The original Hellraiser much like Texas Chainsaw Massacre is widely regarded as a classic horror movie in many circles. The sequel is a puzzling attempt at a sequel.
Kirsty Cotton has been through a traumatic series of events recently. She just found out that her step-mother, Julia, was cheating with her uncle, who everyone thought was long dead, but came back to life thanks to a demonic puzzle box. Then she watched as who she thought was her father is revealed as her aforementioned uncle wearing her father’s skin was ripped to pieces after she made a deal with a bunch of hellspawn, the Cenobites, to take her uncle to hell for killing her father. Now she wakes up in a psychiatric institute, and naturally, no one believes her story. That is until she tells Dr. Channard what has happened to her. He seems to have a strange interest in everything she has said. Not because he wants to help her, but because he wants to use her knowledge for his own personal and sadistic gain.
Dr. Channard has many patients some of whom are so far gone he feels they will easily help him with his sick fantasies of power. Dr. Channard leads one patient into his home office where he allows the patient to slash himself with a straight razor leading to his own torture. He lays down on the same blood-soiled mattress that Julia was murdered by the Cenobites on. Julia’s body, stripped of skin and drenched in blood appears and puts the poor man out of his misery, only to bring her back to life. For her, and for the Doctor, the puzzle pieces are all starting to fall into place.
Clive Barker movies all have the same weird, artsy feel to them. You can tell as a director that he wants to say as much with the way his movies are directed as they do with what is actually said during them. Hellraiser II is 80s high-brow horror at its best/worst. The original did so well and basically created a genre of horror movies that still thrives today as torture horror. Sadly though, the rest of the film is just fuel to the fire and doesn’t really go anywhere. They attempt to make something out of the history of Pinhead but the bulk of his story was never shot leaving the viewer wanting more of his history teased than actually shown. The good doctor’s Cenobite transformation was gruesome and disgusting, but when he is revealed at the end, it’s not the least bit scary or even unsettling.
I know that a lot of people really enjoy the Hellraiser series, and after the first one, I thought that might be me too. However, I’m just not sure this movie is for me. It’s okay, I guess. I just wanted more from it. I’ve seen that the third one does actually go into more detail on Pinhead, but that will have to wait for another year.
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