HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992)
Directed by Anthony Hickox
Starring Kevin Bernhardt and Lawrence Mortoff
Hands-down the best in the entire Hellraiser series, even though it's directed by Anthony Hickox, the man who brought us the lame-ass "Waxwork" and "Waxwork II," in addition to the truly god-awful "Warlock: The Armageddon." Hickox hit a home run with this picture.
I know that's a controversial position for a man to take -- saying that Part 3 and not 1 of this saga -- is the best. But I like the pace, the effects, the overall feel of this movie better than parts 1 and 2. Maybe it was the mood I was in when I saw it, or the fact that there was precious little else being produced by horror filmmakers at the time. After all, it was the early 1990s.
But it still stands out as a favorite. Pinhead (Doug Bradley), the trademarked lead cenobite (i.e., demon) who appears in all these movies, is stuck in a statue purchased by a young nightclub owner (Bernhardt) and gets him to lure female victims to his apartment, conveniently located inside the club. A female TV news reporter (Terry Farrell) gets snoopy and finds herself pitted against a small army of cenobites. After befriending a chain-smoking teen with a crush on the sleazy disco owner, she learns the origins of Pinhead and the spirit of his former "good" self guides her through dreams on how to confront his evil alter-ego. A similar theme was used in Part 2. Especially intriguing is the relationship Pinhead develops with the nightclub owner and -- later his heartbroken girl.
This was the very last great "Hellraiser" film. From here on out, the series was gutted by low budgets. Dimension Films took over rights to the franchise. The fourth film, produced by them, was "Hellraiser: Bloodline," a pretty bad film. It was followed by an abysmal direct-to-video turkey entitled "Hellraiser:Inferno." It now remains moribund on the direct-to-video market, with new low-budget sequels planned. Truth is, a "Hellraiser" movie needs a good budget, and with "Hellraiser III: Inferno," filmmakers had enough money to make a horror film that delivered the goods. At the time this was released, there was even a series of slick adult comic books based on Barker's premise of a doorway to hell accessible by a puzzle box. These were good times for the "Hellraiser" franchise.
For maximum shock value, get only the unrated version of this movie.
