Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

Rating:
Summary: Yowza! Barker at his best
Review: "Crossing the Line"/"Becker"/"Star Trek:Deep Space Nine" star Terry Farrell proves that this movie isn't a Pinhead creation. I physically hurt while watching Pinhead--acupuncture gone wrong!

Rating:
Summary: No Justice in Hell
Review: Hellraiser III is a big departure from the previous two films (although it was written be Pete Atkins, who wrote Hellbound). The beginning of the film presents us with lighting and locales that just seemed too representative of the early nineties time period.
A lot of the film doesn't make sense for the first hour, which is punctuated by dreams, and a few killings which just chalk it up to "slasher" status. Events are too formulatic, which cheats us out the novelty of Hellraiser I and II.
Things start to make sense after about fourty-five minutes, when we learn that Pin-head's human form has been split from his Cenobite persona, which has taken refuse in a statue, that talks to its owner.
The dialogue from Pin-head is a lot less all-knowing resident of Hell, and a lot more devil-on-your-left-shoulder. But at least his vocabulary stays intact. This doesn't save him from being degraded down to Freddy-status as just another evil voice in the shadows.
After being released from the statue, Pin-head goes out on a rampage, and making himself so damn public. Because everyone has seen him (not to mention an earlier hospital scene), the movie seems a lot less personal, and looses traction for it. The up side of this sequence is the end where you watch a closed door seep out blood with hook noises coming from inside for a length of time that just makes one feel slightly uncomfortable.
In the final moments, Pin-head creates his own Cenobites, which lessens their mystique. The last four were truely creatures of hell, but these guys just look like a make-up designer's wet dream.
All in all I thought it made a good horror film, but its desire to stay with a more conventional formula makes it a bad choice to carry the title Hellraiser.

Rating:
Summary: No Justice in Hell
Review: Hellraiser III is a big departure from the previous two films (although it was written be Pete Atkins, who wrote Hellbound). The beginning of the film presents us with lighting and locales that just seemed too representative of the early nineties time period.
A lot of the film doesn't make sense for the first hour, which is punctuated by dreams, and a few killings which just chalk it up to "slasher" status. Events are too formulatic, which cheats us out the novelty of Hellraiser I and II.
Things start to make sense after about fourty-five minutes, when we learn that Pin-head's human form has been split from his Cenobite persona, which has taken refuse in a statue, that talks to its owner.
The dialogue from Pin-head is a lot less all-knowing resident of Hell, and a lot more devil-on-your-left-shoulder. But at least his vocabulary stays intact. This doesn't save him from being degraded down to Freddy-status as just another evil voice in the shadows.
After being released from the statue, Pin-head goes out on a rampage, and making himself so damn public. Because everyone has seen him (not to mention an earlier hospital scene), the movie seems a lot less personal, and looses traction for it. The up side of this sequence is the end where you watch a closed door seep out blood with hook noises coming from inside for a length of time that just makes one feel slightly uncomfortable.
In the final moments, Pin-head creates his own Cenobites, which lessens their mystique. The last four were truely creatures of hell, but these guys just look like a make-up designer's wet dream.
All in all I thought it made a good horror film, but its desire to stay with a more conventional formula makes it a bad choice to carry the title Hellraiser.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the worst Hellraiser film
Review: The third entry into the Hellraiser series is probably the weakest, deadlocked with Hellraiser: Bloodline which followed this film. In this installment, we learn of Pinhead's (Doug Bradley) past and origin, and after freeing himself from his confines, goes on a bloody rampage for no particular reason. Terry Farrell (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) plays a reporter who is all that stands in the path of the carnage, and by the time it reaches it's conclusion you'll be amazed how formulaic this movie is. What made the original movie and it's first sequel so good were their un-slasher like conventions. Pinhead was actually more menacing the less you saw him, where as in Hellraiser 3 he becomes more like Freddy Kruger in the later Nightmare on Elm Street movies; a less menacing figure and a more menacing voice. The cenobite makeup is great, and the gore effects are nice as well, but the story that made the first two films worth watching gets lost in the haze here. Look for metal greats Armored Saint performing in the film.

Rating:
Summary: All this in a movie and Motorhead does the title song too!
Review: This was one of my favorite Hellraiser movies. Pinhead is more sinister and we learn a great deal about his origin. Pinhead starts off in a statue and needs a sacrifice to bring him back. Well he sort of is back already, I mean until he can get the blood and guts of a victim, he's just a talking face on a statue.
Anyway, while that is going on, we learn that Pinhead was a British officer during The Great War (That's World War I). He discovers the box and Whammm!!

The conclusion of the movie is the great climax. You got some great Cinebites here. You get the camera man, the DJ (throwing killer CDs) and the hot chick. Seeing Pinhead in the church doing his "I am the way" is VERY disturbing.

Anyway at the end of the film during the credits, the greatest rock n roll band in the world, Motorhead, sings the title track 'Hellraiser'. Ozzy and Lemmy wrote it together and liked it so much that they both put their own version on their own albums. No More Tears and March or Die respectively.