Review

Kirsty Cotton wakes up in the Channard Institute, a psychiatric hospital, traumatised by events portrayed in the previous movie. This one follows on immediately from the bloodbath on show in the first movie. She may have thought she defeated the forces of Hell but a message written in blood on the tiles of her room leads Kirsty to believe her father is suffering in the fires of damnation. We quickly learn Doctor Channard, head of the Institute, has an obsession with the puzzle boxes and the doors they may open. In one of the more implausible moments of the movie the Doctor secures the mattress Julia was torn apart on, and installs it in his home study - say what?

Kirsty is helped in her crusade to rescue her father from Hell by Doctor Kyle, who witnesses Julia's resurrection at the Channard carnal house, as it will quickly become, and Tiffany, a teenager with a traumatised past who is incarcerated at the Institute due to her ability to solve puzzles. Tiffany opens a doorway to Hell allowing people with different agendas to head on over to the other side, where Leviathan is the least of the surprises waiting them. Can Kirsty save her father and will Doctor Channard reap what he has sown?

Raking over the coals Hellbound opens with a flashback to the origins of Pinhead, as the head Cenobite is named in this movie. Captain Elliot Spencer is hanging in the Middle East at the close of the Second World War and as presented is pretty shell shocked. Naturally the good Captain has picked up a puzzle box and solves the mechanism. Hello, welcome to Hell, Pinhead is born in pain and confusion, though notably there are blood soaked smiles from Spencer as the hammer comes down and the pins are implanted. The urbane Doug Bradley makes the role his own, and I should mention is the true star of the franchise. The concept of the Cenobites once being human is revisited later in the movie, and strangely a sense of pathos is established for these lost souls. You'll note I'm trying not to load up spoilers here.

It's the ladies to the fore in the second movie with the male characters, other than Pinhead, very much assuming secondary roles. Julia takes the place of Frank as the seducer with an evil edge, Clare Higgins delivers a mesmerising performance in Hellbound that put's the "sin" back into sinister. Kirsty is of course back from the first movie in another leading role, but this time she thinks she knows the score, and still isn't taking a backward step as the hooks meet the flesh. For a genre that is continually attacked by the Feminist movement, horror sure does throw up some strong Female characters. Actually I don't notice the Femnazis hating on other genres that present Females in worse roles, but then easy targets huh! Introduced in this movie is the character of Tiffany, who kind of gets explained in some background interludes that are slightly confusing, I'm really hoping she returns in subsequent movies.

Really putting the cool into Hellbound however is the introduction of Pinhead with simply awesome lightening effects and the soundtrack booming out the Cenobite introduction. Hell yeah, matches Blade's original introduction in the first Blade movie. Pinhead, and his fellow Cenobites, are given a lot more screen time in this movie than they got in the first movie, and I got to say all three of them are absolutely brilliant creations losing nothing in over exposure. The Cenobites remain menacing, including a new one I won't mention due to spoilers, but surprisingly are given a real human persona as the plot develops. I've got this notion that Supernatural might have developed their idea of Demons having once been human via introduction of the idea in the Hellraiser franchise.

A sequel that matches the raw intensity and utter mayhem of the original movie

If you thought the first movie splashed on the gore then you haven't seen anything till you catch Hellbound. Gorehounds are going to howling at the moon over this one. We got a chick with no skin, Julia in the flesh, bodies being ripped apart, and about a gallon of blood flowing every other scene. If gore isn't your thing then you might want to go check out My Little Pony or some such. Highlight for the fiends is probably the dude who believes he has maggots on his body and using a cut throat razor to sort the situation, oh hell a blood splattering striking scene.

I was pretty impressed with Tony Randel's directing in this movie, everything is pretty immediate with Randel not letting the pace flag at any stage. The various situations are setup, including Pinhead's remembering he was once human, and the then delivered upon with impactful results. If we excuse some post production tampering with dodgy CGI effects, Randel has his groove on and is making every post a winner. Okay so I mentioned the CGI, and yes it's as bad as the Commodore 64 level work in the first movie.

Okay think I've covered all the bases with this one, the gore is high, the acting first rate, and we learn about Cenobite creation. Hellbound is a core horror outing that is unapologetic in getting down in the trenches with the tension and atmosphere.

I'm hovering on hitting the "better than the original" button with Hellbound, which is pretty rate in horror as normally sequels are a hell of a lot less than the originals. Clearly I'm going to give a full recommendation to those who don't mind some blood splashing the edges of their bathtub time with Pinhead. The originality of the first movie is retained, along with the Cenobites dropping edgy and memorable lines, while Hellbound takes the franchise in new directions. We're talking a solid sequel that adds to the mythology and should be required viewing for horror fans. If you haven't caught the first couple of Hellraiser movies yet then you really need some time out to catch up with the required viewing list.

For this review I dialled into the four disc region 2 set from Anchor Bay, which is well worth the investment. But check out which ever release suits your requirements, there sure are a few to choose from.