The last movie I saw in the Hellraiser series was "Hellraiser in Space"-Hellraiser: Bloodline. I enjoyed it, mostly because I've never been too attached to the Hellraiser series anyway and the science fiction twist made it interesting. It was especially amusing to see the Cenobites confused by advanced technology (though they catch up fast).

Anyway, although Hellraiser: Bloodline was technically the end to the series, it's obvious we're now in franchise life-support territory. That said, I wasn't expecting much from Hellraiser: Inferno.

The first thing that's surprising about Inferno is that it's a movie that takes itself very seriously. This is not about gore or even physical horror. It's a film noir with a good dash of psychological horror.

Detective Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer) is a beetle-browed thug masquerading as a police officer. He sleeps with prostitutes, he snorts drugs, and he frames people who get in his way. He's also a highly effective cop in an underworld gone mad. He has been inexplicably teamed up with Tony Nenonen (Nicholas Turturro), a goody two-shoes partner who is completely clueless.

Thorne has a beautiful wife, Melanie (Noelle Evans) and daughter (Lindsay Taylor, I think). How he ended up with his wife or producing such a sweet child is a mystery. In essence, Thorne's a big jerk and everybody but Thorne knows it. And maybe the writers (Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derickson).

Eventually, Thorne meets his match in a psychopath known only as The Engineer, who cuts the fingers of a child and leaves them at the scene of various crimes. Thorne becomes obsessed with the fate of this little boy, seeing a reflection of his own family in the tortured child. He's closer to the truth than he realizes.

There are a few other characters, notably Thorne's elderly parents and a police psychologist (James Remar). But in the end, nobody can help poor Detective Thorne…not even himself. Everyone pretty much exists to be gruesomely tortured, so the characters aren't particularly well-developed.

This movie is a lot like Jacob's Ladder, down to the medical practitioner being the symbolic Good Guy. Except Hellraiser is the No Exit version. And the movie ends on a real down note.

The problem is that Thorne's descent into sin isn't really believable. He's already a sleazeball, so it's difficult to feel sympathy for him. Sheffer has such a massive forehead that it seems incapable of conveying much else besides rage and scorn. Unfortunately, the role requires a much wider range of emotions than the actor is able to provide.

The movie's entire premise hinges on a plot twist. Once you figure out the plot twist, it then drags on for another 20 minutes before revealing what we already knew. Sounds great on paper, but it doesn't make for a compelling movie.

And yet, the director (Scott Derrickson) works hard to convey the right mood. Through a lot of green lensing, we know when Thorne is in the underworld. The gore is suitably gruesome, if understated. Derrickson knows that horror is far worse in the mind than on screen and makes a point of providing a ghastly array of sounds, screams, and tortured wails just on the other sides of doors and on videotape to freak out the audience.

Pinhead (Doug Bradley) shows up briefly in a role that can only be described as judge, jury, and executioner. The DVD extras talk about how this is a new role for Pinhead, like it's an Oscar-winning turn for the fictional actor. Newsflash: It ain't.

In the end, Inferno is too long, too filled with self-loathing, and too obvious to really be a great entry in the Hellraiser series. Although it's not a jump-up-and-scream kind of film, Inferno does have its creepy moments.