Hellraiser 3 : Hell on Earth

Hellraiser 3 : Hell on Earth title

Tag Line : What began in Hell will end on Earth

Hellraiser 3 : Hell on Earth Pinhead returns for more murder and mayhem in the third of the Hellraiser series, the title of which promising far more than the film actually delivers. TV reporter Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrel) witnesses a bizarre death in her hospitals emergency room, as a young lad is rushed in with chained hooks impaled through his body. As the doctors attempt to deal with his wounds, the chains suddenly come alive and tear him to pieces.

Believing there's a story behind this bizarre event, she questions the young girl who came in with him, Terri (Paula Marshall), to try and find out what happened. It turns out the young lad had stolen a lament configuration box from a statue at a local nightclub.

The statue had previously been acquired from the Channard institute (from part 2) and is of none other than Pinhead himself (Doug Bradley reprising his role), who later comes alive after the club owner J.P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt) injures himself and spills blood onto it. Pinhead enlists his help and convinces him to bring him some female victims so that he can take their blood and be freed from the statue.

However it turns out that the statue is of Pinhead's evil side, his good side which resembles that of his former human self, is trapped in Limbo between Heaven and Hell, and so he enlists Joey's help to help bring Pinhead to him, so that he can confront him and send him to Hell where he belongs.

Whilst there are some really gripping scene's in the movie there is far too much time wasted establishing characters and plot and not enough time spent getting on with the action. Ashley Laurence does briefly feature in the film as Kirsty Cotton, but this was only included to preserve the series continuity. Another criticism is that Pinhead spends most of the film imprisoned in this statue whilst Joey seems to waste too much time trying to discover what is happening, when we all ready know what's going on.

That being said though this is still a very good movie, especially where Pinhead turns Terry, Monroe and some of the nightclub staff into Cenobites, then proceeds to wipe out the club goers and chases Joey through the city streets. The scene where the cops turn up and start blasting Pinhead's new army of Cenobites with shotguns was very cool indeed, but its just a pity more of the film wasn't like that.

Best line: Joey is chased into a Church by Pinhead. The priest tries to comfort her saying, "My Child, there's no such thing as Demons". Then Pinhead walks in and she replies "Well what the fuck is that then?".

Overall marks : 6/10

Other Information.

The film was directed by Anthony Hickox, who also directed "Warlock 2 : The Armageddon" and the "Waxwork" films. Terry Farrel who plays Joey, becomes the second Hellraiser character to also work on Star Trek, as she is probably better known for her role as Lt Jadzia Dax in "Star Trek - Deep Space Nine" which also stars Andrew Robinson from part 1 (weird or what?).
Director Hickox and writer Peter Atkins can be seen making cameo appearances during the film. Hickox plays a soldier in Vietnam during Joey's dream sequence, as well as being in a brief segment on a TV chat show, whilst Atkins turns up as the barman in the nightclub.
The part of the Priest was played by Clayton Hill, who also worked on "Dawn of the Dead" as the weapons co-ordinator and also appeared as the lead zombie (with the M-16).
Paula Marshal who plays Terri, also starred in Hickox's "Warlock 2".
The film features a guest appearance by the rock band Armoured Saint, who are the group playing in Monroe's Nightclub. Motorhead also contributed a track to the films soundtrack, entitled "Hellraiser". They also released a music video to coincide with the release of the film, which featured excerpts from the movie. The track was co-written by Ozzy Osbourne, who later recorded his own version.
The UK rental video featured extra footage not used in the theatrical release, these included a scene with Terri meeting back up with Monroe in the nightclub, Joey talking to Pinheads former human self (Capt Elliot Spencer) around a campfire and an additional shot of him buying the box from an Indian bazaar. These also appeared on the 2004 special edition UK DVD.