Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
Director: Anthony Hickox
Writer: Peter Atkins
Sequel to: Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Cast: Terry Farrell, Paula Marshall, Doug Bradley, Kevin Bernhardt, Ken Carpenter, Ashley Laurence
Seen on: 6.2.2026

Plot:
Joey (Terry Farrell) is a reporter, always trying to finally find the story that will be her big break. When she sees Terri (Paula Marshall) accompanying an injured guy into the ER, she feels that there is something strange going on. Something that has to do with a club owned by J.P. (Kevin Bernhardt). What she discovers leads her right into another world – and Pinhead (Dough Bradley).

Hellraiser III was a pretty dreary affair, I thought. It lacks the creativity and the complexity of the first two films, and prefers to stay in well-treaded territory, which is a pity.

[Slight SPOILERS]

I am probably not the biggest Hellraiser fan out there, but I liked the first film and I thought the second film had some absolutely fantastic visuals that surpassed the first. This third entry in the series, though, feels much more mainstream and far removed from the first two films. It is not an entirely new direction for the movie to take since the second film already showed us Pinhead’s human side. But I thought that it was the least interesting aspect that it could focus on.

Plus, when Pinhead strikes a deal with J.P. for the latter basically feeding him women, there is such a misogynist undercurrent to the film that I was really taken aback. Even though the portrayal of women in the other movies isn’t exactly what I’d call feminist, it never is this outright hostile. Also, points were made in the earlier movies about Pinhead and the others only going for people that have called them – an idea that is completely abandoned here.

The movie does have some very nice special effects, especially the make-up of the demons and the creativity that went into them was pretty fun. But it doesn’t quite have the same sense of style that the first two films gave us. Neither does it have the same taste for at least wanting to say something more profound than “evil things are out to get you”, making the film feel pretty flat. Even if I will freely admit that the first two films don’t always make sense in their attempts to say more.

In short, Hellraiser III is a step down from the films that came before it, and I doubt that the series will get better from here. We shall see, I will continue my slow work of watching through them. Probably.

Summarizing: oh well.