I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the first Hellraiser, and I had heard the second was actually a better movie. Considering how much that first one was just a well put-together horror movie, I wondered a bit how true that would be. But having not much to do on a Friday night and seeing it was included with my Hulu subscription, why not?
And I gotta say, this one really was better than the first, but not in the way I might have expected.
After a brief prologue showing how a mortal man (Doug Bradley) solving the Lament Configuration puzzle and his subsequent transformation into the series’s iconic figure Pinhead, we cut to the aftermath of the first movie. Surviving Final Girl Kristy (Ashley Laurence) is in a mental hospital, being treated for what happened in the first movie since no one believes her when she tells them what happened. As it is, her experiences greatly intrigue her doctor, Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham), such that he opts to use what he’s learned by sacrificing a patient to bring back Kristy’s stepmother Julia (Clare Higgins) to learn what’s going on behind the scenes with the Lament Configuration. Channard is an academic, and while he does fall for the skinless mess that is Julia, he likewise doesn’t necessarily want to risk his own life, so he sends a patient named Tiffany (Imogen Boorman) with a gift for puzzles to solve it for him. That opens up a gate to Hell, summons Pinhead and the other Cenobites, and puts the entire world in grave danger.
So, up to this point, I wasn’t sure why this movie was in any way better than the first. On par with, sure. It’s a tight movie, and the make-up effects of Julia, reborn without skin, is fantastic. The story advances, Kristy’s worthless boyfriend is taken care of, and the movie does answer an unasked for question about the Lament Configuration, namely what happens when someone solves it that doesn’t really want to summon the Cenobites. It turns out intentions count, and the Cenobites don’t hunt the person who solved the puzzle so much as they hunt the person who wanted it solved.
That said, what really set this one apart from the first is the actual trip to Hell. Sure, some of the tricks in there are fairly basic as Kristy once again faces down the Cenobites who want her for their games, but as with the first movie, Pinhead and the others aren’t the main villains. They’re side characters, and the movie treats them as such. The prologue comes into play when Kristy shows Pinhead a photograph of his human face, causing the foursome to remember they used to be human and attempting to stand up to the newest Cenobite (Channard) who is hooked directly to the Cenobite god, the living version of the puzzle box called Leviathan. There’s also some really trippy imagery of what Hell looks like, almost like am MC Escher painting, and Kristy has a single goal: get herself, her father’s soul, and Tiffany out of Hell safely.
But what set this movie apart the most is that, since the Cenobites are not the main villains, who is is something you don’t see too much in horror franchises: the villain is an attractive woman that can’t seem to die. Julia is untrustworthy and single-minded, and even given a chance to hook up again with Frank, the man who made her what she is, she betrays him as well, relishing her own power and position in a place that seems to make such things meaningless, but people keep fighting for it anyway. The plan may have been to have Julia as the reoccurring villain for future sequels until Higgins decided not to continue the role, putting the more memorable Pinhead into the lead role.
Overall, this was a good horror movie, with a number of strong female characters (really, the women are the only characters who seem capable to getting anything done), and some really good make-up effects. Other special effects may not have aged well, butt hey also worked out pretty well, and this movie’s version of Hell was a really interesting place. A lot of creativity went into creating that particular afterlife. I don’t think I’ll go any further with this series, but this one sure was worth a look.
Grade: A-
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