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.

Queen of the Damned anniversary

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the 2002 adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned. Maybe by April or May, I might do a review on it since I'm currently reading the Vampire Chronicles. Right now, I'm in the middle of reading the Vampire Lestat, so I'm good to go. I am very fascinated by Egyptian mythology and I am quite interested in reading into great length of the third book since the movie really didn't have time to focus deep into the actual length of the novel. Even though Queen of the Damned is a bit of a mess, in my opinion, the best thing so far about the movie is the late singer/actress Aaliyah, who so committed and honestly her most memorable role. So in the few months be sure to take a look out. Can't wait!

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)

During the post-production of Hellraiser, a sequel was already greenlit, which brings back to the novel The Hellbound Heart. There was already room for the book to be left a sequel but since that didn't come through, the film version had a much greater chance.
Unfortunately, Clive Barker didn't return to write or direct, but, he did leave it at the hands of a capable director, who, while eluding to Barker's vision, also expanded the world of the hell dimension. The result was a pretty decent sequel. Does the script have issues? Yes, but at least it holds true to the original.
The Story: After the events of the first film, Kirsty, suffering from trauma, is placed in a psychiatric hospital for further evaluation. Upon discovering that her stepmother Julia's blood is on the mattress of her father's house, Kirsty warns Doctor Channard and his assistant Kyle to destroy it. But unbeknownst to her, Doctor Channard has plans of his own. It just so happens, he's been researching about the Lament Configuration for years and seems to have had a thing for Julia before she met Larry. As a way to bring her back, Doctor Channard brings one of his disturbed patients as bait and is able to bring Julia back from the hell dimension but at the cost of her once beautiful skin. Kyle witnesses all this whilst in hiding and runs out and warns Kirsty of what he's seen.
Meanwhile, Kirsty has grown a bond with one of the patients, a young teenager by the name of Tiffany.
To further his devious plan, Doctor Channard uses more patients for Julia to feast upon, completing the transformation of her newfound beauty.
Seeing visions of her father's skinless body, writing the words, "help me, I'm in hell." Kirsty soon goes on a mission to rescue her father and stop Julia and Doctor Channard's plans of grabbing the puzzle box and unleash the havoc of the dimensional god Leviathan and his Cenobites.

Whew! That was a lot of story to tell. Although Clive Barker didn't write the entire script this time, much of his influence was included in the story. I can see that this meant to be the sequel to The Hellbound Heart but I guess his schedule got in the way. So let's move to the cast and crew.

What I really appreciate about this movie is that you have two strong female characters, one a hero, one a villain, that is able to drive a movie on their own.

First, let's start with Kirsty, who is more feisty and determined as ever.  The film is very much focused on her by using her wits and intuition.

Kirsty is quite the brave one, facing head-on as she goes through the labyrinth of hell, even when she comes to face her own demons.

Though Ashely Laurence gives an okay performance, she is still able to carry the film.

But the real star of the movie is Julia. In the first movie, she was introduced as this reluctant housewife seduced by her lover to do devious things.

Now she is a woman of her own, fully aware of what power she holds. Just like Frank, coming back from the hell dimension made her bit evil, a bit power-hungry, and it totally fits the character.

Along with her newfound confidence, she also has a glamorous evil makeover. Claire Higgins fully embraces the role of turning Julia into this fierce badass.

No longer the victim of Frank's lust, Julia now takes charge and is willing to satisfy her own revenge by tearing out his heart for betraying her. Julia is by far the best antagonist for this series. I would've like to see more of her.

Doctor Channard has probably been established by Clive Barker before and there is a sort of organic way he fits into the story. He is one of the vilest villains this series has yet. He is fascinated by body mutilation, treats his sickest patients like caged animals without giving them proper care, kills a kid's mother, performs a brain operation to erase memory of said murder, and imprisons her as one of his patients, and last of all kills half of his patients for Julia to feast upon.

His cenobite design is also disgustingly creepy and strange. By turning him into a cenobite, it makes the character vicious and quite frankly unstoppable. Kenneth Cranham gives off a subtle performance, in which any other case, would come off as hammy or over-the-top. That's what makes his character so chilling. His curiosity when it comes to human anatomy soon evolves him into a sociopathic killer. Hell! He's even worse than Frank! If Clive Barker so happens to add this character into the Hellbound Heart sequel, he would've been an interesting addition.

Now we have the character of Tiffany. Not much is known about her other than she obsessively solves puzzles, which would later be used as a plot point.

She is mute and that is by the trauma of witnessing Doctor Channard murdering her mother. Although there's not much to her, I do find the character interesting and I would've like to see her play a part in the third movie as it she who closes the hell portal and defeats Doctor Channard. Imogen Poots did a fairly good job of portraying the vulnerable Tiffany and provides subtle expressions without saying anything. It's a shame the character wasn't mentioned in any of the movies after that.

Kyle was...let's say, not so bright. He's not as useless as Steven in the first movie, he does try to figure things out and help Kirsty along the way but when it comes to pure common sense on his part, it goes all out the window. I know it's reliable for people to act dumb in horror movies to move the plot forward but I wish they could've been another way to off Kyle.

