Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 - 1988

A good sequel will pick up right where the previous film leaves off to pull you right back into the moment as if you never left. But, it also has to move the story along and not take away from or change what you already know. This film does that and continues to build on the foundation that has already been established. Another good mark of a good sequel is to keep your returning cast the same. This makes the continuation of the story seamless, and Hellbound does not disappoint in this. By using footage from the original film, it brings us right back to where we left Kirsty and Pinhead and the rest. It also manages to give a brief overview of the conflict for those that have not seen the first film. The story is just a continuation of the first film as it takes us from Kirsty’s father’s house to a psych hospital and beyond.

Kirsty is dealing with all of the events that happened at the end of the last film and it has landed her in a psych hospital, run by Dr. Channard. While in the hospital, Kirsty meets “Tiffany” a young mute girl that seems to have an affinity for puzzles. I can’t go too much further into the plot as there would be spoilers galore for anyone who has not seen the original “Hellraiser” film. This film has some great sets and some great gore. The story does not get lost in the violence either. Everything moves to bring you to the final moments of the film and it does a great job of leaving you to be excited for the next film in the franchise. An interesting tidbit about the film would be that it was actually to be Pinhead’s final appearance in the series. As the director and the rest of the crew thought Julia would become the main antagonist in the series from this point forward. That, however, was not the case as the fans found Pinhead to be much more popular and the idea of making Julia the main villain was scrapped for keeping everyone’s favorite Cenobite in the series.

Another great thing about this film is the ability to see a bit more of the backstory and learn a bit more about the Cenobites as well as their leader and the world they inhabit.

The sets for the Cenobite dimension are interesting as well as beautiful in their own way. There are almost elements of an Escher drawing when you start looking at the Cenobite dimension. As well as interesting color schemes. Even though it is supposed to be Hell or something similar, there is an interesting beauty to it. The set designers did a wonderful job of making it have so many different facets, as well as making you wonder, at times, just where you actually are.

As I have mentioned before. The returning cast stayed the same. Meaning that Julia, Pinhead, Kirsty, and the rest are all played by the same people. However we do have some new characters and actors that we can talk about and I think our first will be the beautiful young Tiffany, played by the lovely Imogen Boorman.

Sadly there isn’t much to tell about the lovely quiet young lady. Her career only spanned from about 1982-1993. She was seemed to have more television appearances than films in her short career having roles in “The Tripods” (1984), “Coronation Street” (1992), “Casualty” (1992-93), and “Westbeach” (1993). After that, besides appearing in the 2015 documentary “Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II”, she has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth.

Our next cast member is Dr. Channard, played by Kenneth Cranham. Cranham has had a long career going all the way back to the late 1960s. In his almost 50 year career, he has had roles in such films as “Fragment of Fear” (1970), “Robin and Marian” (1976), and “Bed of Roses” (1996), as well as numerous TV movies and series. Most recently, he has been in “Valkyrie” (2008) as well as the hit Disney live-action film Maleficient (2014), with Angelina Jole.

For our purposes, he is the creepy Dr. Philip Channard, a man searching for the Lament Configuration, which is the actual name to the puzzle box. The man has an eerie calm about him as well as a desire to see his wants fulfilled by any means necessary. Kenneth actually only took this role as his grandson had been a huge fan of the first film and pestered him to take the offer for the role. He is usually listed or spoken about as a British Shakespearean actor. He is not slowing down either, he has currently worked on three films all due out in 2017 and beyond. I look forward to seeing what he does next.

The last cast member we are going to talk about is going to be the young doctor Kyle McRae, played by William Hope. Hope has had a long career in film dating back to the 1981 Sci-Fi, Horror film “Scanners”, as well as the 1986 hit film “Aliens”.

During the late ’80s and early ’90s, he had many roles in tv movies and series. His distinctive voice can also be heard on Horror video game soundtracks like “Alien vs Predator 2”, “Headhunter: Redemption”, “Constantine” and “Evil Dead: Regeneration”. Most recently he had had roles in the 2009, Robert Downey Jr. hit film “Sherlock Holmes” as well as lending his voice to the hit children’s television series “Thomas and Friends”. He is still making films today, he has the film “Slumber” due out sometime in 2016 as well as an untitled WWII project that is currently, as of this writing, in pre-production. For our purposes, he plays Kyle, the sweet doctor that assists Dr. Channard in his evaluation of Kirsty and finds himself drawn into what is going on, with tragic consequences.

This film carries the torch of the Hellraiser franchise very well and leads into the next film beautifully. Though there are a few things that are a bit off due to people refusing to play their roles again or cuts in the budget, it still comes off as a great film. You get a chance to see what is to come and start to understand the series a bit better with every film and I honestly think that the way the film is presented could not have been better. The entire series is great for a binge-fest which if you haven’t done yet. I highly recommend it. Just remember, if you find a pretty puzzle box somewhere, leave it alone and keep walking.