|
 Police
detective Joseph Thorne (Craig Scheffer) is all about three things:
Games, himself, and 'finding his man', in that order. From the first
frame of Hellraiser: Inferno, we see him staring right into
our eyes, self-assured, handsome, clean-cut, vain and, above all,
smug. Joseph Thorne has his game together, and we first see him
engaged in a rapid-fire speed-chess duel (for cash, to sweeten the
deal) while his victorious after-duty basketball team pounds the
court in the background. Thorne is a minor master of sleight-of-hand
'magic,' makes wads of bills or vials of drugs 'appear' or 'disappear'
for his own amusement and conceit, and confounds his colleagues
with his innate mastery of synonyms and palindromes.
Within
fifteen minutes, we see this pillar of law enforcement snorting
cocaine as he preens before a mirror (donning his badge and holstering
his gun before examining a crime scene), bitching that his team
didn't win by more points, lifting cash, drugs and a disturbing
occultic puzzle-box---the infamous Lament Configuration--- from
the crime-scene evidence for his own use/perusal, and cooing soothing
lies to his wife and young daughter just before he cruises for hookers,
all the while explaining to the audience via monologue: "I believe
in fidelity, I understand the concept?most men just leave; If doing
this keeps me coming back [to my wife], then who's to say what's
right and what's wrong?"
In
fact, pretty much the only thing that keeps him from being an utter,
loathsome, smarmy immoral insect in the eyes of the audience is
the determination and sincere horror in his face and voice when,
upon examining a murder-scene's evidence, he comes across an inexplicable
severed child's finger and resolves then and there to save the child:
In the face of his numerous vain, petty evils, Joseph Thorne truly
wants to do the right thing for once for this unknown, butchered
innocent, wherever he/she may be. He begins to investigate and finally
obsess about a shadowy figure known to various street-level criminals
only as 'The Engineer,' the mention of whose name always comes with
a shadowy caveat: "Hunt for The Engineer, and The Engineer will
hunt YOU." Thus begins a surreal, violent (mostly stylized violence)
and above all disturbing downward spiral into a very personal Hell;
no big surprise so far, as nobody ever expected a movie called Hellraiser
to have a happy ending. Inferno, despite its quirks of stance and
length, is the most subtle, intelligent, and spiritually cautionary
of the Hellraiser series of movies.
The
aspects that differentiate Inferno from the previous four Hellraiser
films are precisely what elevate it from the status of standard
splatterpunk flick to higher-ground horror film. First, most of
the 'blood' in this horror movie is just that---'blood,' disconnected
from its visceral causality, and relatively limited besides; mostly,
you're shown someone's reaction to a work of bloodshed (and that's
bad enough). There is one pretty unnerving scene of demons or 'cenobites'
briefly rooting around under human skin as though groping under
a vest, and another killing that shows a victim's flayed back, but
for the most part, the 'violence' in the film is disturbingly implied
(red goo seeping from under a locked door, wet sounds over the phone,
etc.); second, the arbiter-of-Hell 'Pinhead' character (Doug Bradley)---framed
as glorified antihero in previous Hellraiser movies a la Freddy
Krueger or Jason Vorhees---only has about ten total minutes of film
time here, and it's a very fair, spiritually meaty ten minutes;
while Inferno never comes out and claims a Christian stance, it
sure as Hell makes some solid points about one human's attempt to
'save' himself by him own means---as Thorne's obsession with the
case, as his obsession with all 'games,' grows (a key point in Clive
Barker's Hellraiser cosmology is that of damnation-by-obsession),
every person, value and memory Thorne holds dear becomes a casualty:
It's a progression of some beautifully subtle and creepy moments
and details (none of which I want to ruin here, except to say that
they're some of the best moments of tweak and despair since Jacob's
Ladder, interspersed with some unfortunate standard-Hollywood schlock)
that ultimately lead our handsome-and-preening protogonist to stagger---now
disheveled, sweaty, bruised, terrified and clutching a shotgun like
Linus Van Pelt's security blanket---down the dim, freezing corridors
of Hell on Earth.
Hellraiser:
Inferno's core flaw may be its own indecisiveness as to which
side of the line it wants to be on: For every absolutely flawless,
no-compromise cinematographic gem (watch for the brief scene of
Thorne tenderly laying his cheek against that of his sleeping daughter,
the distrusting glances and tones of Thorne's partner---NYPD Blue's
Nicholas Turtorro in an uncharacteristically constrained role---or
the smirking/subtle wardrobe alteration to one sympathetic character
later in the film), there is one seeming shameless concession to
Hollywood to balance it out for 'the masses' (note the pointlessly
ludicrous and mercifully brief martial-arts sequence): Still, Inferno
clearly had a different kind of passion behind it than previous
Hellraiser efforts, and still has the most hackle-raising, spiritually
horrifying ending the franchise has yet produced, Joseph Thorne
still looking directly at us, as he did at the beginning---but with
an entirely different set of thoughts behind his eyes; oh, yes.
It's a shame, really; Inferno is, in some ways, too smart, sensitive
and spiritual for the audience it's broadly aimed at, and in many
ways too hard-core and powerful for the audience that would, in
the safe light of day, argue many of its uncomfortable points about
obsession, morality, 'goodness,' and---let's just say it, shall
we?---damnation. With a few key cuts (one or two 'red' scenes, and
some general profanity), Inferno would be an ideal, high-caliber,
weapons-grade substitute to most of those milquetoast Rapture-scare
films many churchgoers saw in the basement of their local parish
on Thursday night; sometimes, the best way to put the desire for
Heaven into someone truly is to simply scare the Hell out of them.
---Chris Hudak
|
|
THE
WAR BETWEEN THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT
Adapted from Holman's Bible Dictionary
Two
important terms are often contrasted with one another in referring
to human existence. Bible readers often suppose that any mention
of the word ?flesh? is automatically in contrast with the concept
of ?spirit? and is, therefore, intrinsically evil. However, the
early appearances of the word ?flesh? in the Bible contrasts with
spirit only in the sense that the flesh is material substance, while
the spirit is immaterial substance.
Hence,
we are told in Mark 14:38 that ?the spirit is willing but the flesh
is weak.? Thus, we are introduced to the fact that many of the temptations
to which the human family is subject are those that relate to the
flesh. We are, therefore, instructed not to fulfill ?the lust of
the flesh? (1 John 2:16). We are warned, in fact, that ?the flesh
lusts against the Spirit? (Gal. 5:17).
The
New Revised Standard Translation of Galatians 5:16-17 reads:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will
not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these
are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things
that you please.
The
Message Translation of the same passage reads:
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated
and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions
of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us
that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible
with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that
you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according
to how you feel on any given day.
|
