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Hellbound: Hellraiser II
(directed by Tony Randel, 1988)
Bizarre as it may sound, this movie is part of my soul. If we are all supposed to be made from stardust in the universe, then I swear I'm partially made from Hellbound: Hellraiser II because I have seen this movie at least a hundred times ever since I was four or five years old and I agree that's too young to be watching this sick, twisted, perverted mess, but it happened and here I am.
First of all, I love the way the title sounds: Hellbound: Hellraiser II. It just slips naturally off your tongue. But beyond the title, it just conjures up so many memories and associations for me. This is one of the most unique f**ked up movies ever. It's the sequel to Clive Barker's 1987 masterpiece, Hellraiser, which was another disgusting and disturbing movie, but Hellbound takes it further and crafts an interesting new story featuring several people from the first film -- most of them villains.
In Hellraiser, a married woman helped her husband's brother, who had been resurrected from the floorboards thanks to her husband's blood spilling on it, obtain more blood from tricks she brought home so that he could grow to a normal, human size and eventually obtain human skin and pass as somebody else so that he and the married woman, Julia, could run away together. Yeah, I know, convoluted. Things didn't work out so well because the brother was taken back to hell by demons called cenobites, who owned him after he had played with a puzzlebox and went to Hell. In the end, the daughter of Julia's husband helped the cenobites find the guy, Julia died and went to Hell and all sorts of madness ensued with only the daughter character, Kirsty, surviving.
Hellbound picks up only hours after this whole mess. Kirsty is in a mental hospital. The head doctor, Dr. Channard, turns out to be a crazy madman who's had a deep interest in exploring the secrets of Hell and what takes place in the Hell that the puzzlebox opens a gateway to. But he's never played with the puzzlebox himself and found out - obviously - because if he had, Hell would have claimed him and he wouldn't be on Earth. When Kirsty comes into the hospital with stories about what just happened to her, he obviously takes her seriously - without letting her know that - but when his assistant, Kyle, overhears him asking to have the bloody mattress that Julia (from part 1) died on sent to his house, he knows something's up. Kyle witnesses Julia being resurrected through the mattress -- thanks to the blood of one of Dr. Channard's patients - and he runs to tell Kirsty. They head to Dr. Channard's house and from there, a trip into Hell begins.
It's actually a wonderful movie about two tragic characters, Kirsty and another patient of Dr. Channard's, Tiffany, a mute girl who has an addiction to solving puzzles. Both Kirsty and Tiffany are without a family -- Dr. Channard murdered Tiffany's mother to keep Tiffany hostage at the hospital after he realized how she skilled she is with puzzle solving - he wants her to solve the puzzlebox for him. It's a safer way to get to Hell - she opens the gateway, chains and hooks don't spring forth from the puzzlebox and get him. Anyway, so Tiffany is alone with no family - Kirsty's family, mainly her father, was murdered at the end of Hellraiser. Kirsty thinks her dad is suffering in Hell and she wants to go get him and bring him out. This is basically the story of Hellbound. All the characters end up in Hell. It's a messed up adventure story with a lot of weird crap going on.
The film is, first and foremost, disturbing. If you've never seen this movie before, you'll probably be astounded by the random horrific scenes. There is a lot of "body horror" going on here -- people go through what looks like extremely painful tortures to transform into the demons of Hell called the "cenobites" and it involves them having their flesh messed with and designed as if they're in the scariest tattoo parlor on the planet. One guy gets pushed back into a small chamber where these weird, fleshy things grab ahold of him and needles start jabbing into his abdomen and cheese wire buries itself into his face in a pattern, etc. There's people getting their bodies sucked dry so that Julia can grow flesh after she's been walking around without any at all. Besides the body horror stuff, you also have to deal with screaming, wacko mental patients, clowns that juggle their own eyes, babies that sew up their own mouths and other assorted madness.
This film is very well acted - many of the stars are British. Some have their voices dubbed. The special effects are outdated now, but their odd uses in this film make the movie timeless. This truly does feel like a horror classic. This is the Bride of Frankenstein of the 1980's. The script is an absolute mess -- it's poorly put together. It's random and rushed. A huge element intended for this film was completely discarded because an actor from the first film did not accept the offer to return but they basically made the same film anyway without him - they just took out his character, yet they kept the same story with the same events. But even if they had kept that character, it still wouldn't have been great. Hellraiser II just got lucky somehow for being totally surreal, very disgusting and disturbing and it actually manages to be quite different from the first movie while still containing many of the same elements and characters. It's actually more fun and exciting than Hellraiser because that film was a long, drawn out piece about hiding a monster in the attic, while Hellbound gets to move faster and do more -- but at the same time, Hellbound lacks a solid story. It's not coherent -- it's like a puzzle you have to put together yourself. I certainly have over the years I've watched it. The movie also contains a wonderful score by Christopher Young.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II is now available on Blu-ray. It's beautiful. This whole movie is bizarrely beautiful in its own way. Skinless Julia is even a sexy character -- she makes death sexy. Now how often does a movie do that?
