MovieChat Forums > Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) Discussion > It's like damage control for the mistake...

It's like damage control for the mistakes of the second film. (Spoilers)

posted 10 years ago by Forgotten_Hero
8 replies | jump to latest

Hellraiser: Part II was virtually a retread of the first film, but it made some mistakes along the way. The part about the creepy uncle being tortured with sexual denial, Pinhead being revealed as formerly human, the defeat at the hands of the doctor cenobite, and the goofy ending with the distorted box were all mistakes in my opinion.

When I saw that goofy giant box with multiple faces on it, I thought to myself that the third film could only ignore the ending to the second one. Instead, they brought the box back and redesigned it to be a distorted art piece / prison for Pinhead. The backstory with Pinhead being human was once more brought up, but this time fleshed out. I also liked how the film turned the soldier and the demon into two separate entities, the latter being an offshoot of the former.

I'm surprised that this film has a lower rating than the second one. I guess it's because it's not as gory and the film takes a while to get going. Overall though, I found it much more satisfying than the second film.

[–] HellboundHero 10 years ago

You mind if I ask why you disliked the examples you listed(Frank's Hell, Pinhead being human, Channard killing the cenobites, Leviathan being a "goofy giant box")?

I think making the cenobites former humans and the introduction of Leviathan added to the mythology and the only thing Hellraiser III contributed was fleshing out Pinhead's backstory. Otherwise, it was an obnoxious, cheesy mess of a movie that was made to appeal to gorehounds who wanted Pinhead to act like a combination of Jason and Freddy. It was as if it only exists to satisfy the people who complained about the first two movies being too slow and not having enough cenobite screen time. To suggest that Hellraiser II has a higher rating because it was gorier than Hellraiser III baffles me, as if III is the one with substance.

[–] Forgotten_Hero 10 years ago

I honestly thought the first two films were gorier than this one. I wouldn't rate it higher on account of the violence. I'd rate it higher because the second film was very flawed and most of what it got right came from directly copying the original.

Frank's Hell seemed more like a Family Guy joke than a legitimate form of torture. Channard wasn't very interesting. Making the Cenobites human took some of the magic away from them. Mostly though, the fatal flaw of the second film was in letting Pinhead lose to Channard. It'd be like having Freddie Krueger killed by an evil doll and then returning to business as usual in the next film.

To be fair though, they didn't intend to keep making sequels. As far as they were concerned at the time, Pinhead was dead. I still think that's a poor excuse to have him killed off by a less impressive antagonist.

[–] skiop 9 years ago

👏

[–] Sergeant343 9 years ago

To be fair, he wasn't Pinhead at the time of his death.

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[–] IMDbGigalo 8 years ago

From what I understand, they did not understand the popularity of Pinhead at the time. It was instead Julia who was supposed to be the Big Bad of the series, but the actress wanted out as did the actor of the doctor after Hellbound.

As you said, H3 is really an attempt to fix things from the second.

[–] skiop 9 years ago

Agreed. I was extremely disappointed by "Hellbound" (overly gory and yet also extremely cheesy). This one was a huge improvement.

[–] Horror_Metal 9 years ago

I don't find this film to be anywhere near as bad as most people say it is but an improvement over the second film? To each their own I guess.

Horror_Metal

[–] jbhutt0 9 years ago

To each their own, but Hellbound was the much much more intriguing film of the 2 even if the execution wasn't very slick ( at least in the last 1/3rd ). Hell on Earth is one of those movies that ends and you're just kinda like "welp, I guess that's it".