Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth is often declared the point where the series, created by Clive Barker, based on one of his novels, plummeted downhill, transforming the series from a stylish,gruesome and twisted nightmare to a simple slasher franchise. In fairness to the third movie, the second film was a big step down from the first, but it does have to be said that Hell On Earth manages to take it down yet another notch, and is very easily the weakest of the original trilogy, and a brilliant example of a decent premise wasted.

For some reason, the recent DVD box set from Anchor Bay only goes up to this entry, which I can't see any reasoning behind. Sure a lot of people hate the movies that followed this one, but it isn't like this film, or Hellbound for that matter, are exactly classic either.

Released in 1992, a good few years after Hellbound, the film that would become Hellraiser 3 underwent many changes before emerging as the film we have today. The original plot didn't even feature Doug Bradley's 'Pinhead' character, and was set in ancient Egypt, revolving around a pyramid that was a Lament Configuration. Given that Pinhead had become the series icon, so a bit of re-writing had to be done, but according to Doug Bradley, the second script still didn't really resemble the finished movie much at all, other than the 'Hell on Earth' premise, but he makes mention of a building, a brothel, that was a giant lament configuration playing a crucial part. This element didn't make the movie, and the truth is that the original Hellraiser team had very little to do with this movie. Both Barker and the director of the previous movie, Tony Randel, fell out with the producers, so aside from writer Peter Atkins, Doug Bradley and a cameo from the goddess-like star of the first two films, Ashley Laurence, as well as the character of Pinhead and the puzzle box, this really has little to do with the first two movies.

The reason the film took so long to get going, is that barker and co.'s attempt to start a film company went under after releasing only one movie, another Barker novel adaptation, Nightbreed, and New World pictures, who had distributed the first two films had also went under, leaving the series, if you will pardon the pun, in limbo. Eventually Dimension films, an upstart company, took the series on, and this was their first release from the series, which is recently up to it's 8th entry.

Here our main character is an up and coming reporter named Joey(Terry Farrell - Red Sun Rising), who is bummed at not being able to get a big scoop. Then a story comes crashing into her upon a visit to hospital, when a sexy young goth girl named Terri(Paula Marshall - Warlock: The Armageddon) brings in a young man who has various hooked chains attached to him, hooked chains that rip him apart in front of Joey's eyes.

She tracks down Terri at the night club her sleazy boyfriend JP(Kevin Bernhardt - The Immortals) owns, named The Boiler Room. Terri tells Joey something about the boy getting that way because he stole part of a sculpture JP bought, with the part of the sculpture the boy took being the infamous Lament Configuration, a puzzle-box shaped passageway to hell. JP is obsessed with the macabre, and it isn't long before his blood is spilled on the sculpture, which it turns out contains the evil cenobite Pinhead(Doug Bradley - Nightbreed). The spilling of blood awakens him, and it isn't long before he is demanding JP brings him more bodies, so he can grow in power. JP eventually does this, and ends up getting sucked in himself, freeing Pinhead from his confines, and unleashing him upon the world to wreak havoc.

However, all is not lost, as the ghost of the man Pinhead once was, Elliot Spencer(Doug Bradley) contacts Joey through her dreams, and tries to help her defeat him, before he, and his under-construction army of new cenobites, unleash hell on earth.

The plot of Hell on Earth is really quite disappointing, especially for fans of the first two movies, because this basically ignores many of the concepts and rules of those films. The puzzle box has been completely changed in terms of purpose, it used to be the only way to summon the cenobites, and gain access to their hellish world and God,'Leviathon', but now it's simply a trinket that can be turned into a weapon(as it was in Hellbound, to better purpose) that can kill Pinhead.
While it does inject some nice ideas into the plot, the sculpture Pinhead comes out of was inspired by the asylum file of Kirsty Cotton, heroine of the first 2 films, but that doesn't explain how Pinhead himself got into it, or how the puzzle box managed to re-emerge.

The entire purpose of Pinhead has also went out of the window. He was never really a 'slasher', he simply tortured those who openened the puzzle box as a means to seek the ultimate pain/pleasure. He was once quoted as saying he was "angel to some, Devil to others", yet in this film, he actively acknowledges demonic status, and goes on a killing spree just because. It's quite a sad attempt at turning a unique icon of the horror genre into another Freddy Krueger, and the less said about his lame new cenobites, a 'camera-man' and 'CD-head' the better. Not only are they stupid ideas(the killer CD angle was done 2 years earlier, much better, in the Dolph Lundgren movie I Come in Peace), but they also spout out one-liners Robert Englund would have refused in a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel, and their basic existance is contradictory to the first 2 movies. I was under the impression that only those who sook the power to be a cenobite could become one, those two aforementioned monstrosities were made out of Joey's friend and a random DJ. The only person who actually gave any indication of wanting to be a cenobite would be JP, and he was easily the lamest, and most pointless of all of them. Come to think of it, even the name 'Cenobite' isn't used any more, they are simply referenced as 'demons', and Pinhead is actually referred to as 'Pinhead' in this movie.

I mean, in the film's defence, it does have a few nice scenes. The infamous 'Nightclub Massacre', gratuitous as it is, is quite striking, as is Pinhead's encounter with a priest, who upon pulling out a cross to ward him off gets it melted onto his hand, but sadly this scene is taken too far and simply becomes ridiculous, and the scene of him unleashing 'Hell on Earth' looks like cut footage from
Masters of the Universe. It's also never explained how he is so powerful in the real world. He just comes out and has the ability to make things blow up, fly around and do other god-like things.

The acting in the film can really be quite terrible at times, most notably from the first girl JP gives to Pinhead, but in general the performances aren't great. Marshall and Farrell are both passable, but on occasions both are guilty of verging into overacting and underacting, and really only Bradley's portrayal of Pinhead is above average. He truly did become a parallel to Robert Englund, in that he became about the only watchable aspect of many of the film's sequels. While Pinhead has now been reduced to a one-liner spouting parody of his former self, Bradley still manages to deliver them in that well-spoken, proper and thouroughly chilling manner, basically single handedly keeping the film afloat at times, also taking all of the best lines, with even his Elliot Spencer character taking a favourite of mine(upon being asked "What the hell is going on" he replies "hell is exactly what is going on"), and his deadpan sense of humour really adding some life to horrible lines.

The film brings back the excellent score composed for the first movie for the main titles, but in general, the soundtrack quickly degenerates to generic horror music and bad heavy metal. This was one of the true signs of the series decline from gothic chiller to teen-slasher.

In fairness to the film, it's effects aren't at all bad. Sure some of them are less than perfect, but hey, it was made in 1992, and not exactly on a blockbuster budget either. There's some passable morphing effects, as well as the excellent Pinhead make-up. Even the other Cenobites don't look that bad in terms of realsim, it's just their design sucks.

The film is once again not for the weak of stomach, with hooks tearing flesh aplenty. With that said, the context it's in makes it a lot less affecting as it was in the prequels, because they actually built up atmosphere around in. Here it really just feel thrown in for the sake of it at points.

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth isn't the worst horror movie ever. It is a lot better than the worst entries into the Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th and Halloween franchises, but at the same time, the fact that it's even got me comparing it to those series shows you just how far downhill the series had went from it's genesis. The film is wachable, but to be honest, I really don't see many people wanting to take it in more than once, and even then it's only really good for people who want to see every Hellraiser movie. I'd still love to see a Hellraiser movie about pyramids.

Review also posted at DooYoo.co.uk

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age