Hellbound: Hellraiser II

Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tony Randel
Produced by	Christopher Figg
Screenplay by	Peter Atkins
Story by	Clive Barker
Starring	Ashley Laurence Kenneth Cranham Clare Higgins William Hope Doug Bradley
Music by	Christopher Young
Cinematography	Robin Vidgeon
Editing by	Richard Marden Tony Randel
Distributed by	New World Pictures
Release date(s)	December 23, 1988 (1988-12-23)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Box office	$12,090,735

Hellbound: Hellraiser II is a 1988 horror film directed by Tony Randel. It draws heavily upon, and was made by much of the same cast and crew as its precursor, Hellraiser.

Summary

Sometime in the late twenties or early thirties, British army Captain Eliot Spencer (Doug Bradley) opens a puzzle box in his Nissen hut. Hooked chains emerge, ensnaring him, and the forces inside the box transform him into the Cenobite Pinhead.

In the 1980s, Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) wakes in the Channard Institute, a psychiatric hospital, where she is questioned about the events leading up to the destruction of her home, which involved her stepmother, Julia, and a bloody mattress. Kirsty tells the police that her uncle, Frank, opened a puzzle box to an alternate dimension populated by monsters named Cenobites who torture human quarry for sadomasochistic purposes. Briefly taken as the Cenobites' prisoner and reduced to a barely-living corpse, Frank managed to escape and seduce Julia, with whom he'd previously had an affair. The pair set about murdering men-- including Kirsty's father-- in order to replenish Frank's body. Kirsty, after inadvertently summoning the Cenobites herself, made a deal with them to turn over Frank in exchange for her own freedom. Frank accidentally killed Julia in the ensuing melee (resulting in the bloody mattress), which ended with the Cenobites recapturing Frank and then attempting to seize Kirsty as well, before she closed the box and sent them back to their realm.

The story amazes the detectives, who are incredulous and take the bloody mattress as evidence. Kirsty is turned over to Dr. Phillip Channard (Kenneth Cranham) and his assistant, Kyle MacRae (William Hope), who instantly becomes smitten with Kirsty.

That night, Kirsty befriends another patient, Tiffany (Imogen Boorman), a semi-catatonic young girl with an incredible skill for solving puzzles. Later, in her room, Kirsty finds a message written in blood stating "I AM IN HELL. HELP ME." Believing it was sent by her father, Kirsty tells her story to Kyle, who encourages her to tell Channard about the Cenobites. Unbeknownst to Kyle, Channard knows everything that has been happening: He is obsessed with the Lament Configuration, the box that opens the portal to the Cenobite realm, and has been collecting every piece of information he can obtain on it.

Kyle goes to Channard's house to speak with him, and discovers Channard's "treasure room" of Cenobite-related paraphernalia. While he hides, Channard arrives with the bloody mattress that Julia died on, and goads a psychiatric patient into mutilating himself on it; the resultant blood summons up a zombie-like Julia from the Cenobite realm, and she proceeds to consume the psychiatric patient to nourish herself. Kyle escapes and tells Kirsty, who encourages Kyle to break her out so she can help stop Julia.

At the house, Kirsty explores the treasure room, where she discovers (and takes) a photo of Eliot Spencer. Meanwhile, Kyle encounters Julia, now almost fully restored to her human form. Julia appears to seduce Kyle, only to begin devouring him when they kiss, completing her regeneration. Kirsty stumbles upon the scene, but her reunion with Julia is interrupted by the arrival of Channard with Tiffany. Channard gives Tiffany the puzzle box, which she quickly opens. The Cenobites-- Pinhead and his henchmen Chatterer, Butterball, and The Female-- arrive, but refrain from harming Tiffany, knowing that Channard put her up to summoning them. Meanwhile, Kirsty, Channard, and Julia all slip into the Cenobite realm, followed by Tiffany.

In the Cenobite realm, Kirsty seeks out her father, while Julia shows Channard the sadomasochistic pleasures that await him. Julia explains that the Cenobite realm-- a gigantic labyrinth in a stormy void-- is called Hell, and ruled over by Leviathan, a godlike entity that takes the form of a lozenge-shaped beacon floating above the maze. Julia sacrifices an ambivalent Channard to Leviathan, resulting in his being turned into a Cenobite. Leviathan fuses with his new creation by way of a massive tentacle, and Channard sets about looking for Kirsty.

Kirsty meanwhile finds her uncle Frank, who explains that her father is not there and that he wrote the message to lure Kirsty to him. After a brief fight, Julia arrives and tears out Frank's heart in revenge for her own death. Kirsty and Tiffany attempt to escape but are impeded by Julia; a struggle ensues, and Julia's flesh is ripped off like a glove, causing her to plummet down into a wind tunnel.

Heading back to the hospital, Kirsty and Tiffany are trapped by Pinhead and his entourage, who decide to lay claim to Kirsty again. Kirsty shows them the photo of Eliot Spencer, causing the Cenobites to remember that they were once human. Touched by this revelation, they attempt to protect Kirsty when Channard arrives and lays claim to her. A fight ensues, during which Chatterer, Butterball, and the Female are all killed, reverting to their human forms. Pinhead manages to stave Channard off long enough for Kirsty and Tiffany to escape, after which he himself is finally killed.

