I unabashedly loved this movie. After a short synopsis as to what the first one was about it doesn’t bother with a silly thing like exposition and goes right into the hellfire and torture, which is basically what you’re signing up for when you’re looking into settling in to watch a Hellraiser movie.
Clive Barker (hooooly crap I love you sir, a lot) doesn’t direct this one (sadface) but the transition is really good and it’s not as bad as you’d expect a sophomore effort in a series to be. These two movies are very much companion pieces as in you’re very much able to finish watching the first one then go right on to this. There is a good amount of backstory when it comes to Pinhead (the wonderful gentleman and scholar Doug Bradley-who yes, I have seen in person and he’s just lovely) and Kirstie is nowhere near as bothersome in this one as she is in the first. In fact she’s somewhat badass, which is a nice change for her character.
I liked the edition of the Leviatian configuration, but it’s saddening to see really. This film is 20 years old on the nose, and the gore looks as good as the day it was done. The computer animation…it looks like Tron and is actually quite laughable.
The scenes between Kirstie and Frank are phenominal, and though the script had to be changed to eliminate the element of Kirstie’s father, I couldn’t really tell. This film is infamous for how disjointed it is, but I couldn’t really tell here or there. I liked it just fine.
I’ve heard the rest are awful though.
