Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

5/10

TheLittleSongbird26 October 2018

Despite appreciating horror very much (with a lot of classic ones out there, such as 'Halloween', 'Nightmare on Elm Street', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'The Exorcist', plus the best of Hammer House of Horror), even if not my favourite genre, it took me a while to get round to watching the 'Hellraiser' franchise. Due to having so much to watch and review, and the list keeps getting longer and longer.

The film that started the franchise off is not only for me by far the best of the 'Hellraiser' films it also for me, and quite a few others it seems, is one of the stronger horror films of the 80s, though not quite of all time. What is meant by being by far the best of the 'Hellraiser' films is that it is the only one to be above very good, the nine sequels were very variable (leaning towards the disappointing) and the latter films particularly are suggestive of the franchise having run its course.

From personal opinion, while a bit of a disappointment 'Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth' is still watchable and one of the better sequels in the series. Would say actually it is second best after 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II'.

Quite a fair few good things here in 'Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth'. The production were fine, do prefer the nightmarishly Gothic look of the first two films but the film looks very stylish and atmosphere with visual effects that aren't overused or abused and actually a little more polished than 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II'. The theme song is quite memorable, while there are some imaginative and disturbing kills and Pinhead's scene in the church is one of the best in the series, hair-raising and wickedly funny.

Did like the effort to give development to Pinhead and his story is interesting, regardless of whether it fitted within the rest of the film or not. Doug Bradley is genuinely intimidating and Terry Farrell does a decent job.

It is hard however to ignore the drawbacks. 'Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth' lacks the creepiness and ambition of the previous two films, there is a lot of silliness and camp humour and it does undermine any creepiness or suspense and it just feels completely different tonally compared to its predecessors. The dialogue is toe-curling this time and didn't really see any need for some of the gore, which didn't unnerve that much and came over as cheap and gratuitous instead.

Also thought the story, while slightly more coherent than parts of 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II', made little sense and was muddled. The rest of the acting is laughable and the Cebonites are nowhere near as creepy or mysterious. Worst of all is the ridiculously over-the-top and far-fetched ending, that was even more of an incomprehensible parody as the one in the previous film.

Overall, watched and one of the better 'Hellraiser' sequels but could have been better. 5/10 Bethany Cox

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5/10

Hellraiser falls by the wayside

Tophee11 January 1999

Watching this film as part of a four movie Hellraiserthon, I was full of expectation after the brilliance of the first two films. This third venture was a total disappointment, replacing the plot and tension of the earlier films with pretty girls and lots of mindless violence. The only saving grace was the excellent performance by Doug Bradley as a very confident and menacing Pinhead. Personally, I'd watch the first two films many times again, but skip this vacation from quality.

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6/10

'Hellraiser' without the suspense, tension, or intelligence

Shattered_Wake2 August 2008

Warning: Spoilers

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.

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What happened?

Jawn1388 October 2001

Warning: Spoilers

I'm not quite sure what happened to poor ol' Pinhead, but his character sure got an overhaul for this misfire of a film. He is transformed from his more mysterious visage into a gimmicky Freddy Krueger-type mass-murderer.

Once upon a time in the series, you had to open a puzzlebox searching for the secrets of pain and pleasure to be attacked by the Cenobites. But no more. Hell, all you have to do now is go to a nightclub and you're on the victims list. Sillyness abounds as the DJ becomes a CD throwing cenobite and a cameraman launches missiles (yes, missiles) from the lens buried in his head. Stupid.

Way off base when compared with the rest of the series, and not worth your time.

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3/10

Bloodier and Dumber

view_and_review9 April 2020

Look, we've already seen what Pinhead can do with his hooks and chains, but how is he back into action?

It makes no sense to go into the details of how Pinhead came back after being destroyed in part two. Through some improbable and convoluted way involving a copper statue, the box, and a pompous night club owner, Pinhead was brought back to life in New York. Now he's in the real world and he is seeking to stay.

A struggling reporter named Joanne "Joey" Summerskill (Terry Farrell) has the box and the ability to send Pinhead back to hell. The way to send him back to hell is very vague and uninformative, but at least Joey understands... I think.

