Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
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Movie Reviews of Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
Movie Review: The best of the bunch
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a big fan of the Hellraiser series, so my opinion is bias! Hellbound is the only movie I ever went to see in a Theater more than once. I was hooked on Pinhead and the Cenobites immediately after seeing Hellraiser, and Hellbound clinched it for me, I became a loyal fan. Hellraiser is my Star wars! Loyal fans of Star wars can really talk about it, philosophically, technically and are militant about it. Any person who is a fan of SW will sit a put the movies in order of greatness and tell you why, in extreme detail! I'm like that with Hellraiser and I would put Hellbound slightly above the original. The first movie was a great horror movie, no doubt, but what grabs me about hellbound was the exploration of who the Cenobites were and the place they come from. The movie's explanation of what Hell would be like; a tailor made nightmare that you never wake up from. Yet, they show that the darkest of evil can have a soul, even if it is buried and just about forgotten. You have the same cast of Cenobites from the first movie and I must say that I like the female Cenobite and missed her in the movies that followed Hellbound. The female Cenobite seemed to have as much dialog as Pinhead, and I felt was just as enjoyable. She seemed to be almost an equal to Pinhead and yet has dissapered from the rest of the movies. We are introduced to Kenneth Cranham's character, Dr. Philip Channard, and evil surgeon who's curiosity of the occult had taken him down a dark and sinister path. His performance was brilliant and I was sorry that he was destroyed and would have loved to have seen him stay on as a continuing character. Cranham's performance was one of the best, right along with Bradley's. His character was believable and you felt his evil, right down to your bones. Like the first movie, and the really bad one that came after this one, most of the actors were poor, especially Ashley Laurence! God she is the worst! Everything from her weird facial expressions to the lifeless delivery of her lines, she is bad! Maybe if she was hot it would be tolerable but... Thankfully her performance doesn't take the movie down! Imogen Boorman's deaf girl character is worth mentioning. I thought she did a decent job portraying the deaf girl and it was essential that her character was in the movie, not for what she ends up doing, but to really show how evil Channard was. When he realizes that she is a prodigal problem solver (puzzles) and could help him in his quest, he snatches her, kills her mother (it's implied) and basically keeps her around for one thing, just in case it comes around, to solve the puzzle box. That's how cold and evil he was, and that's another endearing quality of this movie and something that the others have lacked. Hellbound would be top 2 to any Hellraiser fan, but I feel it is number 1, slightly edging Hellraiser. Also, when it comes to the horror genre you can't go wrong with this movie! In fact, you don't even need to see the first one; they reference all the key parts. So you can have a full understanding of what is going on. As far as horror sequels go, it is head and shoulders above any of the other series sequels, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween... This movie is a keeper and I highly recommend it!Movie Review: Pinhead and Co. Return..."This Is What You Wanted"...4.5 stars
Summary: 5 Stars
HELLRAISER is one of the greatest horror films to grace the screen, thanks to the presence of its director, Clive Barker, who also wrote the story it was based on, The Hellbound Heart. Thanks to its success, it established its evil nemesis, Pinhead, as a cult favorite. He along with his cohorts, the Cenobites, established themselves as the ultimate terror. You don't want to cross paths with these creeps.
HELLBOUND picks up where the last HELLRAISER left off, as Kirsty (once again the pretty Ashley Laurence) awakens in a mental hospital, where a detective explains that her boyfriend has been sent home, but that he has more questions for her about what went on in "daddy's house". However, Kirsty has little idea that her therapist, Dr. Channard (played on-the-mark by Kenneth Cranham), is about to unlock the gateway once again due to his unnerving obsession with the history of the puzzle box, and of the story that Kirsty has told him. He decides to try something, as he puts a patient on a bed with chains with a nasty blood stain (from the first movie, it was Julia's) and, to his shock, a rather skinless Julia (the delicious Claire Higgins) emerges and sucks the life out of the patient. She explains herself to some degree, and Dr. Channard agrees to help her (you will see the similarities between what happened with Frank in the first movie and with Julia in this one, but they end to a certain point). One of the patients in the hospital, a mute, is given a puzzle box and she unknowingly unlocks the gateway to hell, and so emerge the Cenobites with their fearless leader Pinhead (Doug Bradley, nuff said!). But Pinhead says they were not summoned by hands, but by desire, and so now they're after Dr. Channard. Julia is brought to life after a series of murders by her resurrect her back to normal human state. After such, she tricks Dr. Channard, who ultimately becomes a force to be reckoned with in hell. He becomes a Cenobite, but wants to run things his way, so he tries to massacre the Cenobites (yes, that includes you Pinhead) and briefly takes over things after the diabolical Julia devised a plan that, well, backfired on her. It's up to Kirsty to help her and the mute, Tiffany (played cleverly by Imogen Boorman) escape the clutches of the evil Dr. Channard. Once again, the ending leaves the door wide open for the next chapter of HELLRAISER, titled HELL ON EARTH. After Julia is finally rid of, and Channard and cohorts are sent back to hell, someone else is going to find the puzzle box...and ultimately become the next hapless sap to open the gateway.
This sequel almost nearly matches its predecessor, and is one of the most satisfying sequels in recent years, although I've yet to see how SAW II matches its predecessor. But if you love Pinhead and think the first HELLRAISER was good stuff, you're 'bound' to love this sick, twisted, and more gory second entry.
