Review of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) by Larry Y — 04 Nov 2014

Another sequel with a different director not surprisingly results in diminished returns. The strongest aspect of Hellbound: Hellraiser II was the continuity of the characters and story with the first movie.

Sadly, this movie discards Kirsty and her story, for the most part, and replaces her with a new protagonist. Despite the fresh set of characters, the movie starts of respectably. The new main character works well; she is a filed news reporter, who stubbles on the path of some unexplainable dark magic and inquisitively digs deeper.

It is unclear what the result of the second movie was exactly, and it is not clear for some time here either. Dramatically it turns out the Pinhead has split into two separate forms. One is his past identity that rediscovered in second, and the other is the demonic evil in him.

The evil half aims to free himself and rule over humanity. A little more explanation would be nice, but this is all respectable at this point. It is not until Pinhead comes to earth that things plummet.

Suddenly, the dark tone and story with consequences from the first two and a half movies go out the window, and it turns into a Freddy Kruger-like joke. New poorly thought-out Sinabites emerge to change the pace; they are ridiculous and awful.

Numerous over the top intentionally corny kill scenes kill the mood. It is almost as if the director changed at the three-quarter mark. The movie climax and finale are just bad and ruin a decent start.

Fans of the first two will feel let down. The only people who might approve are fans of Freddy and Jason, which is really a disappointment, even for a third movie.