This entire episode was a mess. No one is going to accuse horror movies of being intelligent, but some are dumber than others. Pinhead still desires pleasures and flesh, but the victims this time around are just set pieces, they have no personalities and no true characteristics besides vapidity. "Hell on Earth" went for maximum carnage as though that was an adequate replacement for substance. So many horror movie franchises do that once they get into their third, fourth, and fifth episodes. Their idea wells run dry so they just reach for the body count button as though that will mask the pitiful plot when all it does is make the movie bloodier and dumber.

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7/10

Needed More... Though, Not A Bad Film...

P3n-E-W1s37 March 2018

Here's part three of the Hellraiser Saga... Once again this continues from where the last film ended, though it's a looser connection. The battle between Pinhead (Bradley) and his original human self, Captain Elliott Spencer, allowed him to break free of hells shackles. Entrapped in a monolith, he is awoken by Sandy (Leigh), when an accidental cut splashes blood on his stone features. Revealing himself to JP Monroe (Bernhardt), an unscrupulous womanising club owner, Pinhead makes a deal to free himself from his confines and to help JP to achieve his dreams...

This leads to lots of twists and turns in the storyline as you know you can't trust a daemon. The only thing which stands in his way is an aspiring investigative reporter, Joanne "Joey" Summerskill (Farrell), who's investigating the gory and violent murders which are appearing in the city.

The first thing that becomes evident is the amount of budget available for this film. Instead of being kept within the confines of a house or a hospital, now we're out in New York City. Penthouses, apartments, clubs, restaurants, ally's and streets. The locations are so much bigger. This is good, as it gives scope for a larger story with more hellish violence and gore... and it nearly delivers. Nearly, because the scene where the Cenobites finally take to the streets is actually underwhelming. What was required were a few more Cenobites and quite a few more victims, both pedestrians and police. It's nice to have explosions... I just wanted more.

The acting is okay, Bradley still stands out and is excellent as Pinhead. Farrell does a good job as the reporter. However, it's Bernhardt and Marshall, who plays Terri, who have their bouts of woodenness. The direction too is quite different from the first two, gone are the artistic and atmospheric lighting for a more natural feel. This is okay, but the film does lose a little of its mood and spirit, which added strength to the first two movies. I can understand the need for doing this. If you expand the daemons universe to include a lot more of reality then it stands to reason to get that feeling across would be to lose the more imaginative aspects of the filmmaking. That said there are still quite a few iconic shots, such as the entrance of Pinhead at the club and later in the church, and nicely thought out camera shots and angles.

Though I didn't find it as good as the first films it's still as enjoyable, though for different reasons... and as Pinhead would attain, variety is the spice of life.

Another good thing is that this film actually works as a stand-alone, you only need a vague idea about the previous stories; whereas, Hellbound actually made you feel as though you should have watched the first film before viewing. So for that reason, I would recommend this to all horror fans and newbies alike. This is a well written, structured, and acted film... which has its fair share of tension, fear, and suspense.

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3/10

Hell used to be a better place

Gê10 July 2002

I liked the first two Hellraiser movies, they had good ideas and good scary visual, but I did not like Hellraiser III. I think it was made at the beginning of the CGI (Computer Generated Graphics) effects "fashion", but CGI was not yet prepared for a horror movie, at least not with their budget :) Props, make-up and even stop-motion would do a better job.

Oh! And (sadly) there were the new kinds of cenobites. I did not watch this sequel to see what new cenobite would came up, I was expecting a good and clever horror movie like the other ones, but instead I got lame cenobites, bad CGI effects, badly used cliches and a weak story. Sometimes it seemed they were making a bad parody. I even did not want to see the following movies, afraid that they would make dislike the whole series.

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6/10

An Okay 3rd Installment

Gafke22 January 2006

Where Hellraiser 1 and 2 were both very dark and very British, Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth is very Hollywood.

