Editor Reviews:

Description:
From horror legend Clive Barker comes "the ultimate in fear!" Dan Scapporotti, Cinefantastique. Some call him the Black Prince of Hell. Some call him the Angel of Suffering. The horror fans everywhere, he's Pinhead (Doug Bradley), the urbane, spike-faced minion of evil with a bloodlust for human souls. Now Pinhead's back in the most diabolical Hellraiser of them all - Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth! TV reporter Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell, Back To School) is on assignment at a local hospital when a bloodied teenage boy is rushed into the emergency room. As Joey watches, the writhing boy is literally torn apart by chains impaling his body. Fleeing the carnage, Joey follows the victim's girlfriend to a downtown nightclub, the Boiler Room. In the apartment above the Boiler Room rests the owner's newly purchased sculpture: A pillar etched with distorted figures and faces. Among the frozen images is Pinhead. Tonight he shall be released.

Rating : - Really Good Hellraiser Flick
I have a special fondness for the Hellraiser movies, especially Hellbound.

3 is more of a traditional splatter film and less terrifying, mysterious, and nihilistic than most of the other ones, but it's still interesting since it's still Hellraiser-as-splatter (and has the requisite moral grappling at the limits of humanity that makes the series interesting) and not splatter with incidental Hellraiser elements. It's also fun. Of course some of the cenobites and gore is so ridiculously over the top (all of the new cenobites are particularly stupid) that it stops being scary.

The heavy metal music hasn't held up well either, but that was when it was released. It also reinvents the rules of the series in a somewhat contrived fashion, though we do get to see Bradley sans makeup, which is interesting and it adds a new dimension to the Pinhead character.

This is one of the good ones, though. Bradley turns in his usual solid performance and the male lead is good as an arrogant sociopath. The female leads are kind of weak, but it's a horror movie, not Shakespeare

In short, if you like Hellraiser movies, you'll like this one too. If you don't, I doubt this one will do anything to convince you otherwise. .