3
(a scene of mocking Jesus)
3
(sex, partial nudity, violence, gore, strong language)
3
(see it only if you really like the first 2)
"Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth" seems to me a lot more like a typical slasher flick than the Hellraisers that have come before it. It has less of the story elements I liked in the earlier movies with more of the hero running from the killer while the body count rises kind of thing. Unlike some of the later movies in the series, though, it still retains enough connection to the original to feel that it has merit.
Pinhead is no longer residing in Hell, now he's trapped inside a statue on Earth (presumably by some stretch of the imagination related to what happened to him in the last movie though no real link is ever established). Rather than one of his victims needing blood this time he needs it himself to break free of this confinement.
Joey is a reporter who is determined to figure out what's going on. After witnessing a small demonstration of the Lament Configuration's powers she sets out to find Terri, the one person that has a visible connection. As she draws closer to a confrontation with Pinhead her dreams are invaded by none other than Elliott Spencer who has some revelations for her. Though he is trapped, Pinhead is no longer bound to Hell meaning that he will be free to roam the Earth with all of his destructive power if Elliott and Joey can't stop him.
A lot of the focus of the movie revolves around getting to a point where Pinhead can enter the real world and massacre numbers of people. He creates a few new Cenobite underlings to help him brutalize the people while using his own iconic chains with hooks to rip apart his hapless victims.
And if you're thinking, “Waitaminute, I thought Spencer WAS Pinhead!” You're right, but for this movie you're wrong. They have been split into separate entities due to what the evil doctor did to him/them in the last installment of the story. Now they fight against each other.
To build up to the Pinhead massacre is subplot of a club owner who likes to fool around with girls then throw them away. He's willing to feed victims to statue-encased Pinhead in exchange for power. Something of a darker Little Shop of Horrors motif going here? The narrative pacing of this portion doesn't work. It has to do with how many victims Pinhead acts like he needs vs. how many he actually needs. It ends up coming across as little more than an excuse for some sex scenes and violence.
To balance that out is Joey's story as she investigates the goings on and tries to befriend a troubled girl who is one of the playboy's victims (before he started feeding them to Pinhead that is). Joey keeps the story from feeling like nothing more than a bunch of gratuitous scenes of carnality. Even so, while her story is interesting enough to keep the movie from feeling like a bore it's not enough to make it actually good.
Let me rephrase slightly. The movie isn't horrible; it has enough of the established Hellraiser style and develops the character of Pinhead/Elliott Spencer to the point that it isn't unwatchable. However, it doesn't have a lot of the psychological terror, feeling more like a standard monster/supernatural serial killer movie than the previous two. If I were ranking the Hellraiser movies from favorite to least liked this one would be on the bottom half of the list.
To give you a better idea of what I mean I'll talk about the new Cenobites. The original few were terrifying in a disturbing way with the bared chattering teeth and the slashed throat perpetually held open. This time we've got a guy with a camera shoved in his head. He kills people by zooming in so that his lens cracks their skulls. Another guy is a DJ, or was one, and kills by throwing CD's at people. The female Cenobite is a callback to the original except now she has a cigarette jammed into her gaping trachea. They are still creepy gruesome, but now they have a more corny quality to them that makes it harder to take them seriously. They seem to be more gimmick-driven which, now that I think of it, pretty much describes the whole production.
Acting is hit and miss. Terry Farrell as Joey is decent, and I kind of like Paula Marshall as Terri. Doug Bradley needs no comments as he IS Pinhead. Watch movie 9 with another guy playing Pinhead and tell me anyone else can play this role. Some of the other actors are really, really bad. I mean there are at least a couple that are comically awful. Sometimes it's over the top performances and sometimes it sounds like someone reading parts off a script so that an actual actor can rehearse lines.
Morality
While sexuality still plays an important part in the story there's much less of it depicted this time (depending somewhat on the version of the movie you see, but I'm going to stick with the one I saw which is the theatrical R rated one). There's really only 1 sex scene this time though it's pretty long and graphic. The only reason we don't see any full-on nudity is because of camera angles and the guy keeping his hands on the woman's breasts the whole time. The scene is such that it feels like if the camera moved a few inches to one direction or the other we'd quickly be watching an XXX production. A painting of a topless woman is the only other nudity.
While that may be the only sex scene, one of the characters, JP, is shown to be a womanizer. He uses women for his pleasure then throws them away. His character is despicable, but it's not shown in a positive light; we see the damage that this kind of treatment does to the girls he uses.
