‘Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth’ (1992)

Every time Halloween comes round, I promise myself that I’ll watch more horror films and read more horror fiction; we’re halfway through the month and you can see how that’s going so far… There’s still plenty of October left though so lets see how I do from now until the end of the month ;o) First up is ‘Hellraiser 3’ which I watched last night, mostly because I love it (you can tell how this post is going to go, sorry…) but also because it was cheap on Prime and I’m still just on the wrong side of payday. Here goes…

TV reporter Joey Summerskill’s life is changed forever when she witnesses the horrific death of a teenager, torn apart by bloody chains. Joey’s search for a story leads her to the Lament Configuration Box but it has already been opened, waking an old evil from its slumber…

Now Pinhead walks the earth once more, creating a new army of Cenobites from the transmuted flesh of his victims; his one desire to reclaim the Box. Even with help from an unexpected source, Joey Summerskill is in for the fight of her life.

There was a point in the ‘Hellraiser’ series where the quality of the movies noticeably dropped, leading to a long period of ‘straight to video’ releases. ‘Hellraiser 4: Bloodline’ was the last movie to get a theatrical release (thanks Wikipedia!) but I know that some people would argue that the rot can be seen in ‘Hell on Earth’ with its gimmicky Cenobites pretty much bypassing the point of the first two films. And yep, I can see that; to go from an exploration of sado-masochism being taken to supernatural extremes to a movie where a Cenobite will kill you with flying CDs (and lets not even talk about wisecracking 'camera Cenobite')… Doesn’t sound good does it?

You know what though? I think ‘Hellraiser 3’ is better than that.

I’ll admit that a part of that is down to ‘Hellraiser 3’ being the first movie I saw, in the series, but I also think it has a fair bit going for it. Pinhead’s arc continues, from ‘Hellraiser 2: Hellbound’, and I think it’s handled really well. The Channard Cenobite effectively splits Pinhead’s personality in two and as a result, we get to see the pure evil of Pinhead totally let loose, no longer kept in check by Hell’s adherence to Order. You can tell Doug Bradley is just having the most fun here, as quotable as ever but given free rein to just chew the scenery into little pieces. Bradley is just awesome as Pinhead, no matter what film he is in, but I think he’s at his best here.

It’s not just that though. ‘Hellraiser 3’ may not have the impact of the first two movies but is still bloody good at winding itself up into a killing frenzy and then just letting loose. There’s a lot going on and it’s crammed into 90 mins, you just have to sit there and let it happen to you and sometimes, that’s all I want in a movie, not to have to think too hard. And when a large chunk of ‘Hellraiser 3’ is just that, well… I’m happy :o)

I’ll always have a soft spot for ‘Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth’, so a little natural bias creeping in, but I still think it stands up to a re-watch at this time of year. What are your favourite films to watch over Halloween?