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As Hulu prepares for the launch of its upcoming Hellraiser reboot, it’s the good alternative to replicate upon one of many earlier entries within the Clive Barker-created franchise. That movie is 1992’s Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, which can have fun the thirtieth anniversary of its theatrical launch this September. Although the primary two Hellraiser movies have been intense, unsettling rides, the third one didn’t fairly meet these requirements.
Arguably, Hellraiser III — which nearly turned a model of The Mummy at one level — is the silliest movie of the complete franchise. That’s to not say the film was not entertaining or worse than later entries that adopted; it’s nonetheless enjoyable in a goofy ’90s type of means. However, Hellraiser III reaches a stage of absurdity that the franchise ought to most likely work to keep away from as a result of means it depicted Pinhead and his Cenobite cohorts.
Pinhead Went Into Freddy Krueger Mode
If followers know something about Pinhead within the earlier Hellraiser movies, it’s that he was not even the primary villain in these movies. However, in Hellraiser III, he bought a promotion, which might not have been an issue if the movie had not given him one-liners and cartoonish moments, like when he spat out bullets after an individual tried to shoot him within the face. It made him into one thing that felt extra like iconic slasher Freddy Krueger than the extra stern Pinhead of outdated.
Another instance of the place the filmmakers went too far with the character is his bloodbath in a nightclub. After making a actually explosive entrance, he used his powers for a collection of foolish kills, together with a second the place the membership DJ was murdered together with his personal CDs and one other the place a lady’s drink become an icicle that killed her. Although these moments have been enjoyable in their very own schlocky means, it’s exhausting to have a look at them now and say they impressed the identical unsettling concern of the unique — as a substitute of simply amusement.
The New Cenobites Were Hilariously Cheesy
The similar could possibly be very a lot stated about among the Cenobites that Pinhead created from his victims in Hellraiser III. Again, the movie went the Nightmare on Elm Street route by being cartoony and having him create some based mostly on their professions, together with one Cenobite — who was a bartender when he was nonetheless alive — brandish a cocktail shaker that allowed him to throw flammable liquid on folks. After doing so, he then spewed hearth from his mouth, setting them ablaze.
Pinhead additionally turned a former TV information cameraman right into a Cenobite who had a digicam lens in his face that would lengthen outward and punch holes in folks’s heads. Perhaps, nonetheless, Hellraiser III‘s most infamous Cenobite is the one which was created from the lifeless DJ, with CDs protruding of his head. The character additionally had a tool in his chest that allowed him to come out extra razor-sharp CDs — which he flung, bare-handed, at folks to kill them. It’s exhausting to maintain a straight face when remembering that character.
None of that is to say that Hellraiser III wasn’t scary to audiences when it got here out or that it doesn’t have its share of efficient moments immediately. As instances change and horror films grow old, a few of their parts turn out to be much less scary to viewers and even foolish. It could be greatest, nonetheless, for the brand new Hellraiser — which even comes from the director of the critically acclaimed chiller The Night House — to keep away from the absurd and concentrate on what made the unique so scary that it managed to spawn a franchise.
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