Hellraiser III - Hell on Earth [DVD] [1993]

It is a shame that a few of the best scenes in the series are buried in this lackluster production. Perhaps the most significant one involves Pinhead’s blasphemous reenactment of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Standing in the pulpit of a church he has torn apart, Pinhead stabs a needle through both of his palms, pantomimes Christ’s position on the cross, and states that “I am the way.” He then pulls a hunk of bloody flesh out of his own body and feeds it to the priest, making a blasphemy of the Lord’s Supper. That’s classic stuff there. Pinhead also gets some pretty good lines in this movie. For example, when told he will burn in hell, he sighs and says “Burn, oh such a limited imagination.” Here’s the part that bothers me, though. Pinhead goes on and on about making people suffer, telling Joey that he will torment her for decades and enjoy making her enjoy the suffering. Yet when he makes his grand appearance in reality, he just throws chains around will-nilly, killing everyone in sight. It’s all just senseless murder—no suffering and thus no pleasure to be taken in it. The new Cenobites also deserve a mention. I didn’t like them at all. In place of superb beings like Chattermouth, we get an ex-dj with compact discs thrust all in his head, a TV cameraman with a video lens for an eye, and two more who do little more than look stupid. The new guys seem to have been designed as a means for inserting silly, hackneyed comments; when the video-head guy says “that’s a wrap” after taking out some bystanders, I almost cringed.

We do get a reenactment of Pinhead’s original birth, and we also learn a little more about the man who became Pinhead. The manner in which that information is presented, though, is not that impressive. All told, this movie does hold a fairly important place in the Hellraiser saga, but it basically stands as a bridge between the excellent original two movies and the far from excellent sequels of later years.

If you liked the other Hellraiser flicks - i guarantee that you'll get some enjoyment out of this, and savour the sight of Pinhead in poster-boy format (for 10 years after he remained the number one selling poster franchise in Japan).

The DVD, however, is a completely different matter. Devoid of a single extra, and without even the DVD normality of the graceful Widescreen it's truly a shameful excuse. Unfortunetly i haven't managed to track down any other version after relentless searching over the net. So it's either this, or a possibly looong wait until a proper edition finally surfaces. Personally i'd wait.