I’m writing this on a holiday weekend where the title of the third Hellraiser movie, Hell on Earth, seems like a pretty good description of the roads, the stores and pretty much everything else. But if you’re familiar with the franchise, you’ll know that you’re in for something much more horrific than heavy traffic. After the tension of the first two movies, the third is more of a slasher: it’s incredibly gory and there’s a very high body count. It’s also smarter than its rather low Rotten Tomatoes score suggests, and it’s available on Prime Video right now.
Is Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth worth streaming?
If you’re not a gorehound, the answer is a very big no. But if you like your horror in many shades of red, this third instalment is an interesting one. It moves the previously vague location to Hollywood, where an accidentally unleashed Pinhead causes havoc, and the result is what Time Out says is “adult horror to die for.”
Empire gave the movie a largely positive three stars, noting that “mercifully gone is the waffling metaphysics of the second film; instead there are surprisingly careful characterizations and good, creepy, squishy horror stuff.” While Pinhead is really a “sub-Freddy goon” the movie is “a good horror sequel” of the kind that’ll delight mall teenagers. It’s not particularly deep, but then it’s not supposed to be.
Variety is hardly gore central, but it praised the movie: it’s “an effective combination of imaginative special effects with the strangeness of author Clive Barker’s original conception, on which the characters are based.” And The Washington Post liked it too, saying; “Genre fans will appreciate the blood flow and the gore, and director Anthony Hickox keeps things moving so that there’s never a dull moment – or dull blade. Consider Hell raised.”
It wouldn’t be the last time Hell was raised, either: if you like this one, there are eight more movies for you to enjoy; the most recent one, 2022’s Hellraiser, was the obligatory reboot to take the series back to its roots. Hellraiser III may not rank among the best Prime Video movies overall, but it’ll really hit the spot for horror fans.
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Carrie Marshall
