Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH

The third film in the series opens with an interesting premise: what if a television news reporter witnessed the aftermath of what occurs when someone opens a Lament Configuration puzzle box and set out to discover exactly what happened?  A protagonist digging into the lore of the Cenobites could have driven an interesting story, but unfortunately Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth switches narrative directions repeatedly in a way that muddles the plot with unanswered questions and silly moments that don’t match the tone of the first film (Cenobites quip one-liners like “that’s a wrap” and “this is better than sex”).

The story more or less follows the reporter (a woman named Joey) starting at a hospital where she’d been sent on an assignment from her TV station.  After her cameraman departs, Joey witnesses the arrival of a patient who has chains hooked into his flesh.  She questions a girl (Terri) who arrived at the hospital with the wounded guy and learns only that the fellow’s injuries have to do with a box he acquired at a place called The Boiler Room.  Joey asks around at The Boiler Room (a dark nightclub) in search of the girl she met at the hospital.  Terri later phones Joey and offers to tell her story if Joey will let her crash at her place.  Meanwhile, the owner of the club (a guy named J.P.) discovers that weirdness occurs when he accidentally gets blood on a sculpture that decorates his pad.  Just as blood brought Frank back in the first film and Julia in the second, here the blood begins to revive Pinhead (who somehow ended up trapped in this sculpture – the story never addresses why he’s there).  J.P. observes as the sculpture skins and absorbs a girl he’d just slept with, and Pinhead’s face comes to life in the sculpture.  Further convoluting the plot are Joey’s dreams in which she seeks to connect with her father (who died in the Vietnam War).  At some point, Joey’s motivation becomes to lure Pinhead to her apartment because the window therein will somehow act as a gateway to a limbo where the ghost of the man who was once Pinhead resides.  By this point, the plot makes little sense, but apparently some fans of the series were entertained merely by the visuals of Pinhead slaughtering a club full of young adults and (later) Pinhead and a few Cenobites creating havoc and chaos on a city street.  I prefer images on screen that coalesce into a coherent and plausible narrative.  The film ends with Joey burying the puzzle box in wet cement at a construction site.  The viewer then sees the lobby of the building that’s been built there, and its walls are decorated with oversized versions of the trim that adorns the puzzle boxes. 

It’s unfortunate that the first two Hellraiser sequels fail to capture the atmosphere, suspense, tone, and creepiness of the original.  Perhaps each installment should have centered on a different group of Cenobites interacting with people in disparate situations who have summoned them.  Instead, part two centered on Kirsty from the first film, and she even has a cameo shoehorned into part three.  Of the Hellraiser movies I’ve seen thus far, only the first is worth your time.