Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
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Movie Reviews of Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
Movie Review: NOW, IT'S TIME TO PLAY !
Summary: 5 Stars
THIS IS A TRUE HORROR FILM, WAY AHEAD OF ITS TIME, THE LOOK OF THE FILM, THE EFFECTS, ITS GORE, EVERYTHING ABOUT IT FRIGHTENS.Movie Review: Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
Summary: 5 Stars
Great product and seller! Thank you so much! Fast delivery! Would do business again with you!!Movie Review: Buy this now!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Awesome sequal to one of the best Horror movies ever made!!Movie Review: A Flawed Masterpiece - Let's See a Remake
Summary: 4 Stars
Frank and Julia's forbidden love affair was the focus of Hellraiser, but the cenobites stole the show. This time around the cenobites are given a lot more screen time. Dr. Channard, a man with dark obsessions, devotes his life to researching the infernal netherworld. Kirsty becomes his latest patient at his psychiatric hospital, and after hearing of the events that took place in the first movie, Channard decides to reanimate the evil Julia. He agrees to bring her victims so she can continue regenerating, and in exchange she will be his guide in the labyrinth that is Hell.
Christopher Young's music is awesome. Loud, dramatic, and ominous - the movie's theme during the opening credits lets the viewers know what they're getting into. His music is also very significant during the scene when Tiffany solves the puzzle box. The music conveys Tiffany's childlike innocence and her sense of wonder as she handles and studies the box. The tone and speed of the music (as Tiffany manipulates the box) raises the tension to a fever pitch. Then, after a deafening silence, the movie's theme erupts as the gateway to Hell is unlocked, and the cenobites are once again freed to walk the Earth. Their spectacular entrance in this scene was even more impressive than in the first movie when they appeared after Kirsty solved the box. This scene is also when Pinhead delivers the most important line of Hellraiser II: "It is not hands that call us - it is DESIRE." But you need to hear Doug Bradley's delivery of that line for it to have any affect on you. That line may look laughable, but it is powerful and so significant because it speaks volumes about the nature of the cenobites. It seems the cenobites will not slaughter someone who solves the box UNLESS that person has a desire to see what happens when the box is solved - even if that person DOESN'T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN when the box is solved. That would explain why they wanted to torture Kirsty in the first movie. And since Tiffany wanted to solve the box simply for the sake of solving the puzzle, she was spared. She had no idea anything would happen when she solved the box. That raises questions about the nature of the game - since the cenobites obviously knew it was Channard who called them, why didn't they go after him? Or did they think it was Kirsty who called them?
Channard has no qualms at all when he has people killed, and yet he is a timid man. It is clear that he expects Julia to protect him from whatever unknown terrors are lurking in Hell. Channard ultimately finds what he is looking for - and pays a painful price. There is a cenobite battle in Hellraiser II, which was disappointing because it was so one-sided. There is a reason for this though, and in case you don't get it when you watch the movie, it's explained on the audio commentary.
The DVD has an audio commentary by Ashley Laurence, director Tony Randel and writer Peter Atkins. Their commentary was very descriptive and informative. They gently poke fun at their mistakes, and this makes the commentary more enjoyable. Lord knows there were some glaring mistakes. But did anyone besides me notice the hostility that seems to exist between Randel and Atkins? The thought of them sharing a mutual dislike of each other and grudgingly doing this commentary together gives me perverse pleasure.
I LOVED this movie up until Kirsty's reunion with Frank. From that point on this movie goes to hell (in a manner of speaking). It would have been nice if the script had dropped the dumb subplot of Kirsty looking for her father - even if that left no reason for the Kirsty character to be in this movie. It's near the end of the movie when Pinhead delivers his infamous line "Your suffering will be LEGENDARY - even in Hell." But even Pinhead's wit can't uplift the last half hour of this movie. But it was pretty funny to see the patients tearing the hospital apart - and just how did they get their hands on all those puzzle boxes? A different actress plays the Female Cenobite in Hellraiser II - she is less menacing in this movie, but is still entertaining. I was glad to see that she still had the bloodlust that was so evident in the first movie. But I would have preferred it if she didn't sound so nonchalant when she was talking, and I missed the wide-eyed stare of the actress from the first movie. The Chatterer has a different face at one point in Hellraiser II, which confused me until I heard the audio commentary. Personally, I preferred the Chatterer's original face. It was a real surprise when the Chatterer's identity was revealed. Without giving away too much, it involves a shocking scene - the murder of a child. The ending of Hellraiser II made no sense whatsoever, but I'm guessing that the filmmakers wanted to wait until the sequel to explain what's going on in Hell. And yes, as of this writing I have only seen the first two movies in the Hellraiser series.