J. P. Monroe is the scumbag, soulless owner of The Boiler Room, a somewhat gothy dance club decorated with morbid art. In his search for more profane objects to add to his collection, J. P. comes across, and subsequently purchases, an odd pillar in an art gallery, which fans of the first two films will have no trouble recognizing. Enter Joey Summerskill, a frustrated reporter who comes across a bizarre death in a hospital emergency room. As she watches, a young man is torn to pieces by hooks and chains that appear out of midair. Eager to discover the story behind the gruesome, supernatural death, and with only one clue to follow, Joey arrives at the Boiler Room and befriends the insecure and abused Terri, J. P.'s ex girlfriend. Together, they discover the history of the Lament Configuration, the bizarre happenings at the Channard Institute and the story of Kirsty Cotton. But it doesn't end there. Joey begins having dreams about a man named Elliot Spencer, a World War One soldier who warns her that evil has been unleashed in the form of his own evil alter ego, the Cenobite Pinhead. Indeed, Pinhead soon breaks free and turns The Boiler Room into a slaughterhouse. Now he wants Joey. But can Elliot Spencer stop Pinhead before Joey is taken to Hell?

This isn't a terrible sequel, really. It's not great, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of the others that followed. There's some nice bloody gore and naked girls, and Pinhead, as always, seems to be enjoying himself immensely, seducing his victims with a smile and making his offer of an eternity of pain seem quite irresistible. His scene with a priest is particularly nasty and blasphemous...and wickedly funny. The storyline doesn't always make sense, there's a lot of unintentionally laughable moments and some of the acting borders on the ridiculous, but all in all, Hellraiser 3 is pretty good cinematic junk food. If nothing else, Doug Bradley alone always makes these films watchable with his flawless portrayal of Pinhead.

6 out of 10.

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1/10

Pinewood to Hollywood - A Step Too Far

extravaluejotter28 August 2006

Warning: Spoilers

"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.

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6/10

going mainstream

SnoopyStyle27 October 2018

In New York City, Pinhead, the puzzle box, and the other Cenobites are trapped in a pillar. J. P. Monroe buys it for his nightclub, The Boiler Room. Frustrated TV reporter Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell) encounters Terri (Paula Marshall) at the hospital who brought in a victim of the club. She decides to investigate when her story is turned down. Terri turns out to be one of Monroe's many girlfriends and she has the box.

This is the franchise turning into a more standard horror. It has the skin-ripping fun. The characters work. I love Farrell from Star Trek and she's fine as the protagonist. I like the mind games from Pinhead. The WWI dream stuff can be better substituted with an additional character. It's trying to explain the monster when it doesn't need explaining. It does give a final solution which is very important. Honestly, Pinhead is a brilliant monster design. The new ones are pretty cheesy. The camera and the CD Cenobites can exists no other time. They even try some quippy dialogue although Pinhead is undefeated as a character.

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2/10

Money: the root of all evil

gomi2830 June 2002

Although the first 2 were under budget and the SFX were very bad, they followed the original story. Hellraiser and Hellbound were not about nail-biting edge of your seat gags and one-liners, it was about presenting a concept most people are exposed to but do not think of. We are taught that Heaven is where we all want to go to, and Hell is bad, but what if it were switched and hell is what we strived for. Barker was trying to make a twist on Puritian belifes as he feels trapped or banished from "regular" society as can also be seen in "Nightbreed". In Hellraiser, only those that make an attempt will be blessed with "an experience beyond limits... pain and pleasure, indivisible." It isn't about mass distruction and death, it is about people comming to terms with what awaits us after this world.

Even on a tight budget the "real" hellraisers were successful, so a big company, Paramount, thought "Why can't we make $$ off of this thing". So this 3rd attempt had a larger budget and threw a bunch of special effects in, found some witty one-line writers, used Doug Bradley and the box, but never bothered to read anything Clive Barker did. Just because Doug Bradley is Pinhead doesn't mean they know what they are doing. They took a good story and made it into a generic slasher movie. The cenobites didn't even have the corpse like blue skin signifying lack of blood.

It started out OK, but in the middle they made some idiotic decisions: Random people become cenobites (you have to strive to become a cenobite, Frank and Julia never were), these cenobites have CDs and cameras in their heads??!?! WHAT THE HELL??!?!

If you like "Nightmare on Elm Street" and have no clue what the real Hellraiser stories (as in before the movies were even thought of, like in the comic books) this might be good for you, as it wasn't lacking in Hollywood fluff, but for anyone that knows who Grizlard was, this was a disapointing derailment of a good concept.

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8/10

Ya know...