Back in the hospital, Kirsty and Tiffany discover that the Cenobite realm has begun to cross over into the real world, as Channard has provided all of the patients with puzzle boxes of their own to open. Tiffany decides to return to Hell and close the puzzle box, in the hopes that it will stop Channard. Channard attacks Tiffany, but relents from killing her when Julia appears and begins to kiss him. This provides enough of a distraction for Tiffany to close the puzzle box; Leviathan begins to transform into a cube, severing his connection with Channard; Channard's head is torn off by the retracting tentacle. Tiffany falls off the side of a ledge, but is rescued by Julia, who is revealed to be Kirsty wearing Julia's shed skin. She and Tiffany escape through the rapidly closing portal back to the hospital.

Sometime later, Kirsty and Tiffany are discharged from the hospital, Tiffany having regained her lucidity. Meanwhile, movers (the same movers from the original film) attempt to pack up Channard's treasure room; when one of them moves nearby the mattress he is sucked inside and killed. An intricate pillar known as the Pillar of Souls rises into the surface, containing writhing figures and distorted faces (including Pinhead); as the pillar rotates, it reveals the face of the vagrant (from the original film) with the voice of the man who initially sold the puzzle box to Frank, inquiring of the surviving mover, "What's is your pleasure, sir?", leading to the events of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.

Cast

• Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton
• Imogen Boorman as Tiffany
• Kenneth Cranham as Dr. Philip Channard/Channard Cenobite
• Clare Higgins as Julia Cotton
• William Hope as Kyle MacRae
• Doug Bradley as Pinhead/Captain Elliot Spencer
• Barbie Wilde as Female Cenobite
• Simon Bamford as Butterball Cenobite
• Nicholas Vince as Chatterer/Chatterer II
• Deborah Joel as "Skinless" Julia/"Skinless" Julia on Pillar
• Angus MacInnes as Homicide Detective Bronson
• Oliver Smith as Mr. Browning/"Skinless" Frank
• Sean Chapman as Uncle Frank Cotton
• James Tillitt as Officer Cortez
• Bradley Lavelle as Officer Kucich
• Edwin Craig as Wheelchair Patient
• Ron Travis as Workman 1
• Oliver Parker as Workman 2
• Catherine Chevalier as Tiffany's Mother
• Geoffrey Portass as Pinhead on Pillar (as Geoff Portass)
• Little John as Puzzle Guardian on Pillar
• Pat Miller as Butterball (Human Form) (unconfirmed) (as Patrick Miller)

Production

Clive Barker returned as producer for the sequel, with Tony Randel directing due to his experience of working with Barker on Hellraiser. Randel claims the dark tone of the movie reflected his own mindset on the world at the time. The picture was due to have a much larger budget but it decreased after financial issues with New World Pictures.

Nicholas Vince, who plays the Chatterer, received a hook to the jaw while filming a scene involving his character being impaled on a swinging torture rack surrounded by the many hanging chains. It's claimed the camera man stopped filming just at that instance. He also requested his character have eyes to help his vision, which caused some discontent with fans, who derided the new design. A scene in which the character receives his "vision" was removed from the final cut, causing some confusion at his introductory scene in Hellbound featured him in his original, "eyeless" guise.

British Shakespearean actor Kenneth Cranham, who plays Channard, claimed his involvement was due to his grandson pestering him to take up the offer being a fan of the original.

Oliver Smith, who played Skinless Frank in the original due to his skinny frame (allowing the body makeup to be realistic), reprised his role along with two extra roles as Browning (the mental patient who imagines bugs and insects crawl on his flesh) and as the skinless figure Kirsty sees in the hospital who writes "I Am In Hell Help Me" in blood on the wall.

Composer Christopher Young also returned to compose a more bombastic score larger in scope. For the horn-like sound supposedly emanating from Leviathan in the center of Hell's labyrinth, he had the morse code for God incorporated.

Hellbound was due to be Pinhead's final appearance in a Hellraiser picture, since Randel and crew expected Julia to become the figurehead of the picture. Because the sequel was commissioned within a week of Hellraiser's release and its strong returns, the producers did not realize the full extent of Pinhead's popularity until after Hellbound's completion.

Alternate screenplay

An alternate script with Kirsty's father Larry exists, written before Andrew Robinson declined to reprise the role. Dr. Channard was originally called Dr. Malahide.

Reception

Released December 1988 in the US, Hellbound would gross $12,090,735 (USA) and £980,503 (UK). Critically response was initially mixed, many critics citing stronger violence and an incoherent plot. Flimsy props and sets have also been criticized, as well as praised for their scope and design for such a low-budget picture.

Critics later commended the film on strong visuals that echo and match Barker's own original. Browning's bed scene gained a lot of notoriety and was released in full on the uncut version of Hellbound on the Special Edition Lament Configuration boxset and the movie is widely regarded as the strongest of all the sequels and the closest in spirit of the original. Canadian actor William Hope, who starred previously in Aliens, called his experience on Hellbound his favourite of any movie he has worked on. The movie has a 47% Rotten status on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews.

External links

• Hellbound: Hellraiser II at the Internet Movie Database
• Hellbound: Hellraiser II at AllRovi