This is an attempt at creating a successful franchise. It's not an easy thing to do and Anthony Hickox just couldn't pull it off. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth moves in the wrong direction from the first frame. It really slathers the formerly fantastic series in American schlock movie cliches. It's just a bomb. Clive Barker isn't involved in this picture either. He knew early to let it go.
This movie loosely picks up where Hellraiser 2 left off. Pinhead has been trapped inside the Pillar of Death. A douche named J.P. Monroe buys the Pillar and summons the Master of Pain and Pleasures to the "real world". Hilarity ensues when Pinhead slaps together a rag-tag group of Cenobites to claim Hell on Earth. Most of the film takes place in a lame rock club called the Boiler Room. Apparently they spent a great deal of money on the club even through they were already filming in a pre-existing night club.
It feels less and less like an actual Hellraiser movie the further it plays. However, the main antagonist looks a lot like uncle Frank from the first 'raiser. Confusing cuts and flashbacks plague the movie and it tries way to hard to fit the creepy nature of the previous two films into a slasher formula. It doesn't fit well. The whole movie is completely out of whack and doesn't mesh. It has bad writing, lighting, and acting. Doug Bradley reprises Pinhead of course and does a fantastic job but the rest of the cast is head-shakingly bad.
Like I said above this movie tries to utilize the creepy nature that comes with the Hellraiser name and fit it into this movie. The gore is there. It is bloody and brutal. This aspect of the film I am completely okay with. They even added strange little macabre scenes like the previous had done as well. I just wish the story-line was as good as the gore.
This movie is worth skipping. I will post the best scene at the bottom of this write-up. I don't really recommend this to anyone unless they are watching a Hellraiser marathon. It's a swing and a miss.
Director: Anthony Hickox
Country: USA
Style: Demonic Dimensional Horror
Did ya know...
The band appearing at the Boiler Room is Armored Saint performing the song "Hanging Judge".In an homage to the the first Hellraiser movie, J.P says "Come to daddy" to Terri, which is Frank's famous line from the first movie.The initial 1-sheet artwork featured a side shot of Pinhead's screaming face. The MPAA said the artwork was too intense and asked that Pinhead be removed from the poster campaign. Miramax instead decided to use a composite photo of Pinhead from the original Hellraiser 1-sheet and successfully argued that it was suitable as it had already been used in the past. The MPAA relented and allowed this new poster art to be used.
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