Director: Tony Randel
Writer: Clive Barker, Peter Atkins
Tagline: It will tear your soul apart... again.
Actors: Ashley Laurence, Kenneth Cranham, Imogen Boorman, Sean Chapman,William Hope, Doug Bradley, Barbie Wilde, Simon Bamford, Nicholas Vince, Oliver Smith
Runtime: 1h 39m
Category: Demon, Torture
Synopsis: Kirsty is hospitalized after the events of the first film. She is overseen by Dr. Channard and his assistant Kyle. Neither of the two doctors believes her story about demons and skinless uncles. But after hearing a phone conversation between a police inspector and Dr. Channard, Kyle gets curious. He follows Dr. Channard back to his house where he sees him bring Julia back from Hell! He goes back to warn Kirsty and they end up back at the doctor’s house. After Kirsty is knocked out, the scene changes to Tiffany, a patient at the hospital who is a puzzle master (lucky break). She solves the puzzle-box and releases the Cenobites once more. Kirsty and Tiffany find a way into Hell where she is determined to find her father. Unfortunately for her, Dr. Channard has also made it into Hell and is doing some “downsizing”. Now Tiffany and Kirsty must defeat the now Cenobite Dr. Channard, and escape Hell…alive.
Review: I was just as impressed with this one as the first. Done only a year later, I really expected it to live up to the Hellraiser name; and it did. I was pleased to see a little more story in this one, giving us a little more insight into the lives of the Cenobites. Overall I thought this movie was great, almost better than the first.
The story was absolutely wonderful. Although not the first movie with a unique depiction of Hell, it is the only one that I know of to make Hell so damn confusing. But, it was very well done. I thought that the back-story on Pinhead was cool; making him a Captain in some type of armed forces…fits him well considering he was the leader of the Cenobites. I liked how they incorporated the fact that all of the Cenobites were human once, and that they decided to show us what they used to look like. I thought that that was an excellent idea. When you start using your imagination like this, a really great movie is the outcome. Somebody has been thinking.
The acting was almost as cheap as the first. But like I said in my review for it, when the story centers around a few specific people, the rest need not be exaggerated. But Ashley Laurence and Imogen Boorman did an excellent job. I thought that their characters were believable and simple. When you complicate a character too much you loose story. But I was pleased with the progression of Imogen’s character Tiffany; although she didn’t speak for most of the movie, she made up for it with her first words…”oh…shit!” Beautiful. I love it when there are lines like this that make me giggle; it warms the cockles.
The gore was just as amazing as in the first movie. It was so well contextualized that it put most others of its kind to shame. Clive Barker really knows how to use copious amount of blood without massive overkill; that’s talent! Either way, the gore is what makes movies like these and the directors and producers know that. That is why they were able to put out yet another great notch in the Hellraiser chain.
Rating: 21. With the story, and the gore, and the fast-paced nature of this sequel, I had to give it high marks. Although I liked both this and the first equally, I must say that this movie moved a lot faster than the first. That is why I rated this higher. I will probably get slack for this but whatever. I don’t really care. Because if you’re reading this, you are proving to me that you trust me to let you know what movies are good, and which ones the directors should be ashamed of. I am your source. Believe…(21of25).
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