Review of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) by Lance A — 18 Apr 2011

Hellraiser 3 explores some pretty interesting ideas and has a great set up, but what could have been a great film devolved into something quite less. What makes Pinhead an interesting character is the intimacy that is inherent to his existence. And Clive Barker seems to forget this by the second half of this flick.

Hellraiser 3 quickly becomes a hack and slash of epic proportions filled with gun fights and one liners spewing from virgin cenobites mugging for the camera. There doesn't seem to be many rules to the fiction either other than those that lead to an all too unconvincing conclusion.

All is not lost, however, because Pinhead remains to be one of the best written characters in horror. Within the cacophony of his dark dialogue, we get a glimpse at the sheer torture of a soul bent on bringing that pain to the realization of all those he touches. It's just too bad that not every character was well written.