Harefooted Halloween: Hellbound: Hellraiser II

What I Liked: The story is off the fucking wall.  This picks up right where the first installment left off so now the daughter is the focus and has to escape the clutches of Pinhead and his gang.  And the plot really doesn’t waiver from that.  Like, they tried for a minute to have your conventional romance in here between the daughter and some guy but then they said “fuck it” and went to hell instead.

This may be a strange thing to bring up but the acting is much improved over the original.  The characters feel more settled and like this is how they were supposed to be all along.

Just like the first one, incredible makeup effects.  The design for Dr. Channard is especially crazy with that giant arm thing attached to his head and those tentacles shooting out of his hands and jeez.  Whoever came up with that was on some heavy shit.

What I Didn’t Like: The biggest problem I have is that they recap the first film way too much.  The opening is the last fifteen minutes of the first film condensed.  And then later they do the same thing and summarize the other hour and fifteen mins.  There wasn’t a need to do that.  You’re making a sequel guys.  People seeing this have seen the first one and if they haven’t well then that’s their problem.

Overall Impression: This is one whacked out fuckin’ film.  It’s a trippy journey to hell that doesn’t let up once things start rolling (which is pretty quick).

All of these bizarre images flood the screen like a baby with its mouth sewn shut, a mental patient that sees imaginary maggots crawling all over his skin, a woman slipping out of her skin and all sorts of other shit.  If you want weird, they got some nice weird for ya.

But what makes this work so well is that it does all of the things a sequel should.  The main character grows and becomes stronger and wiser, the villain is more threatening than the first, the stakes are higher, new engaging characters are introduced, we actually get to see someone transform into a Cenobite and get to see a whole bunch of the Cenobite’s world.  It ticks all the right boxes.

This is just as good (or maybe even better) than the first.  Once you slip into that nightmare you don’t escape.  Like the original they keep the focus where you want it.  There aren’t unnecessary subplots or awkward lulls in the middle of the movie.  This is pretty much all meat folks.

Now this is not for everyone.  If you liked the first Hellraiser then you should definitely check out the two sequels (Hellraiser III is also very good, but I wouldn’t recommend venturing beyond that because shit goes way down hill).  It’s possible number two here might be the best of the litter.

I love that these movies actually live up their namesakes and raise some goddamn hell.  Good work.  See it.