Lawbolisted Powerful

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

a_chinn Best of the many (and mostly bad) sequels to Clive Barker's original film. This was also the last of the Hellriaser films that Barker had a significant hand in the creative process, staying on to write the story as well as producing. I remember watching this film way back in the day when it first came out on VHS and the one scene that had burned itself into my memory was still as horrifying now as it was then. This sequel picks up right after the events of the first film, with Kristy being brought to a mental institution after the death of her dad and stepmom after encountering Pinhead and the Cenobites (not a boy band). Unbeknownst to Kristy, the head doctor of the hospital, an excellent Kenneth Cranham as Dr. Channard, is darkly interested in the occult and has been searching for the Lament Configuration for years. He listens to Kristy's account of what happened to her and instead of destroying the bloody mattress she's pleaded with him to destroy, he decides he wants to resurrect Kristy's evil stepmother, Julia. As with the first film, a resurrection requires massive amounts of blood for a body to reform, which brings us to the aforementioned horrific scenes that was burned into my teenage memory. In order to resurrect Julia, Dr. Channard takes one of his mentally ill patients who believes he has bugs crawling all over his body and who has to wear a straight-jacket at all times to prevent digging at himself, places the patient on the mattress, removes his straight-jacket, and hands him a straight razor to slice at his imagined bugs crawling over his skin. That scene was just as unsettling now as it was 30 years ago, which is saying something in a post Takashi Miike and "Hostel" horror film world. Beyond that one shocking scene, the story involves Channard seeking the Hellraiser puzzle box and Kristy tying to again escape Channard, Pinhead, the other Cenobites, and hell itself. Without spoiling anything, this film reveals more about the Cenobites history and origin, which is interesting and also feels canon since Barker was part of the story (more was told in the subsequent sequel, but Barker had little to no part in those films). Although his film lacks the interesting visual style Barker brought to the first film, with it's dichotomy of beauty and blood, director Tony Randal does and effective job of building suspense, horror, and a fair amount of visual style to the film. Similar to the first film, both good and bad, the gory practical special effects are top notch and wonderfully (and horrifically) executed, but the other special effects look like they were done with Magic Marker. The super imposed images of Hell are visually striking, but not even close to looking as if the characters are really in this location (it's super fakey looking). Despite those shortcomings and although "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" is not a classic horror film, it is a worthy sequel to the original Clive Barker classic. On a side note, rewatching this film mostly made me wish that Barker can somehow regain the film rights to his creating and have the opportunity to reboot the franchise, just as James Cameron is getting to do with his Terminator franchise.

Smoreni Zmaj Nightmare of the king of horror continues. Hellbound is direct sequel to Hellraiser and, in my opinion, it's a bit better than the original. Opinions are divided about which one is better, but it is certain that the sequel is more complex, bloodier and, thanks to the success of the original, it had a much bigger budget. While in the first movie Cenobites introduced a hint of horror to our world, this time we join them on their field. Morbidly imaginative display of Hell that will forever be carved into your memory. One of the best horrors of all time, which, in my opinion, belongs to the domain of general culture.8/10

