A Change Would Do You Good Preview: Chapter 1 A Night at Caryle's

A girl stepped into the spotlight. Gwen was entranced by her elegance. The dress she wore, glowed a shimmer of emerald evergreen, her skin smooth milk chocolate, her hair crinkled in goddess curls. She was a treasure in sight.

The girl began to sing the lyrics of the Amy Winehouse song, I Wake Up Alone. Her voice was slowed like honey, serene and mature beyond her years. Her soul was belting out with each word in each melody.

He’s fierce in my dreams, seizing my guts

He floats me with dread

Soaked in soul

He swims in my eyes by the bed

Pour myself over him

Moon spilling in

And I wake up alone

Her every being was filled with heart and soul. Gwen was mesmerized. Once the performance was over, the image of the girl and her unforgettable voice fueled her mind.

While taking a walk to the bus station, Gwen gazed at the sky. That song and those lyrics were ringing in her head, the sweet jazz sound tinging with the flow of the music.

Soaked in soul

He swims in my eyes by the bed

Moon spilling in…

It was nights like these where she wished it would never end. Nights such as this that would live on in her dreams.

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth (1992)

During the production stages of Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, executives at New World Pictures and Film Futures discussed interests of filming a third Hellraiser movie with the likes of Claire Higgins reprising the role of Julia. But since Higgins refused to do horror anymore, the ideas were changed and the movie would take a couple of years in the making. Around this time, Clive Barker was butting heads with 20th Century Fox executives about making extensive cuts to his latest movie Nightbreed, which was released in 1990. Since Fox put out a poor marketing campaign, the film failed at the box office, which caused Film Futures, a film company Clive Barker owned, to go out of business along with New World Pictures facing their own bankruptcy troubles. The executives at New World decided to transfer Hellraiser 3 to Miramax in 1991. Clive Barker wanted no involvement with the movie, knowing that it will be another gorefest cash grab for the teen audience.

And that indeed it was. 

The problem that I have with the film is the tone is completely different. You just don't get the same flow or feel from the first two movies. Tony Randel was brought on board but somebody suggested Anthony Hickox, who was known for Waxwork and Waxwork 2. Even Clive Barker thought he was a poor fit because Hickox was known for Horror Comedies, which explains why everything is so off-kilter in this movie. 

To be honest, it almost has the makings of an over-the-top action flick. Gory deaths, big explosions, and quippy one-liners. Although the special effects are niffy in some places, that's the only good thing I can say about this movie. The acting is meh, the writing is messy, and the gothic surrealism of the first two movies are just gone. 

Even though I view this as a guilty pleasure, it's just not a good Hellraiser sequel.

The Story: Nightclub owner J.P. Monroe finds a mysterious statue at an art gallery and sees it as a perfect decoration for his set piece. Fiddling around the statue, J.P. cuts his hand. Somehow, the letting of his blood awakens an essence within the statue.  

Meanwhile, Reporter Joey Summerskill runs into a disturbance at a hospital. She sees a young man strapped to a gurney, his body embedded in big nasty hooks. Suddenly, the hooks are levitated by a powerful force, causing the man's head to explode into bits. During the mayhem, Joey runs into the young man's companion, a troubled girl named Terri, who happens to be the ex-girlfriend of J.P. Monroe. Though reluctant at first, Terri gives out the information to Joey that the man was last seen at the boiler room before running away.

When J.P. has a little rendezvous with a club patron only to throw her out, the girl begins to rage in an emotional fit but unbeknownst to her, the statue comes to life. A burst of chains shoots out of the statue, hooking into the girl's body, ripping her skin whole, and sucking her inside. The head of the hell priest Pinhead suddenly appears to J.P.'s initial shock. The statue coaxes him into harvesting more humans for him to feed with enormous pleasure in return.

Soon, Joey runs into Terri, who gives her cryptic information about the statue J.P. found and that the guy she met at the club stole a puzzle box in which she now has. Investigating the origin of the puzzle box, Joey starts to receive messages in her dreams from a ghostly spirit, a world war 1 veteran named Captain Elliot Spencer. He warns Joey that while being released from Leviathan in the events of Hellraiser 2, the dimensional diety had separated his human self and demon self in where his demon self, the hell priest Pinhead, is bounded in stone and plans to get out. Therefore, it's up to Joey to stop the demon Pinhead before all hell breaks loose...