Hellraiser II also reveals Pinhead's background. Needless to say I was disappointed - I preferred to think of the cenobites as having Lovecraftian origins. I even dreamed up a whole history and mythology for the cenobites after seeing the first movie! But I loved the look of dread and despair on Pinhead's face (right before undergoing his `surgery') toward the end of the movie - you know that if someone like him is fearing for his own safety then he must be in serious danger. How the mighty have fallen. Buy the soundtrack and this DVD so that you can properly savour the first two-thirds of this movie.
Movie Review: Why Torture Yourself?
Summary: 4 Stars
I like horror movies. Almost too much. Let's not go into the reasons why. There are too many. And some of them aren't pretty.
But I also like plots, character development, and complexity. After watching the first Hellraiser, I began to suspect that the series was created as an excuse to watch people get tortured with hooks. If you're not aware of the basic mythology, it is this: there is a box (called the Lament Configuration -- but you only know this if you've read the book) that, when it is opened, unlocks the gateway to another dimension filled with grotesque creatures called Cenobites who's only purpose is to inflict an eternity of endless suffering and pain on the person who opened the box.
I began to wonder early on why on earth anyone anywhere would ever create such a box, let alone open it. See, all of the Saw movies operate on the same basic principle -- "Let's kill a bunch of people in graphic and horrifying ways!" -- but the deaths are (at least partially) connected to a larger theme: cherish your life. The Hellraiser films are like the exact opposite. They function as visual sadomasochism, inviting you to cherish death. Or not even death, because the victims of the Cenobites never really die.
It's complicated, and I'm going somewhere with this. HELLBOUND picks up right where the first film left off. It even offers you a completely nonsensical recap at the beginning. This turns out to be unnecessary, because young Kirsty from the first film now finds herself in a mental institution, and she kindly spells out every little detail of the first film to her creepy psychiatrist, Dr. Channard. Channard, who is a closet Hellraiser junkie, is intrigued by her story and sets in motion events that will open for him the gates to the Cenobite world.
Why on earth? Why would someone do that? Is he mad? Yes, he is. But he is more than that.
When Channard finally visits the "fourth dimension" and sees it for what it is, he is horrified. Naturally. But then he begins to understand, and the nature of that world is made painfully clear. Why do I like horror movies? Why do insane psychiatrists insist on opening the gates to hell? It's really the same question.
This sequel succeeds in ways that the first could only dream of. Barker's sadomasochistic universe is lovingly realized, and captures not just the essence of Barker's twisted brain, but also the twisted essence of why horror movies exist to begin with. Whether you like a little spank with your sex, or enjoy the "burn" of an extra hard workout at the gym, or simply can't look away when you pass a particularly nasty car accident on the street, the basic point is that pain is almost never without pleasure. Pain releases endorphins, it fine tunes the mind, and Barker is fiddling with that visceral clarity that comes from watching something horrible happen to someone else. Horror movies, after all, are the result of a little sadomasochism in all of us, and HELLBOUND takes that point and expands on it until you have an entire universe built on the pleasurably painful line separating life and death.
It's not an easy movie to watch in many respects (and not just because both Ashley Laurence and Kenneth Cranham are some of the worst actors I've ever seen), but it finally answers some niggling questions and becomes more than just an excuse to watch torture. In fact, if you haven't seen the first film, I suggest you skip it and start with this one. If you like horror movies, you've got no excuse not to.