thelastblogontheleft Clive Barker wrote the story but he didn't direct this one as he did the first — Tony Randel stepped in after editing the original, and Barker took the role of executive producer. From what I've read they got a little sloppy as far as using some stills from scenes that wound up being cut in their promos, and changing up the Chatterer cenobite (giving him eyes) to the chagrin of die-hard Hellraiser fans. I was also interested to read that Randel and the rest of the crew fully expected Julia to step in and sort of take over Pinhead's role as the pillar of the remaining movies, but when she declined to take part in any further sequels (and when they saw how massive of a hit Pinhead was in the first film), they kept him as the main villain.The sequel begins mere hours after the ending of the first — Kirsty is in a psychiatric hospital, still having visions of all the horrors she experienced. She meets Dr. Channard (the appropriately evil Kenneth Cranham) and his assistant Kyle (William Hope), and urges them to destroy the mattress that Julia had died on. It is soon revealed that Dr. Channard — a wicked man who is comfortable using others for his own sick experiments — is well aware of the power of that mattress and the Lament Configuration itself and he's eager to do his own research. He brings one of his psychiatric patients to his home and offers the manic, restlessly itching man a razorblade so his blood can resurrect Julia. Kyle has witnessed the whole thing after he became suspicious of Channard, but he is quickly sacrificed to complete Julia's physical form after him and Kirsty return together. It's then up to Kirsty and her new- found friend, Tiffany (Imogen Boorman) — a mute patient of Dr. Channard's who is particularly adept at puzzles — to defeat both Channard and Julia and escape the cenobites.I am a bit torn on how I feel about them showing the sort of "background" of Pinhead — also known as Captain Elliot Spencer — becoming what he is now. Part of his mystique, his larger than life personality, was not really knowing where he came from or how he found himself as the leader of these hellish demons. So to see him in the opening of the movie as just this nerdy looking guy was… off putting. I think it adds to the sadness of the whole concept, which they explore more later on — the fact that all of these cenobites were once human — but it does put a dent in his horrifying armor.The scene where Dr. Channard has the psychiatric patient flaying himself open with a razor is… more intense than I even remembered. It's just one of those scenes where you just stare open-mouthed in disbelief. And Channard's mix of disgust and morbid fascination is perfect.The bloody, muscley suit they have Julia in is BRILLIANT. The special effects team did an incredible job, truly. It's so glistening and REAL looking (I mean, I don't actually know what a person without skin would look like, but if I had to guess, that would be it.)The scene when the cenobites show up is, true to form, FANTASTIC. I just love the whole process — the wind starts gusting in, thunder starts booming, lightning flashes, glass shatters, and right when you think the chaos has settled… the room literally just OPENS UP, stretching out old cobwebs and revealing this otherworldly glow. And then out they come, each more horrifying than the last, until we get to Pinhead himself who is just THE MOST EPIC VILLAIN EVER I AM NEVER OVER IT.They clearly set up Julia to be the new #1, even having her repeat some of Pinhead's classic lines like "Come, I have such sights to show you" as she escorts Dr. Channard around. She would have been a worthy rival, really.The maze that they are existing in is pretty awesome, partially for its sheer expansiveness… they show it from above in one scene and it's just overwhelmingly massive. The star of the show is Leviathan, the ruling deity over the cenobites' home world — a monstrous, hovering octahedron that emits a horn-like noise that will haunt your dreams (composer Christopher Young even included the morse code for "God" in the sound) and an intense black beam that will force you to re-live past memories. Impressive, to say the least. I loved Channard being overwhelmed by its sheer enormity and uttering "Oh, God" and Julia responding with "no, this is mine".Dr. Channard being transformed into a cenobite himself is… amazing, and his re- emergence — "And to think… I hesitated" — is PERFECT. Chills. He has the creepiest laugh ever and he's sort of this maniacal, almost mischievous creature. He's straight up amused by the power he wields and completely uninhibited thanks to his utter lack of caring (not that he was ever held back by such a thing). What the other cenobites lack in enthusiasm he makes up for, without a doubt.And then comes one of the most disappointing scenes in all of my movie watching: Channard killing all of the cenobites, finishing with slashing Pinhead's throat. Again… Pinhead is this omnipotent being, and he's not only reduced back to his human form but then killed off by this newbie cenobite's (admittedly awesome but stupid in this context) snake knives? COME ON NOW. Heartbreaking, honestly. But it's okay because Channard's head gets ripped in half not long after that and it's sweet, sweet revenge.Ultimately, I felt like it wasn't nearly as cohesive as the first film, but offered enough of the familiar awesomeness to be a worthwhile watch.

Leofwine_draca HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II is the horror film that shows such nasty horrors that other late '80s horror films can only dare to hint at, and to boot it's a film made at Pinewood Studios. I have a feeling that this was the last horror film made in Britain (not counting amateur productions of course) to really offer up graphic, depraved horror, the stuff of nightmares, and we've never seen its like since. This is in some ways a superior sequel to the first film and I would rate the two almost equally as horror classics of the 1980s; it's merely that HELLRAISER came first with a delightful and raw simplicity that gives it the edge. HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II takes the basic premise of the first film, only to expand upon it, explore the mythology created, and deliver an even bigger and better adventure.The gore and violence certainly hasn't been toned down, and in some ways it's even nastier than before. There are skinless people, hooks ripping flesh and, in a moment of pure evil, a man who hallucinates that his body is covered with grubs is given a straight-razor with which he proceeds to slash himself before a living corpse comes out of the mattress he is sitting on and devours him - if that isn't spine-chilling then I don't know what is. This is a very visual movie which is one of the few to offer up a depiction of hell; the resulting images are both creepy and highly disturbing. The hell displayed here is a labyrinthine maze of ancient corridors, populated by the weird figures of giant babies with their mouths sewn shut, undulating bloodstained bodies, and a clown who juggles his own eyeballs. Then we get skinless corpses writing "I AM IN HELL HELP ME" on walls with their own blood and one of the scariest mental asylums I've seen on film (you know, the 'maintenance' level).The special effects are varied and entertaining, aside from the huge spinning demonic shape in the sky at the end which is a little bit rough around the edges. The makeup is gruesome and the cenobites are as disgustingly awful as ever. Even some cool stop motion animation pops up at the end of the movie to menace our heroes. The music is evocative, the pacing excellent and Tony Randel's direction top-notch - compare this to a pitiful mess like DREAM DEMON and you'll see what I mean. The film also benefits from a high calibre of acting from most of the cast, some of whom return from the first film.First up is Ashley Laurence reprising her role to good effect as the feisty Kirsty, although Imogen Boorman stands out more as the strangely beautiful mute girl who has a way with jigsaws. Clare Higgins is back and even more deadly-but-beautiful than ever. However, the film is commanded by Kenneth Cranham playing the fiendishly perverse Dr. Channard who eventually ends up becoming a new, even more horrific Cenobite (one with plenty of comedic one-liners too). Cranham's initially decent doctor soon turns out to be a sweaty bastard as the cracks start to show and it's another excellent performance from the underrated actor. Watch out for William Hope playing a young male doctor, Kyle, who helps Kirsty in her quest.Doug Bradley is perfect as Pinhead although largely underused here, what with all the other sub-plots going on. HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II is an imaginative piece of work with a truly unique visionary style, a masterpiece of the macabre and not for weak stomachs - this comes highly recommended. Unfortunately it marked the end of quality in the series which, with the arrival of HELLRAISER III : HELL ON EARTH, turned into just another US horror franchise, albeit one with a little more class than most.