Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) Review
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Hell always takes multiple forms whether or not you’re noticing.
PLOT
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth takes place in New York and follows JP Monroe, owner of the Boiler Room nightclub buying an intricately carved pillar from a homeless guy at an art museum. Little does he know it has the Lament Configuration puzzle box attached to it. Elsewhere in NYC is reporter Joanne Summerskill who sees a young man enter an emergency room and die in the hospital with hooked chains embedded to him. She tracks down a woman who brought the guy in, named Terri. As she lets her stay at her apartment, she tells her the chains sprang from the puzzle box she took from JP via excavation, having broken up with him. When she gives it to her, she chooses to investigate it with the assist of her cameraman Daniel Fisher aka Doc (Ken Carpenter), she’s able to get access to a videotape recorded by Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence). In the tape, she explains how the box releases Cenobite demons. It is proven so when JP brings a girl to have sex with, she is taken to be absorbed by the Hell Priest Cenobite aka Pinhead who is attached to the pillar he bought. Despite afraid, JP agrees to feed him more people to be free in return of gaining some of his power. As Joey gets a dream of how her father died in the Vietnam War, she is contacted by the spirit of Elliot Spencer who explains he and his Cenobite counterpart have separated. As that violates Cenobite law for him to wreak havoc for his own pleasure, both halves need to be fused back together so that he’ll be sent back to hell. When JP tries to sacrifice Terri, she is able to fend for herself and allow him to be the final sacrifice instead that frees the Hell Priest from confinement. Once free, he kills everyone at the club and Joey goes to investigate. When meeting Pinhead for the first time, he demands the box but she refuses and retreats. As a result, he turns much people on sight to be his new Pseudo-Cenobite army, from Doc to the club’s dj to even JP and Terri. She tries to hide in the church, but they continue to chase her down a construction site. Cornered, she chooses to use the box to send each Cenobite to hell, but also puts her in limbo to the point where Pinhead finds her again and tries to transform her as well. Thankfully, the spirit of Spencer intervenes and is able to fuse with him as planned. As Joey gets freed during the conflict, she turns the box into the leviathan diamond form to stab the Cenobite and send him back to hell for good. As she awakens from limbo, she buries the box into a pool of concrete. The film however ends in a time jump revealing the interior design to be malignant inspired by the box itself.
THOUGHTS
You know your franchise is suffering from sequel-itis when the momentum fades away. This one definitely leans into that field of quality everything we knew of it before slowly vanishes and that becomes disappointing. Despite executive producer Clive Barker being involved for reshoots that maintain the continuity, it’s not really enough to keep the ball rolling the right way. Bob Keen leading the makeup team is in strong suit because while Pinhead remains a menace, the pseudo Cenobites he establishes are all over the place. It’s hard to be impressed of one that has cds come out of one, while Doc is fused with his camera. I did freak out seeing one breath fire though because that was a first for the franchise. There’s definitely a leeway of minor VFX to show off body explosions are from all the detailed puppetry put together and I’m just not sure if the former is worthwhile, especially when the first club victim is absorbed by the pillar, but the set for the boiler room nightclub and it’s connected fancy restaurant is pretty cool. This three-quel falls in line to be a slasher film due to how the antagonist is the star. It’s an official first for Pinhead to be considered that since he was originally a neutral character and it kinda debunks the whole point of Cenobites. Nevertheless, Doug Bradley owns the power dynamic of the former and human spirit counterpart of Elliot Spencer. Seeing that there is a power dynamic that makes him come off like he’s Freddy Krueger, Director Anthony Hickox is able to still remind audiences the danger of separating ambition from morality that’ll make you feel mentally lost. I respect the message here, but the whole things feels very obvious given how straightforward the characters are written. Kevin Bernhardt is the first example as JP because he’s so shallow that he sets up his own demise the moment he buys the pillar with zero suspicion towards who he buys it from. Paula Marshall showed Terri to be most fragile since she didn’t have much people close to her that it was easy to go back & forth with JP, thus walking into her own demise as well, before finding a little bit of solace with Joey. I mean at that point, she shouldn’t be surprised that was the one person interested in what happened at the hospital because you can’t ignore shit like that. Enter Terry Farrell who really holds her own as the next girl. Joey is likable because despite feeling years of heartache after losing her dad, she prefers being principled rather than let it excuse her to succumb to greed. That is why Spencer’s spirit goes to her in stopping his other half because her tenacity would be enough to make the absolute possible. While she should’ve figured out how to destroy it, you respect her efforts in burying the puzzle box in concrete. Whoever succumbs to temptation next from the building alone has a big load of hell to deal with. In short, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth is the franchise’s first weak link due to being far off what was done right in the 80s. If you dug the first two, good luck getting through this one.
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