Movie Review: Surpasses the Original
Summary: 5 Stars
Kirstie Cotton is sent to a mental institution following the horrifing events that happend to her family in the first Hellraiser,and is still moring over the death of her father and has halutionations of his skinned corps, and has told the authorities about the horror story of her father and perverse step-mothers deaths but no one beleives her but the head doctor of the institution named Dr.Channard, a evil doctor who has been looking for another dimension and useses Kirsties story of Julia blood soaked matress to good use. Dr.Channard useses one of his mental patients to carve-off fleash-esting maggots of his body with a shaving-razor as blood spreads al-over the matress Julia died on, having her reserected and contenues feeding his patients to Julia so she can take him through the Cenobites diminion, as they use a mute patent named Tiffany, to solve the puzzle-box to open the gate to hell, and works as planed and is used as bait by Julia to be the latest updated cenobite munch powerful and deadlier than Pinhead,(and is revealed that pinhead had a human past)and starts to kill-off his mental patients one-by-one while doing surgical procedures with his supernatuaral matrix ability, and its up to kirstie and Tiffany to end the bloodbath. HellBound:Hellraiser 2 will knock you of the edge of your seat and is not for the weak of the sromach for the non-stop blood and gore and deffenitly surpasses the original and is practicaly the best in the whole entirs series, I also recommend you see
Hellraiser III:Hell on Earth it is just about the same as the first two films but has a diferent feel to it,and picks up where Hellraiser 2 left off with Pinhead being traped in a stashu and also Hellraiser: Bloodline and Hellraiser: Inferno. Parts 4&5 do not match up with first three films but still a have good plotlines to them, Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker will be released this October and will pick up where Hellraiser to left off.
Hellbound:Hellraiser II is one of my favorite horror films of alltime and to me the best in genera and the only sequel to surpass its original like films like: Scream 2, I Still Know what you did Last Summer e.t.c. and is the best in the whole entire Hellraiser series because of lots of gore,blood,mutilation e.t.c. like something out of a X-rated film, I recommed "Hellbound:Hellraiser II"
Movie Review: Not So Unrated
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok hear is the good stuff: This is without a doubt the best sequel of the seven sequels that came after the 1st movie. It is way ahead of its time on many levels. It is scary in a very elegant way that rivals The Exorcist & Rosemary's Baby. It takes the sadomasochist under-plot to a level so extreme that you may walk away from this movie finding pain pleasing in a sexual way. WHY? Because this movie brings out the repressed sadomasochist that lives in all of our minds.
Now the bad stuff: This DVD says that it's UNRATED well that is only half-true. Although this DVD has some extra minuets of deleted footage it dose not even come close to the original cut of the film. When the film was submitted to the MPAA, it received an X rating. To achieve R rating statuses over 18 minuets were cut from the movie. There were 3 main elements that were cut from the film & still not included on the Unrated DVD. The first is a much longer version of the "GET THEM OFF ME" man that included four flashbacks to what got him sent to the hospital. The next is a back-story about Kristy's mom with flashbacks to her funeral & a scene where she is going through some old photos of her mother & then the pictures begin to cry blood that turns into cockroaches as it hits the floor. The main bulk of the 18 new minuets are centered around a sub-plot that shows Tiffany & how she came to be at the hospital as well as how her mother became the person who is getting her brain drilled into during the "The Mind is a Labyrinth" scene. Along with these deleted moments in the Tiffany, back-story is a scene explaining why she is so afraid of clowns. This is a graphic scene of Tiffany being raped by a clown. However, the most well known deleted scene is the famous "Surgeon" scene. There have been many roomers that the scene was never completed & is missing a good deal of "cleanup editing". I must tell all of you that this scene is more than complete & when shown on the "UK import X rated cut DVD" this scene has far better picture & sound quality than any other moment on the DVD.
The bottom line: This cut of the film may be far from its original form but that doesn't keep it from being a good Hellraiser movie!
Movie Review: Darker and Bloodier Sequel works
Summary: 5 Stars
Hellbound is a gothic, bloody, gory, gloomy film that might be more Hellraiser than Hellraiser. If that makes sense.Though not directed by Clive Barker, it has his input, and the makers of this film made this a real horror sequel, continuing the story of Kirsty and family and coloring in the Cenobites further. We even get a little bit of insight into the origins of Pinhead which will be further explored in Hellraiser 3.
Is this film incoherent at times? Yes. Is the plot addled? Yes. Is there A LOT of gore including head drilling, skinning, maggots, decapitation, throat slashing, and brain sucking? Yes. But if you're looking for more gloom and gothic atmosphere a la the original Hellraiser, then you'll enjoy this.
Hellbound is darker and has a more cynical tone than original film. Here we find the outre Dr. Channard heading up his own psychiatric institute where Kirsty Cotton has been brought following the events of the night in the original Hellraiser. As shes goes on and on about boxes and demons and her father in Hell the hospital medicates her. But it turns out not only does Channard believe her, but he's been waiting for this his whole life. He's a closet Hellraiser fanatic, so to speak, owning 3(!) boxes, having studied the mind as a labyrinth, and searched for the pleasure the Cenobites offer.
It's not long before the Cenobites are summoned and Kirsty, Channard, and a newly resurrected Julia from the original are running around Hell's garish-set hallways. All 4 Cenobites are back again, though a different actress plays the slashed-throat female, giving her a decidedly different expression. Pinhead gets more screen time (of course) and we even get his origin, making him more than a boogeyman.
Just remember, this is a gory film, even by today's horror film standards. A lot of skinned bodies, a lot of hooks in flesh. A long and extended scene of a fan slashing himself slowly to death. But it all serves some twisted material which will definitely help you get in touch with your dark side.
Highly recommended for horror fans.