Review #96: Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

This review was originally written in October 2020.

October Movie Review #13- Hellbound: Hellraiser II

I went into this movie with very high hopes, as the first entry felt incredibly different than anything I'd seen before and left tons of unanswered questions that seemed like they would have interesting answers. In the most superficial sense this movie ticked a lot of the same boxes, but ultimately left me confused more than intrigued, and I honestly can't tell if the unanswered questions are what they are because the director wanted to keep us wanting more, or if there just wasn't a clear vision of what this movie wanted to be.

This film has so much going on early in the story- Dr. Channard's got an entire plot involving the cenobites and resurrects Julia for some reason (which happens very easily and conveniently I guess), then their plan is to summon the cenobites because Julia wants to sacrifice the doctor to... a big crystal thing? Then the big crystal thing kills Channard (except actually turns him into another cenobite) and Kirsty and Tiffany get trapped in hell (except not actually trapped, they get out and then back in and then back out again very easily) where they encounter the cenobites but then... convince them they used to be human (which seems to make them less hostile for some reason) and then they all get killed by the new Channard cenobite, until Tiffany turns the crystal thing into a puzzle box, which... is good, or bad, or something.

The first movie made the cenobites seem like these terrifying, enigmatic beings who serve a purpose (that purpose is unknown but it still seems like they serve one), and Kirsty was lucky to make a bargain with them the first time around. This time I can't tell what their purpose is, I don't know what significance it is that they used to be human or why that would change their motivations (because I don't know what their motivations are) and I don't know what the big crystal is or why it would create a new cenobite whose entire goal seems to be to kill everyone and everything. The fact that this movie has a "final confrontation" and that confrontation is with a big scary monster just seems to go completely contrary to the existential dread that the first one had going for it. This feels almost like it was a completely different movie that got turned into a Hellraiser sequel, but my fear is that this is what the rest of the series is going to be. I guess I'll find out.

I liked how they managed to get back basically the entire cast of the previous film (minus Kirsty's boyfriend, who gets laughably explained away in the first minute of the film and then never mentioned again) and I liked the image of hell as this winding labyrinth, but it seemed to go contrary to basically every piece of dialogue that the movie gives to it. It really felt like they didn't know where to go after the previous movie and so they just kind of slapped a bunch of stuff together and called it a sequel to Hellraiser. I sincerely hope the next movie gets its act together but somehow I doubt that it will.

Overall Rating: 4/10 Fingers That Sprout Tentacles That Sprout Eyeballs That Sprout Blades

My Favorite Shot: When Kyle "picks a lock" by just poking it with a screwdriver, it was hilariously bad