The acting was...meh. I see that Terry Farrell and Paula Marshall show some promise but the script doesn't really advance their performances. 

When it comes to the character of Joey Summerskill, it's like she's being forced into the plot. So it just happens to be in the same hospital as Terri where she's attempting to do a news report in her very first scene, pretty much rushing the plot forward. 

There's really not much balance on character development, though there is the subplot with Joey's dad who died in Vietnam, which concluded with her visions of Elliot.

But other than that, there's just nothing more to know about Joey. All there is to know is that she's a nosy reporter who gets dragged into the plot. It's not like she's a mega important character in the franchise like, let's say, Kirsty from Hellraiser and Hellbound but then there's Tiffany, who I thought was much more important to proceed in Hell on Earth. Why not focus this sequel on her? 

I guess Joey was an alright Main Character for the story, even though I'm not really invested in her. 

I did appreciate Terry Farrell's spunky portrayal which kept me from getting bored by her because if any other actress portrayed her, it would've been a dud. Like I said, there are moments in the script where she is given these really cheesy one-liners out of nowhere like in the Black Mass scene. I guess that's where Anthony Hickox horror comedy shtick comes in. However, Terry Farrell does have a presence about her and she seems to do somewhat an okay performance. 

I thought the character of Terri was much more compelling. Seeing how she's bounded by her controlling, philandering ex-boyfriend, who even refers to himself as daddy, which shows how masochistic the relationship is. 

The tragic thing about Terri is that once she lets go of J.P.'s emotional grip on her by *spoilers* sacrificing him to Pinhead, only to become a cenobite herself.

Paula Marshall's acting was a bit shaky in some parts but she pulled out okay, capturing the vulnerability of her character. 

mmmm...Now the moment has come to bask into the sexiness of Kevin Bernhardt as J.P.

From his bulging biceps, ripped abs, and chiseled face, this guy is a sight to be seen and definitely looks good in a mesh shirt. Yowza!

As for the character of J.P., he's sort of like a pseudo-Frank, a narcissistic asshole who gets off on emotionally abusing people for his own pleasure. It's even hinted that he killed his parents to get their inheritance money to fund his club. So with this revelation, he seems to have no qualms of harvesting bodies for Pinhead. So that sort of makes him an immoral character. Too bad he's nice to look at. Kevin Bernhardt's acting was slightly above mediocre, so there's not much to say there. 

Aww, now we have Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Through all this movie's faults, Doug Bradley is the best thing in it. He brings a shakesperian gravitas to the role and takes command whenever he's on screen. Unfortunately, not only Pinhead is the best thing the film has to offer but also the worst as he is turned into a generic slasher villain. His only motivation is world domination, which is no different from a Saturday morning cartoon villain. 

Speaking of, let's get the pseudo-cenobites out of the way. I mean it's like I'm watching an action figure line coming to life. It's so silly. What I liked about the cenobites in the first two movies is just by looking at them, you can feel the pain that they went through as humans. Each design was both frightening and eye-catching. Now with this movie, all of what made the cenobites unique and interesting is completely wiped out.

Okay, let's see here. We got the Doc cenobite who has a camera lens lodged in his head and can puncture people with it. 

Then you have the DJ cenobite who uses his CDs as weapons. Really?

Here is the "barbie" cenobite, who shoots out fire from his mouth. Can this get any stupider? Yes. Yes, it does. 

You have the pistonhead cenobite who has a working piston lodged into his head. How laughable.

Last but not least, you have the dreamer cenobite who can...smoke cigarettes from her throat? Really?

Yeah, so the designs in this movie are pretty lazy. What I said in my last review is that the fault of the second movie was killing off the original cenobites because the new ones are just not up to par. By watching the first two movies, I can see the artistic integrity when it came to the look of the cenobites. However, in this sequel, the cenobites look like something out of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It's borderline ridiculous. 

