Review #2598: Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
Cast:
Clare Higgins (Julia Cotton; Deborah Joel as Skinless Julia), Ashley Laurence (Kirsty Cotton), Kenneth Cranham (Dr Philip Channard), Imogen Boorman (Tiffany), Sean Chapman (Frank Cotton), William Hope (Dr Kyle MacRae), Doug Bradley (Pinhead / Captain Elliot Spencer), Barbie Wilde (Female Cenobite), Simon Bamford (Butterball), Nicholas Vince (Chatterer; Kevin Cole as Chatterer's human form), Oliver Smith (Mr Browning / Skinless Frank), and Angus McInnes (Detective Ronson) Directed by Tony Randel.
Review:
You might remember that Hellraiser quickly had ideas of becoming a franchise, complete with retaining most of the crew and cast from the 1987 film for its sequel. Barker could not direct/write due to having prior commitments that would see him tabbed to serve as executive producer. For the task of the screenplay, he tabbed his old friend Peter Atkins, who had worked with Barker and Bradley as co-creators of the avant-garde troupe The Dog Company. The two worked on an outline together that was guided by ideas Barker had in mind of where to explore further in the Hellraiser universe, specifically with the history of the Cenobites. From that outline, Atkins got started on a first draft screenplay that later saw notes and further tabbing when Tony Randel was brought on to direct. The director chosen by Barker and company was a familiar choice for him, as Randel had been tabbed by New World Pictures to oversee the latter stages of the first film and had hit it off with Barker. This was the directorial debut for Randel, who had started out in the New World mailroom before rising up to special effects and also work on stuff such as Def-Con 4 and the American rendition of The Return of Godzilla (1984). Randel mostly edits and directs on a small-scale basis, with this being his most noted film. There were a few snags that had to be overcome prior to filming, namely having no Andrew Robinson and an ending that had to be changed due to the non-commitment laid out by Higgins, and the film had to go through edits to avoid an X rating, but the movie was a hit enough to lead a drive for another movie. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth came out in 1992. with Atkins and Randel co-writing the story (Atkins also wrote for the fourth film) while Anthony Hickox directed. Barker wasn't involved with the film until post-production (incidentally, Randel apparently was felt to be too bleak in his vision by producers to direct) while Bradley reprised his role and Laurence made a cameo. Incidentally, the video game Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival (released just this month) took inspiration from the first two Hellraiser films in their atmosphere.
Sure, let's throw out the entire book for puzzle-solving, skinless mayhem, and M. C. Esher wannabee imagery. It isn't a great movie by any means, and it does have a test of coherency when it eventually fiddles onto the conclusion, but it makes for an adequate sequel to something that I saw once and thought was a "horror film of the senses"*. It's entirely possible to understand someone's revulsion to people being torn apart in an effects sequence, even if, well, it's an effects sequence (more people have revulsion to, say, animals being CG'd to death*). For me, I roll with it, and you basically have to go with that in mind here because it is a 99-minute mishmash that amps the gore within the mazes and basically throwing out any story idea they can, which starts at the looney bin (at least A Nightmare on Elm Street only got there in three tries*) and sticks around a bloody mattress and more people who stumble onto puzzles before somehow getting down to looking inward with the Cenobites. Barker apparently envisioned Higgins and here character being the main character to keep coming back for the franchise (yes, even more than Bradley's character), but she did not see it that way and thus went down the road seen for the climax. Higgins is a bit more confined in what she gets to really do because, well, it isn't a case of someone from before being roped into murder, now she's the one doing the roping, which is more interesting to see in the pairing with Cranham and his carefully composed nature of basically being a nerd about wanting to play God. Laurence keeps the ball rolling in relative charm for us to root for in seeing her live a further nightmare. Bradley and the others can only have so much to actually do, and the resolution to that just makes me shake my head. At least it sequel-baits itself something maybe worth looking into. As a whole, the labyrinth of hit-and-miss ideas within desires and the bounds of Hell (as seen with a diamond-shaped entity) proves for an okay experience for those who like what they want to see and hear from something that doesn't reach the heights of the original but at least gives them something worth their curiosity.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
*Atkins also wrote for Wishmaster (1997). Next year? Also, here's a link to an interview that he did for those who dig three-hour interviews, I suppose - https://michaelcavacini.com/2022/07/19/interview-peter-atkins-discusses-clive-barker-hellraiser-nightbreed-wishmaster-more/ - or maybe go with the documentary Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
*Looking back on that Hellraiser review (and doing a bit of retroactive editing for phrasing and splitting a paragraph), 2020 Movie Night was a weird weird time.
*Current days, anyway, since most normal productions don't go around doing things to animals that you wouldn't do to people.
*What happened to the boyfriend from the first film anyway? Was he turned off by that beast thing he saw at the end when they tried to burn the box?
