Reviews

Challengers

By BGM

Score: 2

Reviewed by Vampi Digitalwytch

Crossovers are generally a risky thing overall. When it comes to two as divergent as Hellraiser and Star Trek, the writer is walking a thin line indeed. As an afficianado of both, I am fortunate to know a goodly bit about both. To begin with, I did appreciate the writer's choice of using Deep Space Nine as Andrew Robinson portrayed Garak on the show, as well as Rory in Hellraiser. Definitely a nice touch there. However, the usual flaws with crossovers were quite apparent from the opening paragraph. One has to take into account that fans of one genre might not be familiar with aspects of the other. Cardassians aren't as well entrenched as Vulcans per se in popular culture. Some clarification that it was Dr. Julian Bashir was with the box in the beginning would've helped rather than refer to him as 'he'. I did enjoy the tweak of the Cenobites having influenced the Obsidian Order in the past to have made them the dreaded secret police they were portrayed in the show. It makes you feel for those they oppressed. It would've been nice to have seen Julian opening the box with the futuristic sickbay becoming darker and more ominous, as well as seeing what reaction, if any from the other officers who would be on duty. As it stands, the jump from Garak making his decision to Julian wondering what's going on is quite choppy in my opinon. The handling of the Cenobites interacting with Julian were well done, showing the simultaneous allure and revulsion the Cenobites hold. Pinhead's dialog felt a bit off, not quite carrying their distinctive powerful resonance, but I will admit, he's a hard one to write. I was a bit dissappointed once they were all in Hell. Here the story started to resemble some of the poor slashfic that abounds in a large quantity of Trek fanfic. The ending wasn't too bad, hinting at the dark pleasures and pain to come, along with Frank's long awaited transendance of the flesh. Overall, I have to rate this a 2 on a scale of 5. The potential is there, but the author didn't quite pull it off as well as they could.

Dear Diary

By Billy Holiday

Score: 4

Reviewed by Vampi Digitalwytch

I do have to say, this was a very fascinating story. Not many fanfictions I've seen delve into obsessive fandom. Probably because they to strike a little close to home in a way as those of us who do have the drive to write forays into fanfic are a bit more 'intent' than most. The author did a very good job of capturing a teenager's diary feel, and the gaps that happen when life gets in the way of writing entries, along with the descent into where fantasy and reality blur. I rate this one a 4 out of 5 as this really was quite captivating and in a way can be seen as a warning when one loses ones self into that dark area of obsessive madness.

Helloween

By Thac

Score: N/A

Reviewed by Winter

Wow. I really enjoyed this story. I found myself wishing for a sequel when it ended. (hint, hint!) You have a real talent for description, as well as an obvious grasp of the Hellraiser movies and mythos. Your original Cenobites rang true, and I could easily picture them in my mind's eye. Speaking as a fellow scribe, I think that creating worlds with your words is the best part of writing. To create worlds that readers believe in while they're immersed in them is really something special, and you've done that. I love the way you combined HR and Halloween. The relentless, passionless evil of Michael and Loomis's obsessive character feel as if they were created to inhabit the Hellraiser universe. On a personal note, I think the Halloween series has long since overstayed it's welcome. So to see Michael finally meet his match made me want to stand up and cheer! He may be a powerful force of evil in his own right, but he's merely, as you pointed out, a chaotic childish mind to the most powerful of the Cenobites. If they scrapped the next planned sequel (and you just know there's going to be one...*groan*) and made your story into a movie instead, I'd be first in line with popcorn in hand! I loved your original human characters as well, they didn't suffer the fatal flaw of being merely "fodder". They had depth and I got the feeling that they had lives beyond their current, hellish (pun fully intended!) situation. Your portrayal of the deals and double crosses, the politics of "hell", were delicious. People will promise, and attempt to deliver, almost anything to escape the Cenobites, but they assume they will play fair...and that's usually a very dangerous assumtion. Your fight scenes were great, and once again, I could imagine them up on the silver screen. Tommy was no superheroic character...just a regular guy, but one who had good reason to fight hard. I was glad to see him escape! I wonder if there will be consequenses for that? (*cough*sequel*cough*please*cough*) Thanks for a great read! :)