Skyfish27 January 2004

Warning: Spoilers

Being a slasher horror fan during it's rising in the late 70's early 80's I watched the first 2 HellRaiser films and when I saw part 3 I was disapointed. But watching it again (HBO 01/27/04) I gotta say I was impressed with the story in general.

I Really got into the last bit where the PinHead chracter confronts it's "good self" Very good plot twist written in the classic feel for the character.

If you were a fan of the first and second HellRaiser films rewatch 3 with an open mind... time heals all wounds.

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6/10

The "waste" of a perfectly good franchise

Coventry15 October 2003

first of all, Hellraiser III isn't a BAD film. In fact, it's quite good if it would stand on its own. And it certainly is one of the more decent efforts in the overall disappointing decade of the 90's. Compared to the first two Hellraisers, however, it's a bit of a failure. Hellraiser ('87) and Hellbound ('88) were horrorfilms in the purest possible form and my two all-time favorites. There were 4 indicators in those movies that brought them close to being the definition of horror.

1. Creating a unique and utterly morbid atmosphere (through settings, music etc...)

2. Building up an unbearable tension ( the occasional twists etc..)

3. Showing nasty and very bloody sequences in a beautiful way

4. The presence of a true horror icon !! ( in this case...PINHEAD )

Hellraiser III fails to at least 3 of these points...The dark and macabre settings from Hell and the mental institution are replaced by a bar which plays horrible rock music, there's almost no tension to detect and it's a very predictable story. The gore however is still present, but the quality of it doesn't come near the originals. The Boiler Room massacre puts Clive Barker to shame, I think. The whole story know turns around the character of Pinhead. He's more than ever the star of this movie and that almost goes wrong. He talks too much and he even starts to become funny. That certainly isn't good for a horror icon. ( Look at what a joke Fred Krueger became ). Director Anthony Hickox obviously is a big fan of Pinhead and he wanted the movie to be especially about him. Every now and then Hickox tries to link this film to the original story but it clearly isn't his biggest concern. The tapes about Kirsty in the Chanard institute and the dream-sequences where Joey meets Elliot Spencer are too fake and forced. The movie does explain where Pinhead comes from but it certainly isn't stressed enough...

Hellraiser III goes very much over the top near the end and I almost lost my love towards Pinhead after the church scene ! I'm trying to forget that particular part. It really is a shame that this movie is part of the series. If this would have been a new film ( with a new demon ) it would have been an enjoyable, well-made change. But as part of a great series it fails to deliver and you're left behind with a disappointment. This movie was followed by episode 4: Bloodline and a few others after that. The fourth is a surprisingly good attempt to bring back the spirit of the original ones and should be watched directly after the first two. Everything that came after part 4 should be skipped unless you're a die-hard Pinhead fan.

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2/10

It's rare when I can say it, but this was abysmal.

PlayerSS2 June 2006

Warning: Spoilers

I just went back and watched first two before this one. What was Doug Bradley thinking when he signed on to put Pinhead through this? There are quite a lot of things wrong with this movie.

First off Pinhead is way to "humanized" in this one. He talks a lot which makes him more human and less demon from Hell. I also didn't like how it wasn't really Pinhead doing all the killings. It was just a shell of Spencer's former evil manifested on earth. I hated that. I couldn't believe it when it pointlessly started laughing during the club scene as well. Which brings me to my next points.

The movie was way to urban to be a Hellraiser movie. I didn't like it that it took place in a club a lot and in the city. Plus Pinhead and the cenobites were exposed to way to many people. What ever happened to the only people seeing them was the people that figured out the box? That took away a lot of mystery of them.

Next is all the pointless scenes of gore. I'm a big fan of gore, but the gore meant completely nothing in the movie as compared to the last ones. The club scene where Pinhead out of no where just kills a bunch of people is a shame.

They tried so hard to make Pinhead the anti-hero villain like Jason or Freddy eventually became, but by this time nobody was asking him to be the anti-hero. This was only the third movie. I didn't feel for anybody in the movie and they tried desperately to make people care about Pinhead for some reason.

Next up is the freakin cheesy new Cenobites. I'm sorry, but a fat bartender Cenobite isn't going to replace butterball Cenobite. WTF was up with the camera Cenobite and his one liners? I also had to chuckle at the CD Cenobite.

