The Hellraiser Chronicles: A Question of Faith

The Hellraiser Chronicles: A Question of Faith (2005)

*** (out of 4)

A Priest returns to the home where a couple of his friends were brutally murdered years earlier. It turns out that a defrocked Priest was turned into a Cenobite and unleashed a form of Hell.

I had never heard of this short film until I watched it on the Arrow HELLRAISER collection. It apparently had a very large following and it led to several other shorts being made. I'm not going to sit here and call this a masterpiece or a great film but at the same time it's certainly much better than you'd expect a fan film to be. The direction was extremely good throughout the picture and I give everyone credit for trying to do something different than just some sort of take on Pinhead.

The production values were obviously cheap since they were working on a small budget but for the most part I thought the film looked good and it certainly had a professional look to it. The gore effects were put to good use and I'd argue that they were quite effective as well. I won't spoil where the story goes but for the most part it was good, although at times I wasn't as connected to it as one would have hoped.

I wasn't a big Hellraiser Fan until I saw this short. It had me hooked from the off. I have since hired the first three films and have been really entertained by them all. Rob Leetham and Adrian Palmer battle it out rather convincingly in this great short and it's was quite nice to see a relatively well known theatre face like Benjamin Humphrey playing a nasty piece of work. The whole thing actually made me feel rather nostalgic at times with the low budget effects which made the viewing even more enjoyable. All in all a brilliant short which I can highly recommend to people who have never seen the Hellraiser series or the hardcore fans.

A priest returns to the scene of a hellish slaughter that took place years ago and involved his friends with the intention of confronting a defrocked priest now turned Cenobite and freeing him from his hell-bound existence.

That's the story in a nutshell and it has to be said that against the odds and with obvious budgetary restrictions, R.N.Millward and crew turn in a surprisingly effective entry into the Hellraiser canon. The film boasts an intelligent script, solid central performances, effective make-up effects, and at no point does the film succumb to the temptation of substituting clever story-telling for excess gore, as so many other low-budget filmmakers have a tendency to do. Director Millward directs with a kinetic energy, the camera roves and moves and is never static or uninteresting. There is a firm grasp here by R.N.Millward of how to direct cleverly and to keep the story moving along at a healthy pace. Thes filmmakers have learnt the most important lesson of all; it's not enough to simply enjoy making a movie - but you also have to keep the audience entertained! After all, it's the audience who are going to decide whether you sink or swim.

All-in-all I found this a very satisfying piece of work and hopefully someone will give these guys a decent budget and let them deliver what their current budgets disallow. I sincerely hope that R.N.Millward will forge notable career in film-making and I eagerly anticipate any future offerings from this obviously talented director, who has a sharp eye for detail and a keen sense of what works and what doesn't. Millward has honed his craft well - and it shows.