Things keep getting worse for Hope, a teenager in 15^th century Sweden. Her dad’s a right proper bastard of a nobleman, and he’s forbidding her to leave his castle grounds, much less see her boyfriend. The locals are generally OK with him, as long as he keeps winning battles against whatever heathens are in the area.

Well, Dad goes a bit too far with his “recruiting techniques”, and soon enough, there’s an uprising. Dad pulls an ace out of his sleeve – he’s actually Lucifer himself! He makes his escape – but then the mob turns on Hope. She has to be an accomplice, and must be burned at the stake for her witchcraft!

Before she can die, two flying “things” come and take her away, bringing her to Hell. Dad / Lucifer will let her live, but she must worship him. Well, Hope isn’t having that – especially since Dad has the souls of her boyfriend and mother as prisoners. She winds up being banished to the farthest reaches of Hell (apparently, Dad can’t bring himself to kill her / let her die) – where she sets about plotting her revenge.

So much for the “origin story” of one of the anti-heroes that cropped up in the comic books in the 90s. This Lady Death is not the skeleton from Marvel Comics; here she’s a very voluptuous ghost-like person. White (and not just pale) skin, long flowing white hair, and white eyes. And a tendency to wear very skimpy black outfits. That puzzles me – she was born and raised in the Late Medieval / Early Modern era, in a culture and environment where fully covered bodies and full length clothing was normal. Suddenly she’s wearing modern fetish gear?

By the way, what’s the deal with solid-colored eyes, like those of Little Orphan Annie? Is it just lazy artists who can’t be bothered to draw irises and pupils? And don’t get me started on glowing eyes – you’d be BLIND if your eyes gave off light*.

Though made in 2004, and based on a character form 1994, the movie looks more like it’s from 1984 – the days of “Heavy Metal”. “Hell” is a bleak and barren landscape done in shades of gray, the denizens are all twisted and deformed humanoids, there’s almost nothing with any color. It could easily pass for a land going through a Nuclear Winter.

And in keeping with the spirit of the comics, there’s a LOT of blood. Not much gore, though, which is a bit surprising. Guess they had something of a limit.

Be that as it may, there’s really nothing more to this than the basic origin story. No romantic subplot, nothing about how she manages to raise an army, not even much talk about the whole setup in “Hell”. Is it more than just Lucifer and his domain? What happens when you “die” there? What the heck does Lucifer do other than sit on his throne and argue with his one minion?

I understand that financial problems with the original publisher led to production delays, as the rights to the character got tossed around. Perhaps with a bit more stability, the movie could have been given a bit more in the way of story development

There’s some good potential with the character, as can be easily seen from the ongoing comic books. Perhaps someday, someone will have another go at it. But until then, this is a B-tier character in a C-tier movie.

* For those who are going to point out how some animals appear to have “glowing” eyes under certain dark conditions, what you’re seeing there is light reflected off a membrane in their eyes. It’s called the “Red Eye Effect”. No glowing involved.