Hellraiser III

first of all, Hellraiser III isn't a BAD film. In fact, it's quite good if it would stand on its own. And it certainly is one of the more decent efforts in the overall disappointing decade of the 90's. Compared to the first two Hellraisers, however, it's a bit of a failure. Hellraiser ('87) and Hellbound ('88) were horrorfilms in the purest possible form and my two all-time favorites. There were 4 indicators in those movies that brought them close to being the definition of horror.

1. Creating a unique and utterly morbid atmosphere (through settings, music etc...)

2. Building up an unbearable tension ( the occasional twists etc..)

3. Showing nasty and very bloody sequences in a beautiful way

4. The presence of a true horror icon !! ( in this case...PINHEAD )

Hellraiser III fails to at least 3 of these points...The dark and macabre settings from Hell and the mental institution are replaced by a bar which plays horrible rock music, there's almost no tension to detect and it's a very predictable story. The gore however is still present, but the quality of it doesn't come near the originals. The Boiler Room massacre puts Clive Barker to shame, I think. The whole story know turns around the character of Pinhead. He's more than ever the star of this movie and that almost goes wrong. He talks too much and he even starts to become funny. That certainly isn't good for a horror icon. ( Look at what a joke Fred Krueger became ). Director Anthony Hickox obviously is a big fan of Pinhead and he wanted the movie to be especially about him. Every now and then Hickox tries to link this film to the original story but it clearly isn't his biggest concern. The tapes about Kirsty in the Chanard institute and the dream-sequences where Joey meets Elliot Spencer are too fake and forced. The movie does explain where Pinhead comes from but it certainly isn't stressed enough...

Hellraiser III goes very much over the top near the end and I almost lost my love towards Pinhead after the church scene ! I'm trying to forget that particular part. It really is a shame that this movie is part of the series. If this would have been a new film ( with a new demon ) it would have been an enjoyable, well-made change. But as part of a great series it fails to deliver and you're left behind with a disappointment. This movie was followed by episode 4: Bloodline and a few others after that. The fourth is a surprisingly good attempt to bring back the spirit of the original ones and should be watched directly after the first two. Everything that came after part 4 should be skipped unless you're a die-hard Pinhead fan.

With that `clever' subtitle, how could this film suck?

Enter the mistake all horror films with on screen villains make: because the heroine dies and/or moves on to other projects, the villain moves to the spotlight. This is an even more fatal blow to Hellraiser because Pinhead never was meant to be in the spotlight, have too many lines, and this series was not meant to be a slasher.

Ooh, I know, since Hellbound: Hellraiser II made the mistake of pulling off a tolerable explanation let's correct that mistake and explain it to death! Let's go into more detail about pinhead and the box and set us up for Hellraiser: Bloodline with 90 minutes of backstory and no story for itself!

I really don't have much else to say and don't think I need to say much else. Ashley Lawrence isn't the only one abandoning ship on this one (no, the 10 second cameo doesn't count), Chris Young also disappears on us. The concepts of the first two films go away, and we have Pinhead moving to Elm Street with his band of `clever' new cenobites. This is hardly an ambitious move for any horror franchise, especially for Hellraiser. I mean, don't we have enough ominous unstoppable killing machines wandering around the horror aisles at your local rental place? At least Jeepers Creepers did some things differently.

All the latter Hellraisers get points for ambition. #3 is just mediocre slasher with Cenobites and a box. It's not necessarily the worst in the series, but damn it's the most boring . . .

Watching this film as part of a four movie Hellraiserthon, I was full of expectation after the brilliance of the first two films. This third venture was a total disappointment, replacing the plot and tension of the earlier films with pretty girls and lots of mindless violence. The only saving grace was the excellent performance by Doug Bradley as a very confident and menacing Pinhead. Personally, I'd watch the first two films many times again, but skip this vacation from quality.

In New York City, Pinhead, the puzzle box, and the other Cenobites are trapped in a pillar. J. P. Monroe buys it for his nightclub, The Boiler Room. Frustrated TV reporter Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell) encounters Terri (Paula Marshall) at the hospital who brought in a victim of the club. She decides to investigate when her story is turned down. Terri turns out to be one of Monroe's many girlfriends and she has the box.

This is the franchise turning into a more standard horror. It has the skin-ripping fun. The characters work. I love Farrell from Star Trek and she's fine as the protagonist. I like the mind games from Pinhead. The WWI dream stuff can be better substituted with an additional character. It's trying to explain the monster when it doesn't need explaining. It does give a final solution which is very important. Honestly, Pinhead is a brilliant monster design. The new ones are pretty cheesy. The camera and the CD Cenobites can exists no other time. They even try some quippy dialogue although Pinhead is undefeated as a character.

Cheap looking sequel reduces the complicated Hellraiser and Pinhead legends into your standard Freddy and Jason cliches complete with teenagers running around in distress and discussing their so called problems in between.

This time around Pinhead (Doug Bradley) and a TV news reporter (Terry Farrell) battle it out for possession over a box that can open the gates of hell and end the world as we know it. Not even Bradley's commanding presence can breath life into this.

Unrated; Sexual Situations, Nudity, Extreme Graphic Violence, and Profanity.