a review of 养鬼吃人4

HOOPTOBER NINE! NIGHT TWO! Feels slightly less goofy than Hellraiser 3, mainly by virtue of being shot in the same '90s warehouse Aliens-pastiche look that pretty much every low-budget SF/horror movie was shot in. The 18th/20th century sequences look a little bit more glossy, but like a syndicated action show rather than a feature film. I can tell that there was an ambition to tell a bigger story here, and for the most part it seems like they accomplished that. But I can also tell that this movie must have gotten demolished in post because there's whole story and character elements that don't seem to pay off in any way, and scenes that feel like hasty reshoots even in the moment. Even the ending, which seems clearly telegraphed from the beginning, feels weirdly tacked on and fake. I have to assume that particular resolution was always in the script because it's clearly referenced in all three acts, but the way it's executed is so rigoddamndiculous I can't imagine that wasn't one of the things that got gutted in the final edit. Still a lot more fun than I would have thought, given the fairly dismal ratings for this stretch of the franchise.