"Hellraiser III" significantly ups the bar in production values compared to the 2 previous films. Actually filmed in America this time (the other 2 were shot in Britain although they were set in America), everything about "Hellraiser III" is bigger, grander and more spectacular than its predecessors.
Apart from the story, that is. Although Clive Barker is an executive producer, his hand is noticeably absent from the screenplay. Bolted together by Peter Atkins and a hack who went on to work with the Power Rangers, the story loses a lot of its emotional appeal. The film focuses more on gore and spectacle than the original tale of obsession, love and loss, and is weaker as a result. Attempts are made to provide the heroine with an emotional back-story, but they descend into cliché by using that tired old "I lost my father/brother/son/hamster in Vietnam" plot device.
I could tell that I wasn't engaging with the story when I noted the use of an old-fashioned wireless set as a way of initially communicating with the Pinhead Cenobite's original human persona. Captain Spencer is meant to have been a British army officer from WWI (1914-1918), but public radio broadcasting didn't start in Britain until 1922. Being able to nitpick like this when you've paid to watch something on the big screen is not the sign of a particularly good film.
The idea of a Cenobite without any moral compass reduces Pinhead (A horror creation on a par with Dracula, in my opinion) to the same level as every other stereotypical celluloid purveyor of pointless cruelty and ultra-violence.
Adding insult to injury, the closing credits are accompanied by some amorphous Goth-rock band belting out a track called "Hellraiser". How imaginative. All the ambiguity, magic and mystery of the original films has been well and truly bled out by "Hellraiser III". Avoid.
Apart from the story, that is. Although Clive Barker is an executive producer, his hand is noticeably absent from the screenplay. Bolted together by Peter Atkins and a hack who went on to work with the Power Rangers, the story loses a lot of its emotional appeal. The film focuses more on gore and spectacle than the original tale of obsession, love and loss, and is weaker as a result. Attempts are made to provide the heroine with an emotional back-story, but they descend into cliché by using that tired old "I lost my father/brother/son/hamster in Vietnam" plot device.
I could tell that I wasn't engaging with the story when I noted the use of an old-fashioned wireless set as a way of initially communicating with the Pinhead Cenobite's original human persona. Captain Spencer is meant to have been a British army officer from WWI (1914-1918), but public radio broadcasting didn't start in Britain until 1922. Being able to nitpick like this when you've paid to watch something on the big screen is not the sign of a particularly good film.
The idea of a Cenobite without any moral compass reduces Pinhead (A horror creation on a par with Dracula, in my opinion) to the same level as every other stereotypical celluloid purveyor of pointless cruelty and ultra-violence.
Adding insult to injury, the closing credits are accompanied by some amorphous Goth-rock band belting out a track called "Hellraiser". How imaginative. All the ambiguity, magic and mystery of the original films has been well and truly bled out by "Hellraiser III". Avoid.