Now back to Pinhead. Doug Bradley is amazing as ever and is actually doing a good job of being hammy and over-the-top. I do say that Pinhead has the best lines in the movie. 

But what's interesting about Pinhead is lost, which I would've liked the mystery surrounding him rather to be revealed in this film instead of the second film. 

Doug Bradley also played the dual role of Captain Elliot Spencer, furthering his acting chops on a new level as hero and villain. So the story surrounding Captain Spencer is that when he opened the Lament Configuration, he was mutilated into the Cenobite Pinhead (The Hell Preist). 

Once his soul was released from the labyrinth of hell, his lower self, Pinhead is unleashed, only to be clasped in a pillar of souls cemented in stone, waiting to get out. 

Okay, the problem with this is that Leviathan isn't mentioned. After all, the dimensional god is the one who created the cenobites and IS the ruler of the labyrinth of hell. Here's my theory: What if Leviathan created Pinhead, made him the priest of hell, and somehow recruited him to cast hell on earth once the box is released. Sounds WAY more interesting, right? But the story seems so rushed along that it never seems to focus on the detail of the things.

Which leads to the writing. 

The script is really weak and it looks as if there were too many cooks in the kitchen. I can see there is a focus when it comes to the three main characters but there is not much development on them. The first two acts are interesting and it flows the story well, but by the third act, it falls apart.

One good thing I would say is that the directing is quite inventive. I have watched the Waxwork films maybe around high school and I found them to be really entertaining on their own right. His camera tricks and High action does keep you enthralled and for all the over-the-top excesses, he does have a unique vision. However, if this was a stand-alone, I think the movie would've worked better. Still cheesy, yes, but with its own leverage. 

Then again, I'm reviewing a Hellraiser sequel and it doesn't feel like a Hellraiser movie. For example, most of the familiar score is there in some parts yet most of the soundtrack consists of heavy metal. Yeah, so this is definitely an MTV horror movie. 

The film seems to rely heavily on special effects. Although some great for it's time, it becomes the downfall of the movie. 

The most memorable, or shall I say, infamous scene is the "nightclub" massacre. This is the point where the movie jumps the shark. Not only the deaths were extremely over-the-top and gory, but it also becomes quite cartoonish. This is where the series truly begins to decline in quality. A point of no return. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqgF5CVinRo View at your own risk

Now on to the trivia. 

When the first draft of the third film was scrapped, other ideas included a story set in ancient Egypt, a follow-up to Hellbound in which Pinhead attempted to resurrect himself (which would later be used as an exposition dump by Captain Elliot), and a building that functioned as a lament configuration. 

Writer Peter Atkins was originally meant to direct the film. But when Miramax bought the series, they felt he didn't have enough experience so they hired Anthony Hickox instead. Yeah, that's all fine and all but I think the result of the third act would've been less campy if Peter Atkins or Tony Randel was involved. Speaking of Tony Randel, he was rejected because the same people found his vision too "bleak." HA! please.

For a bonus point, Atkins' first draft of the third act was completely different. First of all, the barbie and DJ cenobites don't exist, thank god, and the ending shows Joey making a deal, once Pinhead and Captain Elliot merged together, as a willing bride in return for a successful life. In artistic terms, that ending sort of makes sense. Whereas in the official ending, the filmmakers decide to dumb Joey down into an idiot when Pinhead tricks her into giving him the box while disguised as her father, which reduces the sassy tough reporter into a damsel in distress for Captain Elliot to save. Which leads us to the amply rushed happy ending where Joey just plain stabs Pinhead.

Last but not least, the movie was mostly filmed in my home state of North Carolina just around the triad of Winston-Salem. For instance, the scene in the construction yard takes place on the campus of Wake Forest University. I actually used to drive there all the time.

Yeah, so this was a mixed bag. It started off okay. It was somewhat interesting. But then it turned into this campy mess and just sucks out the gothic ambiguity of the original. I can see that every decision made was meddled by studio executives and it shows. All I have to say is by the next film, it's only gonna get worse. 

My last word: Although it's so bad, it's good in some places, it's not well put together.