A reporter (Terry Farrell) is looking for the big story and finds it at The Boiler Room, a popular club where a young woman witnessed someone die in a very painful manner. Also, the reporter has dreams of her father, who died in Vietnam. And the origin of Pinhead!
Some people consider this one the best in the series. I am not one of those people. While there are many great aspects of this movie, the primitive special effects seem to subtract from the overall story. And continuing in the Hellraiser tradition, many things simply do not make sense. Who opened the art store? Where did the statue come from? Why does the statue not attack JP at first, but will later on?
As I say, the special effects are primitive. And I do not mind that, because at least they put in a solid offering. But some things just seem like they could have been done better. In Hellraiser parts 1 and 2, there was no problem creating a person without skin that looked creepy. We see another example in this film, but they also get "slurped" into a statue and this is very unconvincing. In 1992! The effects of the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" blow this out of the water. Others have complained about the cenobites looking like Borg rejects, and that is a fair point -- this film goes above and beyond in incorporating terrible ideas into cenobite bodies.
Terry Farrell does a fine job as the lead. She is a strong heroine, and unlike your typical horror woman, she has more brains than body. You might recognize Farrell as a character from the greatest sitcom on television in recent years, "Becker".
The plot is respectable. There really was no more story to tell about the Cotton family at this point. Moving on to show what lengths evil will go to in order to return to Earth was a good change. And brought to us by Peter Atkins (also the writer of part 4) and Anthony Hickox (who directed the incredible "Waxwork" films).
I do not care for the change in direction the films take from here, though, regarding the cenobites. I understand after explaining Pinhead's origin (something I am very thankful for) they opened the door for more cenobites, but this film and the fourth introduce some of the lamest characters with the lamest one-liners. The subplot of the father is okay, but also makes the Hellraiser mythology even more complex than it is... now we have Hell, Earth, the mind, who can and cannot touch the Lament Configuration... oy vey.
Obviously when a horror series gets going, the sequels are not going to be what the original was. You get paler and paler copies of the original (like "Multiplicity"). But "Hellraiser", unlike "Leprechaun", at least kept the quality respectable through part four... and some (though not myself) would say even up to part six. Check this one out to clear up some mysteries, then catch part four to get the whole story.
Some people consider this one the best in the series. I am not one of those people. While there are many great aspects of this movie, the primitive special effects seem to subtract from the overall story. And continuing in the Hellraiser tradition, many things simply do not make sense. Who opened the art store? Where did the statue come from? Why does the statue not attack JP at first, but will later on?
As I say, the special effects are primitive. And I do not mind that, because at least they put in a solid offering. But some things just seem like they could have been done better. In Hellraiser parts 1 and 2, there was no problem creating a person without skin that looked creepy. We see another example in this film, but they also get "slurped" into a statue and this is very unconvincing. In 1992! The effects of the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" blow this out of the water. Others have complained about the cenobites looking like Borg rejects, and that is a fair point -- this film goes above and beyond in incorporating terrible ideas into cenobite bodies.
Terry Farrell does a fine job as the lead. She is a strong heroine, and unlike your typical horror woman, she has more brains than body. You might recognize Farrell as a character from the greatest sitcom on television in recent years, "Becker".
The plot is respectable. There really was no more story to tell about the Cotton family at this point. Moving on to show what lengths evil will go to in order to return to Earth was a good change. And brought to us by Peter Atkins (also the writer of part 4) and Anthony Hickox (who directed the incredible "Waxwork" films).
I do not care for the change in direction the films take from here, though, regarding the cenobites. I understand after explaining Pinhead's origin (something I am very thankful for) they opened the door for more cenobites, but this film and the fourth introduce some of the lamest characters with the lamest one-liners. The subplot of the father is okay, but also makes the Hellraiser mythology even more complex than it is... now we have Hell, Earth, the mind, who can and cannot touch the Lament Configuration... oy vey.
Obviously when a horror series gets going, the sequels are not going to be what the original was. You get paler and paler copies of the original (like "Multiplicity"). But "Hellraiser", unlike "Leprechaun", at least kept the quality respectable through part four... and some (though not myself) would say even up to part six. Check this one out to clear up some mysteries, then catch part four to get the whole story.