PLOT-CRUNCH:

Starts off where the first one left off. Kirsty is in the hospital and with her luck her Doc (Channard) is a loony of a man. Kirsty makes a new friend "Tiffany" (a mute puzzle solver no-less) and they all wind up in hell, Kirsty searching for her dad, Channard searching for answers, Tiffany searching for her past and the audience searching for a story. Julia and Frank show up to liven the party…
  

THE LOWDOWN:

For all the gnarly stuff that happens here the story can almost be summed up by 3 words: Running through hallways. The script needed more padding. That doesn’t mean this one-note dish isn’t tasty. I loved every second of the Channard Cenobite, floating around, hooked to a phallic symbol, spitting out medical related lines. Good fun! I loved the mental ward massacre and the hellish visions (Tiffany’s hell is not pleasant). The film moves fast, looks great, has lots of gore, lots of kool effects (loved the Cenobite making machine) and a wonderful score. But what is all the noise about again? Why are these people even in hell? They should’ve stayed home and played with themselves instead of demonic puzzle boxes. Let's get hooked!!!
     

Ashley Laurence (Kirsty) has a better grasp on her performance than in the first one. She handles all the emotional levels perfectly. Imogen Boorman (Tiffany) has the look for the part and is quite pretty. I loved her first line…lol…Claire Higgins (Julia) is fun to see again but this time her character is kind of boring. Deborah Joel plays skinless Julia and gets all the fun scenes. William Hope (Channard) is very convincing as the twisted Doc and his low key British demeanor works. Those scary Brits! William Hope (Kyle) is lost here, he keeps thinking out loud and comes across as a moron. Doug Bradley gets to stretch and he works both as Pin Head and the officer he once was. Sean Chapman (Frank) shows up briefly and yes he’s still that hairy bastard we all love. NOTE: Special commendation to Barbie Wilde who plays the female cenobite. We see her without makeup for a second and boy is she hot. She can torture me any day.
 

I saw the un-rated version. Its a blood fest, The highlight is the dude that thinks he has bugs all over him and tries to get them off with a razor…juicy…
   

Skinless woman???
   

Randal does fine here. We get lots of graceful camera movements, crazy close ups, upside down shots and lots of bluish/off white lighting. I also loved the gloomy flashbacks and the twisted imagery. Randal knows how to capture moments and emphasize they’re wonder. My main problem with this flick is that it has no tension whatsoever. A little bit of that would have been nice.
   

A similar score to the first one but even more gothic and grand. Powerful.
   

IMAGE: Here we have the option to view the film in Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 or in Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1. I say watch it in Widescreen, of course. The image is pretty clean with only the occasional grain. The red blood leaps out of the screen!

SOUND: You got three options here. Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0 or, get ready for this...THX. Guess which one is the best? The THX sound rocks the house! Every time a hook would lunge out in the film, I would flinch and the sumptuous score never sounded better. Great sound!

EXTRAS: Hook yourselves onto these extras!

"Lost In The Labyrinth" Featurette: Clive Barker opens and closes this over 20-minute documentary on "Hellraiser 2" and almost everybody that's anybody comes in to spill their two cents. Bob Keen (effects), Tony Randell (director), Peter Atkins (writer), Doug Bradley (PinHead), Ashley Lawrence (Kirsty) and more! This featurette is slickly produced and gives us a lot of background info on the film. My only disappointment was the absence of Claire Higgins (Julia). I love her and would have loved her insight.

Commentary: The commentary track by Tony Randel, Ashley Lawrence and Peter Atkins covers pretty much everything: from trivia, to the scenes that were cut to funny set stories. All three do the commentary at the same time and although we do have the occasional dead time, it makes for a pleasant listen.

Theatrical Trailer: This is the kool trailer for the film. I particularly enjoyed the narrator's overdone "spooky" voice. Funny shite!

Still Gallery: We get on-set pictures, stills from the movie and pics of the actors. Groovy.

I was disappointed that the famous cut scene of the Cenobites "playing doctor" wasn't reinstated into the film, but apart from that, this is another solid horror DVD by Anchor Bay. I'm starting to love these guys!
 

This sequel sometimes feels like A Nightmare On Elm Street. Kirsty gets that "Nancy" vibe going, Channard gets that "Freddy" thang going and hell does look like a bad dream. But Hellbound goes further than Krueger….we get an eyeful of un-pleasantness that "Nightmare" never dared enter. The story line is thin but the visuals make it happen. I will say that the whole Hellraiser series doesn’t make much sense to me…why does everybody want to be ripped by hooks or visit hell??? Don’t they get laid in the real world??? The cravings Channard has for example could’ve been satisfied by a twenty bucks an hour dominatrix…Not much sense but it sure is fun…
 

Discuss this movie on the Arrow's HORROR BOARD
     

The Way The Arrow Points...