The pay off to the Spencer/Pinhead separation was done decent, but Spencer and Pinhead being separated really wasn't needed in the first place. Oh well it's rule that classic horror series must be turned into jokes.

In the end this movie was completely abysmal. Which there's not many movies that earn that title from me. Pinhead was elevated to the central character and humanized a lot, because of all the lines he had and his actions. The desperate attempt at making Pinhead the anti-hero villain didn't work for me.

The pay off to the Spencer/Pinhead separation was done decent, but Spencer and Pinhead being separated really wasn't needed in the first place. Part 4 actually seems good in comparison.

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The Worst of the First Three

spacelord4 November 2000

I have yet to see Bloodline or Inferno, but Hell on Earth is the worst of the first three Hellraiser movies. It lacks both the wit and the sheer terror of the first two films. What's more, it breaks the rules established in the previous Hellraiser films (that is, Cenobites cannot harm the truly innocent, the Cenobites can be summoned or banished by the box, and so on). And while Pinhead actually spoke very little in the first two films, in Hell on Earth he is downright talky. Unfortunately, only a few of his lines are very memorable. It is unfortunate that Clive Barker did not have more to do with this movie (he wrote and directed the first and wrote the story for the second), as it might have turned out much better.

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5/10

Should have been done better

nightshade77725 May 2006

Warning: Spoilers

I'm a great fan of Hellraiser and I like Pinhead a lot for he is one of the greatest characters in Horror history. By now, I've just watched the first three films of the series. I very enjoyed the first two films, for they had a very cool and creepy atmosphere and were some masterpiece of dark art. But Hellraiser 3 never reaches the level of these two flicks. First of all I missed the great scenes in hell that made Hellraiser 2 such a great and stylish film. Secondly, the acting of some of the main characters is very bad, especially Terry, although the actress is very pretty. Thirdly, there is too much Pinhead. Don't get me wrong, as I already said above, I very like this character, but sometimes less is more, it should be something special and thus rare when he appears, and in this film he appears much too often. Though I liked the idea to bring his human form into play. What I also disliked is the whole disco setting. Although I'm a great Heavy Metal Fan, I didn't enjoy the whole thing, for it lacks the darkness that the first two films had in them. And Hellraiser should not include these massacres, they're under Pinhead's contempt, not his style!

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6/10

"Down the dark decades of your pain this will seem like heaven." Disappointing third instalment.

poolandrews7 January 2006

Warning: Spoilers

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth starts in a New York art galley where night club owning playboy J.P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt) buys an interesting & unique piece of art, a sculpture that contains the remains of Pinhead (Doug Bradley) the sadistic Cenobite from the original Hellriaser (1987) & Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988). Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell) is a journalist on assignment reporting for a news program from an emergency ward in a Hospital where she is witness to a strange incident. A guy is rushed in with hooks attached to chains piercing his flesh, Joey looks on as the guy's head explodes. The guy was brought in with a girl named Terri (Paula Marshall) whom Joey locates & questions about the incident. Terri says that the guy stole a strange puzzle box from Monroe's sculpture & that's where the hooks came from, the sculpture is in Monroe's night club The Boiler Room. Joey is determined to find out the secret of the puzzle box & land herself a big story. Meanwhile Pinhead has convinced Monroe to bring him victims so that he may resurrect himself & raise hell on earth...

Directed by Anthony Hickox this is the point where it's generally agreed the Hellraiser series became crap, while Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth isn't really that bad it's nowhere near as good as it's illustrious predecessors. The script by Peter Atkins, who also makes an appearance as one of the new Cenobites, turns the series into the crappy horror franchise that it has become & tries as hard as it can to appeal to the American teenage market, ugh. For a start it makes a central character out of Pinhead, the previous films were never just about him, they were about an overall feel, creepiness & atmosphere & not revolving around a invulnerable horror character spouting lots of one-liners. The other Cenobites also disappoint, instead of the twisted grotesque design from the previous films Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth turns them into a gimmick, from a bartender (writer Peter Atkins in a cameo) who uses his fire breath to ignite alcohol, a DJ (Brent Bolthouse) who has CD's implanted in his face & he uses them to throw at people (they must have razor edges or something) & Doc (Ken Carpenter) as the cameraman who has a camera stuck through his head, right. They come across as tacky & crowd pleasing. In the previous films the Cenobites were kept in the background, all mysterious & menacing while this time around they dominate & have little purpose. The films starts off a bit slow but things pick up at the end & it's not a bad watch but just comes a such a disappointment after the two originals which were two of the best horrors to come along in decades.

