This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and, October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.
Night 11: "Your suffering will be legendary. Even in Hell" Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Hellbound Hellraiser II is an ultra-dark and gory fantasy
horror movie. It was released only a year after Hellraiser which was written and
directed by Clive Barker. For the sequel, Barker is credited as producer with
Peter Atkins writing the screenplay and Tony Randel directing his first
feature. Like a lot of horror sequels in the 80’s this movie begins right where
the last one left ended. Ashley Laurence plays Kirsty, who has been sent to a psychiatric
hospital after describing the events of the first movie to the police. The
hospital is run by an evil surgeon, Dr. Channard, who already knows about the
puzzle box and the cenobites. He has another patient, a teenage girl named
Tiffany, who is semi catatonic and excellent at solving puzzles, unknowingly working on solving the puzzle box. The doctor
succeeds in opening up the Hell World and Kirsty ventures in believing that her
father is trapped in Hell.
The landscape of the hell dimension is a vast labyrinth. If
you ever wondered Jim Henson’s Labyrinth would be like if it was a million
times darker, this is that movie. It is unclear if the labyrinth is meant to be the
Christian Hell or if it is an evil parallel dimension. Pinhead and the
other Cenobites return, but once again they are not the main villains. Dr.
Channard and Kirsty’s stepmother, Julia, are the ones trying to harm Kirsty and
Tiffany. It’s interesting to see the Cenobites in their own world. We learn something
about their past and even see how a Cenobite is made. All of the expansions and
explanations of things from the first movie do not ruin the story because they
only raise more questions.
Not all of the visual effects hold up but most still look
grotesquely wonderful. If you’re into special effects and gore, Hellbound:
Hellrasier II will deliver. Kirsty is still written as smart and as strong as
she was in the first movie. Terrible things happen to her but she still does
not come off as a victim. I like this movie, but, I must admit that like
the first Hellraiser, this sequel runs a bit uneven but I like the ideas behind
the film and the imagery enough to forgive its flaws.
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