Welcome back to Such Sights To Show You. We have made it through the first and second Hellraiser. Both of these films are classics. They have been able to stand the test of time. At this point and time in the pantheon horror, we have the Golden Age wing with the Universal Monsters then the Silver Age wing featuring Freddy, Jason, Michael, Pinhead, Chucky and Candyman.
After Hellbound was released, it was a success. Unfortunately, things weren't well with New World Pictures - the studio behind the first two Hellraisers. They went under and Hellraiser became a free agent. One would say that Hellraiser could have easily fallen to the wayside. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Thus, we have Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. Once again, Peter Atkins would return to break the story and write the script along with Tony Randel (who was to be returning as director). There was a large group of crew coming over from Hellbound. Everything sounds like it'd be a safe bet that would turn out well.
Well, those hopeful thoughts quickly were dismissed. This isn't your father's Pinhead. This isn't likely your Pinhead. Oh no, while you could say that the Pinhead from the previous two installments was very Shakespearean. This Pinhead is one hundred percent the MTV Pinhead. He is more talkative. He doesn't hesitate at cracking some jokes like another horror icon. This is very much a studio handling the Hellraiser franchise and not necessarily understanding things fully. And it definitely makes sense when you realize this was handled by Dimension Films and distributed by Miramax. That dang Weinstein once again had their hands in the cookie jar it seems.
Immediately that may paint it as I didn't enjoy Hell on Earth. It's not necessarily a bad film. It's not necessarily a good one either. I would probably throw it in the category of Fine and Fun as Tony from Hack the Movies would say. It's very much a product of its time. Everything absolutely screams 90s. Come on, take a look at CD Cenobite and Camera Cenobite and not tell me that it's 90s.
One of the big things that the film does have on its side is Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Its nice seeing him. You can tell that there's a little bit of joy still in playing the character for him. In future installments, it's a bit more difficult to see that joy still there. But he gets to play double duty as he's also seen as Elliot Spencer. In this installment, we get to see more of what Pinhead was like in his previous life. We get to spend more time with that side of the character. And honestly, it's pretty intriguing stuff. The less said about the Battlefield mumbo jumbo though the better. That part I can forgive.
I will give it a small credit that we do get to see the Tower of Souls from Hellbound return. It absolutely makes a bit of sense to see Pinhead still trapped within. It's a small thing, but one that's interesting. The downside of that though is that we have a bit of time with Pinhead's head stuck in the damn Tower. It kind of limits him to one place. And then when we finally get him out, well then it's CD flying time.
There was a good chunk of issues behind the scenes. Again, studio not necessarily understanding what they had bought. They just knew that they could make something with it. Apparently there was originally six week production. Then there was a two weeks of pickups followed by another two weeks and then capping off with another two weeks. Doing the math, that means that they could have reshot the entire film in the span of those pickups. When I had heard that, I immediately have to ask Why? What was this original version look like? Was it less campy than what we got? Was it more campy than what we got? Imagining a Hellraiser in the style of Batman '66 and my brain is done.
This is an installment that honestly feels a bit brief. It's an extremely light Hellraiser film. Hell, can we even call this a Hellraiser film? I mean I guess it is because we have Pinhead. But if we removed Pinhead from the film, could this have been some other generic 90s horror flick? Absolutely. So, it's Fine and Fun as a film - just not a good Hellraiser film. And that's honestly what ya get when you try to follow up two solid installments in Hellraiser and Hellbound.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Follow BlazinBlue's Review on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
No comments:
Post a Comment