Director Hickox has to take responsibility for ruining the series. The films set in New York, again to appeal to American audiences, he gives Pinhead's alter ego Elliot Spencer a large role & it all becomes supernatural & muddled. In the end Pinhead fights himself & it's just mundane. The other Cenobites are wasted, they use their 'special power' to kill someone & that's it. The puzzle box is almost completely forgotten & is no longer needed to summon the Cenobites. The dark atmosphere & tension present in the previous films is severely lacking & replaces them with explosions & silly novelty deaths. There are a few decent gore scenes, hooks embedded in flesh, exploding heads, severed limbs, skinless people, a hole on someones head, a melted hand & death by lethal CD's!

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth had studio backing which is why it ended up so commercialised so it probably had a decent budget. The film looks nice throughout & has good production values. The acting didn't impress me.

This is a disappointing film yet at the same time not a particularly bad one in it's own right. If you liked the first two for their originality, darkness & gore then I'm pretty sure that you will be very disappointed with Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth like I was. Having said that I still think it's OK & worth a watch.

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4/10

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

Bleeding_Edge18 September 2022

After witnessing a horrific killing, a TV reporter begins investigating a popular night club where the cenobite Pinhead lays dormant.

Hellraiser III stars Terry Farrell as Joey, a reporter who's frustrated with the assignments she's been sent on. After witnessing a unexplainable death, she teams up with Terri (Paula Marshall), a homeless clubgoer, and the two investigate the events of the previous movies as well as a club called "The Boiler Room".

Meanwhile, douchebag club owner J. P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt) purchases The Pillar of Souls seen at the end of Hellraiser II from an art show (except the pillar is now completely stone, rather than wood). Unsurprisingly, Pinhead escapes and goes on a rampage throughout the city - which is New York, as opposed to the UK setting of the first two films.

Hellraiser III commits the sin of being generic as... Hell (pun intended). The nightmare fueled visuals of the first two installments are gone; instead, Pinhead is dropped into mundane apartments, city streets, a nightclub, and even a field during broad daylight. The film looks like every other early-1990's horror movie.

Story wise, at the risk of sounding redundant, I have to once again invoke the word "generic". The characters are bland; the plot is predictable. Worse, there isn't much horror here. Sure, there's gore, but there's no tension. We're never really worried about any particular character's safety (though that's partially due to how forgettable they are). In fact, I'd say Hellraiser III has more action than horror, thanks to an explosion filled third act featuring a battle with the Cenobites. Speaking of whom...

Unlike the previous movies, Pinhead (Doug Bradley) gets a ton of screen time. This is a problem because Hellraiser III's version of Pinhead is terrible! When he's not belting out awful one-liners, he's always laughing or screaming; the character is insanely over the top. Furthermore, the filmmakers also screwed up the Pinhead's look. The nails in his head are way too big (they're supposed to be pin nails - it's in the name!), there's not enough blueing around the eyes, and nothing was done to his voice in post production. Pinhead is a mockery in this movie; a dollar store version of Freddy Krueger.

As for the rest of the Cenobites, none of the other originals (Butterball, Chatterer, Deep Throat) return. Instead, we get hilariously bad replacements which include a DJ who shoots CDs as a weapon, and one with a film camera for an eye. I wouldn't even call them Cenobites; they're more like Deadites from the Evil Dead series, constantly spouting out one liners. If you didn't know any better you'd think the big action scene featuring these characters was some kind of weird parody.

In summary, Hellraiser III isn't the worst horror movie I've ever seen, or even the worst major franchise sequel I've ever seen. I almost gave it a 5, but upon reflection I couldn't really think of any positives. It's paced well and the story is told in a coherent fashion, but the actual content is pretty bad. Maybe this one will age well in a "so bad it's good" kind of way, but for now I'm giving it a 4. I was disappointed.