Violence in more prevalent. War scenes show soldiers getting blown apart, chains rip people into pieces, heads explode, skin is ripped from bodies. One scene in particular has a number of people being slaughtered and mutilated with body parts flinging to and fro.
The Cenobites are mutilation on display. Pinhead has pins hammered into his skull. Sounds unpleasant, huh? Some of the new Cenobites include a guy with a camera jammed into his head so that the lens replaces one of his eyes, another has CD's wedged into his face, and another appears to be a cross between the original female Cenobite with the slashed neck and the social worker from Beetlejuice who smokes through her neck.
Speaking of smoking there is a pretty good bit of it here.
The language is plenty strong throughout with numerous F-bombs and a few religious slurs.
Spirituality
Pinhead takes a moment in a church to mock Christ. He sticks pins through his hands and poses like he's hanging on a cross. He speaks of being “the way” and forces a priest to take an unholy communion. Earlier Pinhead comments that he is not Jesus though he certainly seems to want to imitate him here. He also desecrates an altar while talking about not bowing to graven images and melting a cross.
You can take this however you wish: setting up the depths of Pinhead's evil, forming a more biblical link with the Cenobites as true demons, or whatever. I found the scene overdone and tasteless.
A preacher comments that demons aren't real, they're just parables and metaphors (right before Pinhead shows up) which is at best a nontraditional view for a preacher to have and at worst insinuating that despite what he preaches he does not believe in the reality of the Bible. He is, of course, shown that he's wrong, but he is powerless before Pinhead. I suppose you could take this as an illustration that empty faith is powerless against true evil.
Spencer appears to Joey in visions that almost feel like angelic help from beyond, but this is the human side of him which seems to indicate that it is humanity, not godliness, that is the secret to defeating evil. At the same time we see consequences to throwing our hats in with evil. JP in particular learns what happens when you trust the devil. Evil is out to get you and consorting with it is not going to keep you safe.
Final Thoughts
There's not enough continuity with the Hellraiser series to make this a must-see, but it's probably worth checking out if you have really enjoyed the other movies in the series. I won't be giving it high marks, but I'd place it far above the last couple of movies in the series.
Buying Guide
If you thought there were a lot of options for getting the first 2 Hellraiser movies on DVD, we're only getting started. Getting movies 3-8 doesn't necessarily have to be a Cenobite-sized headache if all you care about is getting them cheaply. However, if you're concerned about the best quality and supplemental materials at all, especially if you're throwing Blu's into the mix, the only way you're not going to feel like you're in a torture chamber trying to sort out all the options like some sort of demented puzzle is to either trudge through researching it all or to read through my guides.
There is no box set of all 9 movies so one way or another you'll be doing at least some piecing together to get everything. I'll go through as many here as is reasonable. Heck, if you'll make me some cookies I might even cross just a little bit into the unreasonable for you. I joined the Dark Side for cookies; if I can terrorize the galaxy I suppose I can lower myself to write about a hellish number of DVD sets. I'll also help you make better sense of everything at the very end of the guide.
There is currently no high def release of #3 (now that I've said that watch them release one a week after I post my guide thus making it immediately outdated). That's a little surprising since a lot of people (excluding me but evidently including Doug Bradley) seem to consider #3 one of their favorite movies of the series and nearly all the others have a Blu-ray option of some kind available.
Miramax offers a few options the best of which are the “6 film Hellraiser Collection” with movies 3-8 and the Hellraiser / Prophecy collection also with 3-8 (plus The Prophecy).
You can also get set that include movies 3-6, 3-5, and 3-4.
If you're more interested in the movie by itself then there is a whole other set of considerations. I've seen some of them go for $60-$70+ (new, not used) without giving any details at all about what specs or extras you may be getting. I'm completely omitting those results from this list. They aren't worth your time.
Lion's Gate offers a “Special Edition.” Echo Bridge/Miramax offers a reasonably priced pan-&-scan. And lastly, Paramount offers a widescreen version.
Jump to the next section to find out the details of the Paramount DVD or read on here for some of the details for the other editions which I turned up in my research.
Movies 3-8:
The Miramax 6 film Hellraiser Collection and Hellraise/Prophecy set offer movies 3-8. That only leaves out the first two and #9 (if only I could leave it out of my memory as well). They're generally pretty cheap considering that they contain so many movies. You might even be able to find them in the Wal-Mart $5 bin if you're watchful. The downfall is that you're going to be getting Hell on Earth in pan-&-scan rather than widescreen. Audio specs are not listed, and there are no extras. Reviews make it sound like the quality is acceptable but not actually good.
