Hellbound: Hellraiser II – Review

The sequel to Hellraiser picks up just after the ending of the first movie, with Kirsty (Laurence) waking up in a psychiatric hospital. She is greeted by Dr. Channard (Cranham), who is intrigued by her story, but after hearing her details keeps her under hospital supervision. The family home where the first movie’s events took place is under police investigation, who discover bodies and other horrors, including the bloody mattress where her step-mother Julia (Higgins) died.

Kirsty explores her new reality, with visions of her father being tortured, and her questioning her own sanity. She notices another patient in the hospital, a girl of unknown origins named Tiffany by the hospital staff, who was an obsession with solving puzzles. Additionally, all is not as it seems with Dr. Channard, as he is secretly obsessed with the idea of the puzzle box and access to its torturous realm, so he orders the mattress to be delivered to his personal residence. This sparks his idea to test the merits of Kirsty’s story, and he brings a delusional patient back to his home and plants him on the mattress, giving him a knife to inflict self-injury. The patient’s blood pulls Julia back to life, sans skin.

These elements build by introducing characters old and new, and bringing the themes of the first film up a level with lore creativity and extreme gore. While this film has its detractors, the absolutely bonkers nature of where it goes has always worked for me. It holds nothing back, elevating into pure nuttiness as the final third of the movie plays out.

The visuals are stellar, and horrifically creepy at times. While the script could likely use a few more beats to flesh out the differing character motivations, all bits tie together by the end. I really liked how this sequel was in no way a rehash of the original, yet used all of its elements and unabashedly pushed the limits on insanity. The excellent effects are not easily forgotten. If you dug the first movie, roll on to this sequel and let its deranged nature soak into your soul.

This is probably where I would STOP my Hellraiser series journey, as most all the rest of the many sequels are of variable quality, which is being nice.