(directed by Tony Randel, 1988)
Bizarre as it may sound, this movie is part of my soul. If we are all supposed to be made from stardust in the universe, then I swear I'm partially made from Hellbound: Hellraiser II because I have seen this movie at least a hundred times ever since I was four or five years old and I agree that's too young to be watching this sick, twisted, perverted mess, but it happened and here I am.
First of all, I love the way the title sounds: Hellbound: Hellraiser II. It just slips naturally off your tongue. But beyond the title, it just conjures up so many memories and associations for me. This is one of the most unique f**ked up movies ever. It's the sequel to Clive Barker's 1987 masterpiece, Hellraiser, which was another disgusting and disturbing movie, but Hellbound takes it further and crafts an interesting new story featuring several people from the first film -- most of them villains.
In Hellraiser, a married woman helped her husband's brother, who had been resurrected from the floorboards thanks to her husband's blood spilling on it, obtain more blood from tricks she brought home so that he could grow to a normal, human size and eventually obtain human skin and pass as somebody else so that he and the married woman, Julia, could run away together. Yeah, I know, convoluted. Things didn't work out so well because the brother was taken back to hell by demons called cenobites, who owned him after he had played with a puzzlebox and went to Hell. In the end, the daughter of Julia's husband helped the cenobites find the guy, Julia died and went to Hell and all sorts of madness ensued with only the daughter character, Kirsty, surviving.
Hellbound picks up only hours after this whole mess. Kirsty is in a mental hospital. The head doctor, Dr. Channard, turns out to be a crazy madman who's had a deep interest in exploring the secrets of Hell and what takes place in the Hell that the puzzlebox opens a gateway to. But he's never played with the puzzlebox himself and found out - obviously - because if he had, Hell would have claimed him and he wouldn't be on Earth. When Kirsty comes into the hospital with stories about what just happened to her, he obviously takes her seriously - without letting her know that - but when his assistant, Kyle, overhears him asking to have the bloody mattress that Julia (from part 1) died on sent to his house, he knows something's up. Kyle witnesses Julia being resurrected through the mattress -- thanks to the blood of one of Dr. Channard's patients - and he runs to tell Kirsty. They head to Dr. Channard's house and from there, a trip into Hell begins.
It's actually a wonderful movie about two tragic characters, Kirsty and another patient of Dr. Channard's, Tiffany, a mute girl who has an addiction to solving puzzles. Both Kirsty and Tiffany are without a family -- Dr. Channard murdered Tiffany's mother to keep Tiffany hostage at the hospital after he realized how she skilled she is with puzzle solving - he wants her to solve the puzzlebox for him. It's a safer way to get to Hell - she opens the gateway, chains and hooks don't spring forth from the puzzlebox and get him. Anyway, so Tiffany is alone with no family - Kirsty's family, mainly her father, was murdered at the end of Hellraiser. Kirsty thinks her dad is suffering in Hell and she wants to go get him and bring him out. This is basically the story of Hellbound. All the characters end up in Hell. It's a messed up adventure story with a lot of weird crap going on.
The film is, first and foremost, disturbing. If you've never seen this movie before, you'll probably be astounded by the random horrific scenes. There is a lot of "body horror" going on here -- people go through what looks like extremely painful tortures to transform into the demons of Hell called the "cenobites" and it involves them having their flesh messed with and designed as if they're in the scariest tattoo parlor on the planet. One guy gets pushed back into a small chamber where these weird, fleshy things grab ahold of him and needles start jabbing into his abdomen and cheese wire buries itself into his face in a pattern, etc. There's people getting their bodies sucked dry so that Julia can grow flesh after she's been walking around without any at all. Besides the body horror stuff, you also have to deal with screaming, wacko mental patients, clowns that juggle their own eyes, babies that sew up their own mouths and other assorted madness.
This film is very well acted - many of the stars are British. Some have their voices dubbed. The special effects are outdated now, but their odd uses in this film make the movie timeless. This truly does feel like a horror classic. This is the Bride of Frankenstein of the 1980's. The script is an absolute mess -- it's poorly put together. It's random and rushed. A huge element intended for this film was completely discarded because an actor from the first film did not accept the offer to return but they basically made the same film anyway without him - they just took out his character, yet they kept the same story with the same events. But even if they had kept that character, it still wouldn't have been great. Hellraiser II just got lucky somehow for being totally surreal, very disgusting and disturbing and it actually manages to be quite different from the first movie while still containing many of the same elements and characters. It's actually more fun and exciting than Hellraiser because that film was a long, drawn out piece about hiding a monster in the attic, while Hellbound gets to move faster and do more -- but at the same time, Hellbound lacks a solid story. It's not coherent -- it's like a puzzle you have to put together yourself. I certainly have over the years I've watched it. The movie also contains a wonderful score by Christopher Young.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II is now available on Blu-ray. It's beautiful. This whole movie is bizarrely beautiful in its own way. Skinless Julia is even a sexy character -- she makes death sexy. Now how often does a movie do that?