Hellbound: Hellraiser II

Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tony Randel
Screenplay by	Peter Atkins
Story by	Clive Barker
Produced by	Christopher Figg
Starring	Ashley Laurence Kenneth Cranham Clare Higgins William Hope Doug Bradley
Cinematography	Robin Vidgeon
Edited by	Richard Marden Tony Randel
Music by	Christopher Young
Distributed by	New World Pictures
Release date	December 23, 1988 (1988-12-23)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUK
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.

Plot

The movie opens with a flashback of Captain Elliott Spencer (Doug Bradley) playing with the Lament Configuration box. When Spencer "solves" the puzzle, he is transported to Hell and transformed into the Cenobite called Pinhead.

The movie shifts to the present. Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) wakes in the Channard Institute, a psychiatric hospital, and is questioned by Homicide Detective Bronson (Angus MacInnes). The police have searched the Cotton home and discovered a bloody mattress, confiscating it as evidence. Kirsty meets Dr. Phillip Channard (Kenneth Cranham) and his assistant Kyle MacRae (William Hope). Kirsty briefly recounts her family tragedy, as featured in the first film. Kirsty begs Bronson to burn the mattress, thinking her evil stepmother, Julia, might use it to return from Hell.

That night, Kirsty encounters another patient, a young girl named Tiffany (Imogen Boorman). Tiffany has a knack for solving puzzles and has been institutionalized for six months. Later, Kirsty has trouble sleeping. She hears voices and sees a bloody message written on the wall: "I AM IN HELL. HELP ME." Kirsty insists to Kyle that her father is still alive and suffering in Hell. Kyle encourages her to tell her entire story to Channard.

Unbeknownst to Kyle, Channard is obsessed with the Lament Configuration and its potential to unlock a portal to Hell. Channard has the bloody mattress delivered to his home. Kyle enters Channard's home and discovers paraphernalia related to the puzzle box. When Channard returns, Kyle hides and watches Channard resurrect Julia by sacrificing a patient from the secret ward of the Channard Institute. Julia is skinless, but will regain her original form with further sacrifices. Kyle returns to the hospital and tells Kirsty what he saw. Kirsty insists he take her to Channard's house so she can stop the murderous Julia.

At the house, Kirsty finds a picture of Spencer taken before he became Pinhead. Kyle runs into Julia (who now has skin) but does not recognize her. Julia embraces Kyle, who panics and tries to escape, but fails, because Julia is much stronger now. When he understands that it's impossible to get rid of her grip, he tries to scream, but then she kisses him, silencing him. Julia appears to kiss Kyle but instead drains his lifeforce, his blood and nutrients, thus completing her regeneration. As this process goes on, Kyle dies a slow, agonizing death. Kyle falls a white, shrunk dead husk. Julia and Kirsty finally meet again. Their unhappy reunion is interrupted by Channard bringing home another patient: Tiffany.

Channard uses Tiffany to open the puzzle box so he can experience Hell. The Cenobites are released, but Pinhead stops them from killing Tiffany; he notes that it was not Tiffany's desire that opened the box but Channard's. Kirsty nabs the puzzle box and heads for Hell to find her father. Julia betrays Channard, who is turned into a Cenobite.

Within the labyrinth of Hell, Kirsty sees her father's house and enters, thinking her father might be inside. Instead she finds her uncle and Julia's lover, Frank. It was Frank who sent Kirsty the message, wanting Kirsty to join him. Kirsty responds by burning down the house and destroying Frank's flesh. Julia enters with Tiffany. Frank thinks he retains the power he once held over Julia, but Julia betrays him, ripping his heart out as Tiffany and Kirsty escape. Julia catches Tiffany, but in the struggle, Julia's skin begins to slip off like a glove, and she must release the girl.

Kirsty and Tiffany head back to the hospital, but the Channard Cenobite finds them and gives chase. Kirsty encounters Pinhead, Butterball, Chatterer, and the Female Cenobite. Kirsty gives Pinhead the picture of Elliot Spencer and reminds the Cenobites that they were all human once, until pain got the better of them. The Channard Cenobite arrives to capture Tiffany, but the remaining Cenobites choose to protect Kirsty. Channard kills all the Cenobites, who revert to human form. Pinhead/Elliot sacrifices himself so Kirsty can escape.

Tiffany decides to return to Hell and finish the puzzle she started, hoping to thereby close the portal. Kirsty follows. While Tiffany struggles with the puzzle box, Channard attacks. Kirsty retreats. Channard taunts Tiffany until Julia reappears, distracting him long enough for Tiffany to solve the puzzle. As he tries to kill Tiffany, the Channard Cenobite ends up decapitating himself. Tiffany falls off a cliff, but Julia catches her. As it turns out, Julia is really Kirsty disguised in her stepmother's shed skin. Kirsty pulls Tiffany to safety, and they narrowly escape Hell's closing portal. They find themselves in the hospital, which is deserted and bloody from Channard's depredations. The women gather supplies and leave the hospital.

Some time later, two movers attempt to pack up Channard's belongings. One mover is sucked into the bloody mattress and killed. A pillar rises out of the mattress and spins around, showing the near-dead Cenobite Pinhead screaming (Geoffrey Portass), as well as skinless Julia, before stopping. The last head shown is of a character from the first film (Little John), who ends the movie with the question: "What is your pleasure, sir?". This same line concluded the first film.

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 move 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. As Browning, for the razor scene, Smith demanded to use a real razor, and did slash himself to ribbons, much for the sorrow of director Tony Randel. After the shot, Smith was rushed to the hospital and survived.

Canadian actor William Hope prepared for his role by being isolated at a psychiatric hospital and living among the mentaly ill for the best part of late 1987.

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. Roger Ebert, who derided the original, commented "this movie violates more rules than the First Rule of Repetition. It also violates a basic convention of story construction, which suggests that we should get at least a vague idea of where the story began and where it might be headed. This movie has no plot in a conventional sense. It is simply a series of ugly and bloody episodes strung together one after another like a demo tape by a perverted special-effects man." However, he did add "The images have been constructed with a certain amount of care and craftsmanship." Flimsy props and sets have also been criticized, as well as praised for their scope and design for such a low budget picture.

Other 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 IMDb
• Hellbound: Hellraiser II at AllMovie