HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992)
- written March 1999
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Pinhead is back, this time imprisoned in a pillar which the puzzle box was put in. Joey Summerskill, a tv reporter, happens to be in a hospital when she sees a man with hooks sticking out of him. Turns out he stole the puzzle box from the pillar and after playing with the box got his due. Now the tv reporter wants to know what is going on and the owner of the pillar wants his cake and to eat it too. But Pinhead escapes the pillar and finally gets his chance to destroy reality, merging Hell and Earth. It is Joey's job to find the box and to send Pinhead back, and may even get help from two unlikely sources, one of which is Kirsty (only via video tapes though). The other, well you gotta watch. Of course when Pinhead is released he brings a reign of terror down along with new cenobites. Who will win?
Overall: One of the worst sequels in the history of sequels. This film fails from some of the same reasons that films like Carrie 2 and Alien 4 shouldn't be made, you killed off the main characters in the prior film. If you haven't gotten gist of my opinion from the first two lines above hopefully this part will convince you. This film clearly shouldn't have been made and it is treasonous to the whole idea of the series. Somebody forgot to tell the writers that if we even accept the fact that Pinhead can be resurrected then obviously the original Cenobites should be too. Either bring them all back or none, but achieve some consistency. In addition, what made the prior 2 films so great is that Pinhead wasn't the focus. The relationships, the lust, the pain of loss were all the story. This time, the cenobite is the story and hey, he happens to chat with some club owner in his spare time. That's why this film failed. It's all about Pinhead and all about labelling him as a bad guy when in the prior 2 films, that wasn't the case. They took a chance with the character...and failed. Comparison: South Park's Good Cartman episode meets Bright Lights Big City |
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