I mean is the best sequel? No, but everyone uses words like horrible, and awful like it's some total piece of trash. I think it's pretty decent, and have no idea where all this pure hatred is coming from, especially considering the utter garbage the straight to dvd sequels are. Any of them (Yes, including Inferno) make this look like Bride of Frankenstein
I've got no idea why people are so hard on it. Sure some of it comes off as a bit cheesy, but it's entertaining, interesting, and has some good characters.
SO much better than Inferno! Hellraiser 2's also my favorite of the series. Wildy inventive and scary. I know it's liked, but I still think it's underrated. The original Hellraiser's a great film, but it falls apart towards the end. Still great though.
I don't absolutely hate it, but I rank it pretty low for the obnoxious music video style. The atmosphere and tone of the first two is 1000 times better. Inferno is written off as horrible but I think it was an overall more competently made movie than Hellraiser III, but it takes liberties with the mythology so both movies are very flawed for their own reasons.
At the very least, I see Hellraiser III as the worst of the theatrically-released films. It's just too tongue-in-cheek and campy which is not something I want from Hellraiser.
It takes a long time for things to really get going and the cenobites aren't nearly as detailed as they were in the first two films. They even acknowledged it in the film itself when Pinhead said that they were shadows of his former minions. That said, I still think it had a stronger, more threatening Pinhead than in the second film.
I really enjoyed this film, but I can understand why some might not.
It turned Pinhead into the main enemy, and almost took the direction of a traditional slasher flick. In that, he just seemed to wonder round killing people randomly.
In the first couple of films you could argue that Julia and Frank were the main villains of the piece, whereas Pinhead and the Cenobites turning up was more of an consequence of their actions. And in fact, made a deal with the heroes for a while, as it'd help them catch Frank.
In this film, Pinhead basically escaped from the box, and went round killing anybody at random. It seemed less considered, less supernatural than the first two. (The first one in particular.) I'm A Nightmare On Elm Street fan, so preferred the slasher film take, but I can see why fans of the first ones might think this one sucked a bit.
I think the hate this gets comes from fans of the original novel and the first two movies.
Prior to III, the Hellraiser franchise was something really unique: A Lovecraftian mythos with amoral villains working outside the bounds of the "kill everyone" or "world domination" cliches of 80s horror. Beginning here, all of that radically shifted: From this point forward in the franchise, the sadomasochistic elements of Pinhead and the Cenobites were downplayed (or eliminated) in favor of depicting them as stereotypical demons with no real complex or original motivation.
This is the movie that changed everything about what was a really promising premise. I can definitely understand the hate.
Prior to III, the Hellraiser franchise was something really unique: A Lovecraftian mythos with amoral villains working outside the bounds of the "kill everyone" or "world domination" cliches of 80s horror. Beginning here, all of that radically shifted: From this point forward in the franchise, the sadomasochistic elements of Pinhead and the Cenobites were downplayed (or eliminated) in favor of depicting them as stereotypical demons with no real complex or original motivation.
Couldn't have said it better!
Even though the actions of "Pinhead" are explained within the context of the film, it still comes off as somewhat of an excuse to do a much more straightforward horror movie.
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