Other Collections:
All of the other sets (3-6, 3-5, & 3-4) also offer pan-&-scan (one mentions widescreen, but I don't believe it for a second) with no audio specs given and no extras. I haven't been able to find specific comments on all of them, but all of the ones I have read speak of poor audio/video quality. I don't believe any of these include the uncut version (though I can't verify that) nor do they include any extras.
Other DVD's:
Even though the price on the Lions Gate DVD release is ridiculous, it is at least from a reputable company and offers a few details so I'll tell you what I know. It's listed as a “Special Edition,” but I see nothing that makes me consider it “special” except its ludicrous price tag (and that's “special” in a negative context). You don't even get widescreen for that price! It's pan-&-scan. Nor do they think you need to know the audio specs or the existence of any extras before asking you to part with an amount of money that I find humorous. Yeah, no thanks, guys.
Echo Bridge \ Miramax also offers the movie by itself. Once again you get a pan-&-scan presentation. Still no audio specs, but at least you're not gambling with a lot of cash this time. Don't count on getting any extras. While I can't tell you if the quality is going to be significantly better than what you could get if you bought one of the multi-packs, being on its own disc means less compression and therefore a potentially nicer image even if only marginally improved. This is your best compromise between cost and quality.
Final Recommendation:
I'm going to assume that you are looking for the whole Hellraiser series since otherwise you can easily pick and choose the ones you want. Let's think about what's most important to you.
If price is your only concern then you have at least 2 very reasonable sets of movies 3-8. Grab one of those up and be done; just realize that you're sacrificing quality for quantity. There's a different set of options for 1 & 2 (which I covered is those guides), and the atrocity that is movie 9 is on its own.
If you care about having a widescreen presentation, unless and until a new option hits the market, your one and only verified choice is the stand-alone Paramount DVD although you will have to pay a bit for it. It's still not going to give you the uncut version of the film, but I don't see any others making a reputable claim that they can do better.
If you want a little better quality than the 6 pack but don't want to spend the asking price of the widescreen release then the Miramax disc might be a good compromise.
Consider the other sets only if you're looking to grab up a more specific range of movies at a cheap price.
I put together a very pleasing Hellraiser set with the following options:
#1: Lament Cube box set (the quality of Blu + the extras of both Blu and DVD)
#2: Lament Cube box set (sacrificing the Blu quality in favor of more extras)
#3: Paramount widescreen DVD (the best available quality and the only extras available)
#4: Miramax multi-feature Blu (aiming for the best quality)
#5: Miramax multi-feature Blu (aiming for the best quality)
#6: Miramax multi-feature Blu (aiming for the best quality)
#7: Dimension widescreen DVD (the only one with extras and the best DVD quality)
#8: Miramax multi-feature Blu (aiming for the best quality)
#9: standard DVD (because it sucked too much to be worth paying extra for HD)
I opted to go with the Paramount DVD. If you're more concerned with quality than price then this one is absolutely the way to go. It is a single disc release.
Video
1.85 widescreen:
As far as I can tell this is the only release that offers a widescreen ratio. It's still not an impressive presentation, though. It is very grainy and slightly fuzzy with a little bit of trash in the picture and an image that is sometimes shaky. Despite all this at least one person who has seen some of the other versions claims that this one is better. If this is an improvement, those other ones must really stink. Fair warning.
Audio
2.0 Dolby:
It's clean but otherwise nothing impressive. There's a little bit of fill in the rear channels and barely enough bass to not sound completely lacking. You could do a lot worse, it's just not going to blow you away.
Packaging
The case is standard plastic.
The interface is a simple image and text design, but it does feature a Pinhead and chains motif that is appropriate.
The nice thing about these low budget DVD's is that they often don't feel the need to load them up with previews and other junk. You can throw the disc in and get right to your movie watching.
As best as I can tell this is not the uncut/unrated version. None of the cut scenes I've read about sound like what I saw when I watched the movie. The run time is 93 minutes.
Extras
-The Art of Horror (29:18) This is a Clive Barker documentary presented in a 1.33 ratio with weak A/V quality. It's made with amusing bits of original animation and is enjoyable despite its poor presentation quality. It presents the influences of mythology, thoughts on the critics, thoughts on comic books including Hellraiser, an amusing look at the making of a Pinhead model, thoughts on the human condition, and the focus on taking the appearances of gods while starving the mind.
-Theatrical Trailer (2:11) It's low-quality, and focuses on some of the questionable content and the Cenobites a bit.