...and considering I couldn't find the next 6 Hellraiser movies on any streaming platform and had to shell out $44.99 for them, the fact that Hellraiser III - considered to be one of the better sequels - was a complete bomb isn't leaving me feeling so good about my investment...

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7/10

Hell comes to New York

Tweekums24 December 2018

After the events of the previous film the Cenobyte Pinhead is trapped in a stone pillar along with the cube. This is purchased by arrogant New York playboy J. P. Monroe to decorate his night club; The Boiler Room. The film has a new protagonist; reporter Joey Summerskill. She is brought into the story when she sees a man taken to hospital with chains hooked into his body. The only witness tells Joey that the chains came from the mysterious puzzle box that was in the club. Joey investigates the club and soon finds herself caught up in a nightmare that will see numerous people killed as hell is unleashed onto the streets of New York; only Joey will be able to stop it if she can send Pinhead back to hell.

It must be said that this film isn't as good as the first two but it still isn't bad. The main weakness is that the rules have been changed so that anybody can be a victim of the Cenobytes rather than those who willingly summon them; this is at least explained but mainly it feels like an excuse to raise the body count. As one might expect there are plenty of fairly gruesome deaths; unfortunately some are accompanied by a 'witty' one-liner. Pinhead has a far larger role in this film and we do learn more about his origins; Doug Bradley does a fine job in the dual roles of Pinhead and the ghost Captain Elliott Spencer, the First World War officer who later became Pinhead. Terry Farrell is also impressive as Joey. Unfortunately many of the other cast members are distinctly wooden. Overall I'd say that even if it isn't as good as the first two films it is still worth watching.

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1/10

Horror-ble movie

Munklin42022 October 2006

Warning: Spoilers

Hellraiser and Hellraiser 2 is SO much better. I've never been a fan of hellraiser until i saw the first one and the second was even better! I guess i shouldn't be surprised about a sequel to a sequel but so many people say this is there favorite movie and its so good. This movie is a huge piece of CRAP! There's a part where Pinhead is in a dance club about to kill a hundred or more people and pans over to a girl at a table, her drink floats out of her cup turns into the face of pinhead then freezes and stabs her in the mouth. This movie probably sounded really good on paper but it came out horribly. If you haven't seen any Hellraiser movie and want to give a shot do NOT start with this one i beg of you! p.s i got this movie for free and i still feel ripped off.

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6/10

Departure From the Novel Leads To This...

gavin694211 January 2007

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.

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1/10

One of the worst films I've ever seen...

isamu42428 December 2005

Clearly a perfect example of why sequels in Hollywood are horrible. Shot in NC, my home state this laughable "sequel" exceeds in only one thing, overdone B-horror cheese. The plot, which has basically little connection to the first two films, takes our viewers to what apparently the writer believed to be the counter-culture/underground rebellious youth scene of this time period. There a reporter runs about trying to stop Pinhead who for whatever reason is resurrected through from a stone statue. The worst parts of this film though have to be the new Sinnebites created specifically for this film. For whatever reason the creators decided to have 1, a demon created from a DJ that shoots CD's from his head, and 2, a demon created from a reporter that has a camera lens in his head he uses to smash people's skulls with. Geez, what next guys?? A demon created from an office executive that shoots hell powered stables and invoices? Or perhaps a cenobite fast food operator that flings Satan's deep frying grease and the third level of hell razor fries. Do not waste your time with this film UNLESS you are looking specifically for a over-the-top B-horror film.

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8/10

The first mainstream Hellraiser film does well enough while leaving some key things behind

Robert_duder14 July 2011

Warning: Spoilers

What made Hellraiser one and two brilliant besides the direct hand that Clive Barker had in it was the special effects. They were low budget films that they went out of their way to create this incredible fantasy world with well made special effects that drew you into their world and created this twisted fantasy world. When a film doesn't have a huge backing or Hollywood money I think the film makers get to do more creatively and have to work with less and that is what can make or break an indie film especially a horror indie film. So enter Hellraiser 3 which you can absolutely tell was the film where they started to get Hollywood money. The special effects are a little less realistic and more computer generated. The story is a little more mainstream and same with the characters. Sadly we also lose the main character of Kirsty Cotton who was the Hellraiser scream queen from one and two although fortunately she is shown in a small segment to help move the story along. Hellraiser 3 isn't bad and it still keeps the continuity going which is great but I felt like it sort of trivialized Pinhead and made him the joke rather than the evil killer.

