In a city without pain, a reporter, Joey (Terry Farrell), discovers a man being attacked by seemingly alive chains. Before she can get her scoop, the man explodes into a shower of meaty chunks. Hearing the story of a mysterious box, Joey tracks it down to an embarrassingly 90s club called The Boiler Room. There, she finds out that clubgoers are being fed into a pillar by some rich prick (Kevin Bernhardt) to sustain Pinhead (Doug Bradley) in an attempt to bring him and his legion of Cenobites back to the world. It's up to Joey to defeat the Cenobites and send them back to hell where they belong. . . or bring Hell on Earth.
In what's obviously the most action-packed of the first three films of the Hellraiser series, Hell on Earth seems to take a turn more for the style of the stalk-and-kill-type slashers, regardless of 1992 being a dead year for the slasher subgenre. All four of the major slasher series (Freddy, Jason, Michael, Chucky) had already reached their break by this point, so it seems that Hellraiser was either too late on becoming a 'slasher'-type film. . . or they just wanted to become a way to fill the void. Either way, while it made for a faster-paced Hellraiser, it did not make for a better one. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad film, because it's not. . . just very mediocre (which is the worst type of film to me). It's an interesting film just to see a new look at the franchise and there's a nice amount of the classic Hellraiser violence, gore, & horror. . . but the painfully good tension of the first two Hellraiser is greatly lost in exchange for all of the action. I would suggest this to fans of the franchise as there's a good amount of Cenobite action and all. . . even though some of the Cenobites are ridiculously dumb (I'm sorry, but CD-head? Gasoline-martini man? C'mon now). But, it's definitely the worst of the first three (the only ones I've seen thus far, but I have IV sitting in front of me ready to be watched & reviewed). . . but it did keep me entertained and that at least allows it to have an average rating.
Final verdict: 5.5/10.
In what's obviously the most action-packed of the first three films of the Hellraiser series, Hell on Earth seems to take a turn more for the style of the stalk-and-kill-type slashers, regardless of 1992 being a dead year for the slasher subgenre. All four of the major slasher series (Freddy, Jason, Michael, Chucky) had already reached their break by this point, so it seems that Hellraiser was either too late on becoming a 'slasher'-type film. . . or they just wanted to become a way to fill the void. Either way, while it made for a faster-paced Hellraiser, it did not make for a better one. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad film, because it's not. . . just very mediocre (which is the worst type of film to me). It's an interesting film just to see a new look at the franchise and there's a nice amount of the classic Hellraiser violence, gore, & horror. . . but the painfully good tension of the first two Hellraiser is greatly lost in exchange for all of the action. I would suggest this to fans of the franchise as there's a good amount of Cenobite action and all. . . even though some of the Cenobites are ridiculously dumb (I'm sorry, but CD-head? Gasoline-martini man? C'mon now). But, it's definitely the worst of the first three (the only ones I've seen thus far, but I have IV sitting in front of me ready to be watched & reviewed). . . but it did keep me entertained and that at least allows it to have an average rating.
Final verdict: 5.5/10.