Review of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) by Lucio C — 29 Jan 2014

It wash't as bad as I remembered, but still a major step down. I compared Hellraiser 2 to Dream Warriors, and if that is the case, Hellraiser 3 is more like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master.

Higher production values, arguably better direction, tighter editing, but just flat overall. Anthony Hickox is a more exciting director than Tony Randel, but the action feels out of place for this Hellraiser series.

The gimmicky cenobites is really cheesy and definitely takes this once original and creepy franchise into MTV territory. It reminds me a bit of Robocop, where it's obviously an ultra violent movie for adults, yet you can't help but get the feeling it's marketed for kids to sell new cenobite toys.

I remember hating this movie as a kid (I saw the first four when I was about 10/11-years-old), so even if this movie was intended to sell toys (which would be dumb as hell if it was the case) they did a terrible job.

The acting has its ups and downs. Terry Farrell is actually a pretty good lead (and possibly the best in the series), but the rest of the cast is either hit or miss. I would likely put a lot of the blame on the script, though, as there wasn't much to work with and a lot of the dialogue is cringe worthy.

It's unfortunate too, because the editing was better and the movie was more polished, but Anthony Hickox may have been the wrong person to be at the helm for this movie. Not recommended.