Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

A few years back Stephen King was (famously?) quoted as saying, “I have seen the future of horror, his name is Clive Barker”.  That was in about 1984 and it seems that he was sort of right.  Most people know who Clive Barker is or have at least heard the name.  After some good book sales and that very nice quote from Mr. King Clive Barker was able to gather enough clout to direct Hellraiser in 1987which is based on his own novel.  The movie doesn’t tell us but I would say a hellraiser is someone that raises some hell.  And in the case of these films that’s literal.  Anyway, it’s a pretty good movie and I was intrigued to find out that Coil was originally tapped to do the soundtrack but were eventually decided against.  Fortunately the band did release the Hellraiser music in 1995 for all to hear but it’s surprisingly conventional and not nearly as awesomely bat shit crazy as their usual work.  And I wonder if Barker rejected it for that reason.  Anyway, the sequel to Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, is also pretty good and probably on par with its predecessor.  But the third installment just might be the best.

A down-on-her-luck reporter named Joey (she’s a woman actually), played by Terry Farrell (Red Sun Rising), is at a hospital covering a story when all of a sudden they wheel in a guy with chains attached to his body dripping blood all over the place.  Her journalistic instincts kick in and she thinks she might have a story.  There’s a young girl that also comes in with him all freaked out trying to defend herself to these doctors that are a little preoccupied with saving the guy’s life.  She’s Terri (Paula Marshall (lots of TV shit)) and Joey tries to get her story from her but Terri runs away before anything useful can be pried out of her.  After some snooping around Joey figures out that there’s something fishy going on at the Boiler Room nightclub and it turns out that the dirtbag owner of the club, J.P., found Pinhead’s statue thing along with the puzzle box.  If you haven’t seen the first two Hellraisers then I’ll just tell you quick that the puzzle box is like Jason’s hockey mask or Freddy Kruger’s knife glove thing.  It’s the iconic emblem of the series that makes you know you’re watching a Hellraiser film.  The box summons Pinhead and can also destroy him.  But this film goes in kind of a different direction with that whole thing because J.P. unleashes Pinhead somehow using the statue.  So of course once he’s out hell on earth begins.  And it’s up to Joey to stop him because she gains procession of the box from Terri.

Throughout the movie we get some really great deaths like a woman gets her skin ripped off, a guy’s head explodes and another lady gets impaled with a block of ice through the mouth.  And the specialty cenobites (the evil creatures that Pinhead turns people into) are probably the most creative of at least the first three Hellraisers if not the whole series.  There’s a DJ guy that flings CDs into people’s heads, a camera guy that zooms his lens through someone’s head and a bartender one that uses his cocktail shaker to throw gasoline on people and then he spits fire on them.  The designs for these were done real well and look fucking crazy.  Even though they all have to wear some sort of black bondage attire and have scars ‘n shit all over their bodies and faces there are endless possibilities for these characters.  And I love that this series has something built in like that that can change with each installment.

Alright, now to describe one of my favorite parts of the movie.   At one point Joey runs into a church because the cenobites are chasing after her and she tells the priest that there are demons loose.  The priest tells her that there really aren’t such things as demons and they’re used as metaphors.  Pinhead then walks into the church and Joey turns and says, “then what the fuck is that?”  I love that she says exactly what the audience is thinking.  Then to top it all off Pinhead proceeds to take pins out of his head, stick them in his hands, strike a Jesus Christ pose and laughs maniacally while the stained glass window behind him blows out and the candles on the alter burn with fire.  This film has vision.

The effects budget must have taken up at least half of the total because there are tons of explosions, fire and what must have been hours and hours of makeup and costume design.  It all looks incredible and like people put a lot of work into this thing.  They even had to stage scenes involving Vietnam and World War I.  It’s pretty amazing the filmmakers could pull off what they did with what I’m sure was a small budget.

This one’s down and dirty with few peripherals to sidetrack it.  The story moves quickly and the deaths are plentiful and varied.  I loved it.  The only unfortunate part is that you do kinda need to see the first two Hellraisers to totally get this one, especially Hellraiser II.  But I wouldn’t look at that as so much of a con as an opportunity to get acquainted with the Hellraiser series.  I think they’re real fun movies and I’m not sure why they haven’t got as big of a following over the years like the Halloweens or the Friday the 13ths did.  And it’s because of that lack of interest that caused the Hellraiser series to go direct to video after the fourth one.  By the way the fourth installment is not very good.  But the third one is a gem and a picture I think you guys should check out.