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Hellbound Hellraiser II [1988] Kirsty [Ashley Laurence], the much-persecuted heroine of 'Hellraiser', wakes up after the ordeal which involved an invasion of reality by mutant demon Cenobites, the return of her dead uncle and the skinning-alive of her father, and is understandably committed to the local asylum. However, Dr Channard [Kenneth Cranham], the shrink in charge of the place, is several coupons short of a toaster himself, and has had a mute girl [Imogen Boorman] working on the now-familiar puzzle boxes in the hope of summoning up the s-m monstrosity Cenobites. Soon, with the aid of Julia [Clare Higgins] - Ashley's dead and skinned stepmother - Channard is opening doorways into Hell all over the place, and undergoing some mighty strange transformations of his own. The main problem with 'Hellbound' is that its story makes no sense at all unless you saw 'Hellraiser', and very little even if you did. An extensive recap of the story does little to clear the murkiness of the plot, and this is compounded by the undue weight placed on the rather uninteresting heroine. Ashley Laurence sadly has more screen time than the super character villain players and keeps going through her somewhat limited repetoire of sobs and sighs. Like the recent 'The Dream Demon', a lot of the film consists of wandering around corridors in Hell, but at least here genuinely nasty creations leap out of doors at fairly frequent intervals. Once you get over the narrative lapses and the uninvolving goodies,
the film has plenty to offer in the way of bizarre images and nightmare
cameos. Again, Clare Higgins steals the show as the killer stepmother,
this time given an array of supernatural powers that enable her to suck
the life essence out of a page three girl and prance around without
her skin, although Kenneth Cranham's repressed and dotty psychiatrist
runs her a close second. If you liked the first film, you'll probably
stay with this one, which has more horrible effects but is less scary,
and want to stay tuned for Part Three, 'Hell on Earth'. First Published In: Venue [issue unknown] Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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