Hellraiser: Banishment

By Mark Adams

Score: 4

Reviewed by JH

Well, I must positively to say this story did grip me. It was like reading a Lovecraft Tale. There was no immediate terror, but plenty of good old fashioned horror as the story built up to it's conclusion. Lovecraft tales also usually involve some kind of situation in the past tense, or from a thirdperson's observation, and there were elements of that here. The expansion of the Hellraiser Mythology was pretty incredible. Like I've said with the previous Hellraiser, this tale is one of those tales that revolves around Damnation, eternal horror. That in itself presents all sorts of dread and horrible contemplation to the reader. The story expands on the war between Behemoth and Leviathan. Strangely, it explains the origins of Lucifer, too. There's a lot of religious symbolism going on, which is fascinating. I liked the mystery involved as the stranger reads the ancient texts discovered by the somewhat egotistical academic lead character. There were no monsters present, no chases, etc. The story revolves around the translating of the texts, but the story translated is too cool. The foreboding feeling at the end makes you scream for more. That may be one of two difficulties with this story. It ends shortly after the translation, leaving you wondering. How will the story play out? There's a hint of things to come, and I certainly encourage Scarecrow to do a sequal to continue the adventure. Will the story pick up right after this one? Will it take place six months later? Twenty years later? I'm still on the edge of my seat! The other detail that might be a problem is that the translated story is a little difficult to follow. The readings of the history between Behemoth and Leviathan and their followers was just a little confusing since all these characters were suddenly introduced and you have to keep track of who's side they're on. Characters like Angelique, Francis, Taurann, the First Cenobite, etc Despite the difficulties, this is a fascinating further look into the Hellraiser series. Twisted, demented, and imaginative. My Score: Four Skulls

Hellraiser: Resurrection

By Mark Adams

Score: 5

Reviewed by JH

One of the types of horror stories that always freaks me out are the "Hellraiser" movies. It's one thing to watch a slasher movie, laugh, write stories, picture ourselves in the hero's shoes. I would be reluctant, however, to ever picture myself in a Hellraiser situation. Most scary stories deal with immediate terror, etc. The Hellraiser Universe deals with the visions of eternal horror. Scarecrow has expanded on this universe with his own look into "The Politics of Hell". Behemoth vs Leviathan. Two dark horrors in a civil war, with innocent souls caught in the middle. The imagery of the big showdown was fantastic!!! And the characters were very well done, especially the evil ones. I could see glimpses of humanity in the cenobites, almost pitying them as lost souls who accepted their fate. I also liked the two warring philosophies. The Cenobites dwelt on the pleasures of pain, while the cultists of Behemoth thought that fear was the ultimate power. The ending suprised me, though it was appropriately inevitable. Like I said, I could never willingly picture myself in the hero's shoes. The dread I felt reading this story is a testament to its effectiveness. It's one thing to be chased by a knife welding maniac. It's quite a new level of terror to be trapped in a dimension of pain, to be the plaything of dark eternal creatures!! If there is a sequal in the works for this, I certainly look forward to it!! It is an excellent story! I'd give it six skulls if my rating system went that far!!

The Necronomicon vs Hellraiser

By Mario Munari

Score: 1

Reviewed by Vampi Digitalwytch

There's potential here with combining two major mythos, Lovecraft's Great Old Ones and Barker's Hell considering both do rather deal with other dimensions. But sadly, I was greatly let down by this story. It appears to me that this was a rushed work as it's rife with misspellings as well as grammatical and punctuation errors. My prevalent thought while reading this was emailing the author to tell him that 'The paragraph IS our friend'. Well to be more truthful, this story reads as two incredibly long sentences made to look like two paragraphs. The pacing was just a bare breeze over much like an outline, and the characterizations were completely off base. I truly cannot see Pinhead sobbing under any circumstances by any stretch of the mind. Furthermore the point of view with the story was not consistant unless this was done as a campfire tale. As it was, I had to reread this story two times to make sure I correctly read it, and I'm still sorely tempted to submit it to God-Awful Fanfiction. Yes, this one is truly horrible enough to be there. I would've rated this a 0 on a scale of 5, but I gave it a 1 since the author did have a set of balls to submit this for public viewing.

The Way of All Flesh

By Jadenlore

Score: 3

Reviewed by Vampi Digitalwytch

As I've often said before, Crossover stories are a difficult thing to pull off well when you mix two diverse genres. I do have to smile at the author's choice of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast since this does allow for some leeway with not having to explain the Trekworld as the TNG crew are almost as well known as Captain Kirk and crew. I also enjoyed the Borg tie in as it's been long mentioned in both Hellraiser fandom as well as Trek fandom about the parallels between the Borg and the Cenobites. For those who don't know, Cenobites came first. ;) The author did a very nice job of meshing this story with the First Contact movie, and the characterizations were done quite well in my opinion. The Cenobite influence on the Borg was a very nice tweak. Overall pacing of things was a bit on the fast side, but it works well. I do have to grant that Data got a better ending than he did with Star Trek : Nemesis.I rate this one a 3 out of 5 as it is an enjoyable story but still could use a little bit more along the lines of the other crew dealing with Data's leaving with the Cenobites and such. I certainly would love to see a sequel to this one.