Saturday Sequel presents HellBound: Hellraiser 2

By Paul Anthony

Okay Okay, I get it, I am behind with posting this blog, trust me so much is going on, so just bare with me. Now Justin recently did our classic 13 blog on Hellraiser, so it was a no brainer then to do a review on the sequel, which was release just 14 months after the first film. Now I can tell you that I have watched the first film plenty of times and though, its creepy thought it was a good horror film and usually when films that have sequels come out so soon, they aren’t usually good. However there are few that are a good follow up and that is HellBound. The film was blessed with pretty much everyone coming back from the first film and this includes cast and crew. Only one who didn’t return was Andrew Robinson who played Larry Cotton, though there were a few reasons why that is though Andrew stated he wasn’t a fan of the script and his character was done anyway, which I do agree with. in replace of Robinson, they added Kenneth Cranham as Dr. Philip Channard, the film’s true bad guy. Now Let’s talk about the plot.

This film picks up directly where the first film ends in overall events. We do get a opening where we see Pinhead becoming Pinhead basically and we learn that he was indeed human in the British army and was known as Captain Elliot Spencer before he got sucked in the Lament Configuration. After that we cut to Kristy who wakes up in a psychiatric hospital pleading her case regarding her father and the events of the first film but they blow her off basically or so we thought. The head doctor who we would soon learn is obsessed with the Lament Configuration and after listening to Kristy’s story, Dr. Channard decides to take the bed from Larry’s house in which he then brings over a mentally ill patient to cut himself and the blood results in a skinless Julia being freed. They work out a deal where he brings her more of his patients so she can get all her skin back. Meanwhile Kristy keeps getting hints that her father is stuck in hell and needs help and that’s where we meet Tiffany who is basically a puzzle master. However Dr. Channard knows this as well and kidnaps her to solve the Lament Configuration to enter the world of pinhead. That’s where Kristy enters and confronts Pinhead who allows her to explore since she will be trapped here forever. She also learns that it was her uncle who made those hints to trick her to come to hell. At this point Channard has now become a cenobite himself but a more powerful one, even more powerful than Pinhead, which Pinhead and his team were killed by Channard, After Kristy convinces him that he was once human. In the end Kristy and Tiffany defeats Channard and escape the gates of Hell before it closes on them. But the film ends with a mover getting killed and another one witnesses a pillar rising out of the bed that Julia died on.

Now this film was pretty much on par with the first film. Though it didn’t stand out overall but at the same time it was on par with the first film which helped when you had everyone returned basically and you were able to wrap up everyone story and leaving the series open for what would be the third film in the series. Which gave part 3 its fresh start with hardly any ties to these first two films. If you like the graphics from the first film then you’ll like the graphics here as well. The acting was on par as well, so in the end if you liked the first film then you’ll like this film. In the end I am giving this film a B for a rating and recommend you watching this film if you have watched the first film!!