Kevin Bernhardt is the sleazy club owner who is sucked into Pinhead's evil world of lust and pain. His character is vapid and emotionless and basically just there to be the evil human villain which I suppose he accomplishes. Terry Farrell is our new heroine and she does well as the strong headstrong reporter. Her connection to Pinhead's character works well and the investigation she does carries the story well. Paula Marshall is decent as the lost homeless girl being used and abused by Bernhardt's character. Marshall and Farrell have good chemistry together and I think are underused as a team. Of course Doug Bradley returns to his signature role as Pinhead and his real life counterpart Elliot Spencer. Bradley embodies Pinhead and is certainly a horror master in character. I cannot imagine anyone else playing Pinhead. The voice, his behaviour and the entire character is twisted and disturbing even though Hellraiser 3 made him seem a little less mysterious and evil and more mainstream.

One of the highlights of the film and perhaps some might think as a stumble is the addition of the creative, twisted, and almost humorous 'new' cennobites created by the puzzle box. Camerahead (played by Ken Carpenter) who also plays Farrell's human camera man before being turned, CD the DJ (my favourite as he has some incredibly gory kills with flashy saw like CD's), and Barbie Cennobite (a bartender turned killer). The climatic scene of the three cennobites attacking civilians in the street is without a doubt a cool scene although as mentioned very Hollywood. But for me it did not ruin the film, it simply made it a little more mainstream. It didn't hold the true level of fear and mystery and gore that the first two films did. Director Anthony Hickox started with some truly great really bad B-Movie horror films so this was right up his alley at the time but he definitely slipped into just straight up bad B-Movies which is unfortunate because I do see some talent here. If you're a true Hellraiser fan obviously this one might offend your senses but for a third instalment and as a huge horror buff I didn't mind this one bit. It was worthy albeit different than the previous ones. The series may be stepping downwards but its a slow stepping so not so bad. 8/10

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6/10

More cenobite silliness.

BA_Harrison2 December 2006

The third entry in the Hellraiser series shows a distinct change in approach, aiming itself squarely at the teen market rather than at the 'serious horror fan'. Pinhead returns once again, dishing out pain and misery to all who cross his path. It is up to intrepid reporter Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell) to try and send the spiky-bonced monster (and his legion of all-new 'cool' cenobites) back to Hell.

Anthony Hickox, director of straight-to-video horrors such as Waxworks and Sundown:Vampires in Retreat, eschews the rather serious and dark tone of Clive Barker's original movie, opting instead to go with a rather more accessible plot that itself takes a back seat to the special effects. This film is all about the visuals and Hickox loads the film with some very effective (and some not-so-quite effective) makeup and optical FX. And in true early-90s fashion, the action is accompanied by a pretty awful 'metal' soundtrack.

Fans of the first two films may not like the new direction the film takes, but those who found Barker's vision rather too twisted in the first place won't be overly offended. I enjoyed the movie for what it wasa big dollop of B-movie excessand in that respect, I think Hickox has done a pretty good job. It won't win any awards, but you'll have fun while it lasts.

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5/10

Certainly not a bad movie, But sub par compared to the first two.

danomychowski5 October 2008

Hellraiser 1 was a masterpiece. It turned out to be one of the best horror movies of the 80's (which was a good time for horror if you ask me) maybe even of all time. it was well paced, creepy, and strangely moving. Hellraiser 2 was also a fantastic film. it was one of the very few sequels that are actually as good or better than the original. (this and wayne's world 2). Hellraiser 3... well,it was pretty good. the big problem here was that rather than making him the emotionless figure of pure evil like the first two he was turned into just another bad guy in another horror movie. basically hell on earth was campier, bloodier, trashier, and much more mindless than it's predeccesors. back when it came out it seemed like an abomination, now, when compared to current horror (if you can even call them that) movies it looks like a masterpiece. so overall i thought it was a decent movie, just don't compare it to the first and second.

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