Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

nHellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

nDirector: Anthony Hickox

nCast: Doug Bradley, Kevin Bernhardt, Pala Marshall, TerrynFarrell

nIn the Hellraiser universe, continuity doesn’t really matternmuch. They give you the illusion that there’s continuity because they’ll startnwith a recap of the previous film, or they’ll mention some character from thenprevious film, but believe me, it’s all an illusion. In the Hellraisernfranchise, each film exists within the universe that Clive Barker created butneach film brings its own characters in and eliminates anything established by thenprevious film. By way of an example, just when you think Hellbound: HellraiserII (1989) is going to give us a bit of continuity because it brought back thencharacter of Julia Cotton, they go and kill her off, eliminating with no amountnof respect, characters and situations established on the first film. It seemsnlike the only constant in these films are The Cenobytes and the LamentnConfiguration. Well, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) does the same; it ignoresnprevious films, avoiding any sort of continuity and presents us with annentirely new set of characters. How did this third outing in the franchise turnnout?

nThis time around, the lead Cenobyte a.k.a. ‘Pinhead’ isntrapped inside of a sculpture. How did Pinhead end up in a sculpture? Who putnhim there and why? Never mind these questions because the filmmakers nevernbother to answer them. You’re asked to accept the fact that Pinhead is ansculpture now and that’s that. It feels like the filmmakers simply said “Younknow what would look cool? Pinhead trapped in a sculpture! Let’s go with that!nI like it!” They didn’t care if this concept made sense or not, or if it fitnwith what had happened to the character on previous films, they just went withnit. Then we are presented with J.P., the owner of a New York dance club called ‘ThenBoiler Room’. J.P. also happens to be an art collector. One day, while visitingnan art gallery, J.P. stumbles upon the sculpture in which Pinhead is trapped innand buys it. Little does J.P. know that he’s bringing ole Pinhead home withnhim. Similar to previous Hellraiser films, you have to feed the demon in ordernfor it to become flesh. What happens when Pinhead is released from thensculpture?

nThe idea behind this film is that hell will come to earth. Soundsnepic and grand don’t it? This epic premise was a giant red flag for me becausenif there’s one problem I’ve always had with the Hellraiser films is that theynare big on ideas but small on budgets. As a result, even though their conceptnmight be grand, what they actually get to shoot looks cheap. Take for examplenthe premise for this film, what is ‘Hell on Earth’ reduced to in this film? Hellnon Earth translates to the main character running through a deserted citynstreet while man holes explode and fire comes out of them, a few windowsnexplode and that’s it; kind of small scale for “Hell on Earth” wouldn’t younsay? My point being there’s no grand scope to the concept even though it should’venbeen grand. You’re left wanting more, disappointed. Something all Hellraisernsequels do.

nHellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) left us without our favoritenCenobytes. For some reason the filmmakers behind that film decided to eliminateneverything that Clive Barker had established on the first Hellraiser film. Theynkilled off all the memorable Cenobytes from the first film, even Pinheadnhimself! Yet here is Pinhead, alive and kicking on this film. Why didn’t allnthe other Cenobytes return as well? I guess it was just an excuse to present usnwith a bunch of new Cenobytes, which sadly are not better then the originals. Let’snsee, we get a Cenobyte that kills with the lens of a video camera that pops outnof his right eye. There’s a cd spewing Cenobyte which feels so out dated nownthat CD’s are disappearing. Worst part is that these new Cenobytes are on thenfilm for only five minutes, they are sent back to hell in the blink of an eye…andnagain you are left wanting. It’s as if they really didn’t think of interestingnsituations to put these characters in. The main character (a reporter trying tonget to the bottom of things) gets rid of the Cenobytes so easily, that younnever feel she’s in any sort of peril. And we’re talking about 5 or sixnCenobytes with deadly weapons against one human female! It seemed like lazynfilmmaking to me, there was no intent to shoot something worthwhile. Cool makenup effects do not make a movie my friends. You need tense situations, you needncomplexities.

nIs there anything positive to say about Hellraiser III: Hellnon Earth? Well, not really. It feels like a lame-o sequel when compared to thenoriginal first film. At least the second one entertained with the ultra gorynviolence, which by the way is considerably toned down for this third entry.nThat edge, that feeling of shock, of the forbidden is gone; it’s not on thisnsequel. There are a couple of cool moments in the film, like when Pinhead walksninto a club and the Cenobytes start killing everyone in the club, but it feelsnrestrained. It feels like a wasted opportunity, that whole scene could havenbeen so much more. Okay, I did like those scenes in which Pinhead fightsnhimself. It’s like Pinhead the evil demon vs. the human side of Pinhead, who henused to be before he became a servant of hell. That concept was cool. The filmndoes get sacrilegious at times; there’s a scene in which Pinhead walks into anchurch and starts bashing down crosses and cackling away like a mad man, but sadlynthese scenes amount to nothing but having Pinhead pose. The only purpose thisnfilm serves is to show us exactly what a cash in is. It kind of makes sense that the director for this film is Anthony Hickox, during the 90’s, he was one of the go to directors for cheap horror sequels like Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992) and Warlock: The Armageddon (1993). Hellraiser: Hell on Earthn(1988) proves what I’ve been saying all along about the Hellraiser franchise, that after the first film, all Hellraisernsequels have gone from bad to worse with each consecutive film. It’s a goodnexample of a franchise being treated like a cheap whore and being bled to death.n

nRating: 2 ½ out of 5