour of the nice, young, white couple. Perhaps this film did make more sense at one time but someone butchered it