Okay, the gist is, he gets lured out by Julia, who at this point doesn't have a clue who she is, and pretty much sees the bodies that she's eaten.

This could be a warning sign for him to just, you know, run out and warn Kirsty, but no, he just stands there in repulse and soon becomes accessible to having Julia suck his organs out. William Hope, who's mostly known for being in Aliens, was okay for what he's given, though, Kyle was written as a reactionary character.

Aw yes! The cenobites! Once again, they are grotesquely gorgeous as ever with more design and a lot more character.

Doug Bradley as always gives another great performance as Pinhead. In Hellbound, there is a much needed backstory for Pinhead, though, in my opinion, I wish they would save some of this information in the third movie but I digress. Okay, so it turns out that the Cenobites were once human. Some point or other, one of them grabbed a hold of the puzzle box and it somehow turned them into these monstrous beings. For instance, the female cenobite was a nun and the chatter was a twelve-year boy. It just comes to show that the box has no mercy.
Once this is all revealed, the cenobites lose their muster when they fight against Doctor Channard as he kills them one by one. To me, this is one of the weaker points of the movie because the cenobites have such an iconic look and design that they would've had a mainstay in the franchise. Comparing to the cenobites of the later movies are just lackluster.

Okay, on to the special effects. Boy, this movie is go-or-ry! It's twice as brutal and twice as violent as the first in how it really gets into the skin of things. Trust me, this movie doesn't hold back. The makeup and design are top-notch and the setpieces are at a bigger scale now, which I appreciate. 

I like that the characters have to run through these weird mazes once they jump inside the labyrinth as it gives off an Alice in Wonderland-esque vibe to the world building.
The directing is fantastic. Tony Randall really did a good job of capturing Clive Barker's vision and embracing the fluidity of the first movie. Tony Randall did not disappoint and gave each amount of respect for the source material.
The writing is a bit iffy, kind of rushed. By the beginning of the movie, Kirsty is already there at the institution. What? They couldn't put her in a regular hospital? Then there's the case of Julia's body on the mattress with the puzzle box intact. Okay, how did she get there? It's not really explained. Though, they did get one thing right by getting all of the cut scenes from the first movie to interject in the sequel. But there are two more writing errors in the film, which I will discuss in our trivia section and by the end of the review.
Clive Barker had originally developed elaborate backstories for the Cenobites in the first film, though their origins were never explored. In this film, he wanted to make sure that, at the very least, the audience understood that the cenobites were once human and that their own vices led to their becoming demons. This element was meant to underline the story of Frank and Julia and their corruption by lust, with Julia intended to become the ultimate villain of the series.

THIS. WOULD. HAVE. BEEN. AWESOME. Julia was really growing as a character at this point. Her path to villainy played out perfectly. As you can see here, there was an alternate ending with Julia coming out of the large pillar, with her blue dress turning black, hinting that she has become the new queen of hell. Serving Julia as the new queen of hell would've been an epic plot for the third movie. But sadly, Pinhead proved much popular with the audience and thus leads us to our next movie (ho hum).
An In-depth subplot detailing the origins of Pinhead was scripted but deleted in pre-production due to last-minute budget cuts. All that remains of this subplot is the film's prologue, showing Captain Elliot Spencer opening the box and transforming into Pinhead.

Some part of me wished they would save the revelation that Pinhead was once human and just the kept the opening scene as a mystery. Though, his backstory is more explained, albeit in a clunky way, in the third movie.
Okay, one of the last writing mishaps was the return of Larry Cotton. Andrew Robinson was asked to reprise his role but refused. I guess he didn't want to be typecast but it's a bummer because he was one of the best parts of the first movie. So this led to a lot of rewrites during the middle of production.

The basis was Larry sends out a message to Kirsty to save him, in which Kirsty eventually finds him and he saves Kirsty from Frank when they battle it out, sort of Kirsty in the novel, would save Rory if there was a sequel to Hellbound Heart.

INSTEAD, Kirsty is tricked by Frank and somehow wants her to be his sex slave. Uh, ew! So in a sense, Kirsty is saved by Julia, of all people, once Frank is distracted by her beauty. Such a shame, bringing back Larry would have been a kickass moment but, oh well, I guess they wanted to wrap things up. Which brings me to my last issue with the script. Not only the beginning felt rushed but the climax was rushed as well.

SPOILERS******

How on earth can Kirsty fit into Julia's skin that heap of time?

And uh, ew! Why would she wear someone's skin?

Not only that, she kisses the Doctor Channard Cenobite on the lips as a way to distract him while Tiffany closes the portal. How gross is that? Really, Kirsty, really?

END OF SPOILERS******

So that was Hellbound: Hellraiser 2. I really enjoyed this one and it's by far the best sequel this series got so far. Everything about the movie felt organic and told the story in such a cathartic way by making it bigger and broader.
When you look back at it, it could've been a fantastic franchise. But by the third movie, All was scrapped and the story wouldn't have any meat without Pinhead. Which will lead us to our next review. But besides that, Hellbound is a solid addition to the series and I highly recommend it.
My Last Word: A definite Yes.