SCORETOBER!!!! Day 31 HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2!!!

Day 31

Hellbound Hellraiser 2

This is it, my last entry in the series, a closing to the month, and the one film that has in my mind battled for the top position against Poltergeist and why I don’t try to score the films in a ‘best of’ but just over all best.

Because all the music to these films are beautiful, meaningful and well done. But. They are also the horror film scores that impacted me the most throughout my life and the most memorable in my eyes so, there’s that too.

But we’ve made it to the end once more and I am glad for it. I’m feeling better, no more cold, no more sinus infections. Well rested, sober and ready to tackle this puppy with chains and hooks and a box no one in their right mind should ever open.

For those who stuck through all these films AND made it through my two longest reviews ever. You have my thanks and appreciation. For those that didn’t and just peeked now and then? Hi, hope you have fun.

Now, lets dig into this one, and wrap this bad boy up.

The Movie.

What better way could you ask for in beginning an 80’s horror sequel, than with a quick recap of the first film. Right?

Also, I can’t help but love every time I watch this or the first and see the New World Pictures logo. That used to be the equivalent of Lions Gate logo growing up. Whenever you saw it, you knew it was going to be horror time. Well that and titty time. They release some…well a lot of movies me and my sister grew up on.

Anywho, yes. Our movie is beginning with the end of the first film, reminding us what happened with the Cenobites and their unfortunate demise as Kirsty Cotton(Ashley Laurence) dispatched them all one by one. They changed the order in which they all were dispatched but eh. This was pinheads time to shine. Which of course means. Oh yes. You guessed it.

One last time with feeling.

This is the films Dream Warriors moment. It’s the time when the Franchise both took off for fans, and also ruined it for others. There’s a lot of good and improved upon, and some not so good and what others believe ruined it. So we will definitely get into that.

But one thing both fans agreed on was worth it and no one complained seeing. Was the birth of Pinhead, the soon to be Hell Priest. Which was their original name. Pinhead was something that was adopted to the character, same as the large bellied blind cenobite being nicknamed ‘Butterball’ and ‘The Chatterer’, sadly it didn’t extend to the female cenobite as she was simply ‘Female Cenobite’ for the longest time, but a few brave years later she was granted the name ‘Deep Throat’ don’t ask.

Actually do. Because we’ll get into that much later.

For now, bask in the glory that is the untimely demise of Captain Elliot Spencer(Doug Bradley) and the birth of the Hell Priest, Pinhead. It was something I loved seeing as a kid, I thought it was so cool seeing how Pinhead came to be. Actually that’s semi true. Originally I thought it was a new Pinhead and the old one had been replaced. But as the film went on I realized my mistake. I was a child!! It happens man.

And with the birth of Pinhead we are given our films first lines, and the best way to introduce any of the cenobites, from hearing the man scream “Mother of god!”, to then embracing his new life, “The suffering, the sweet suffering.”, It’s a beautiful transformation.

With that now under our belts and in our minds, we find Kirsty(Ashley Laurence). She’s now a patient in a mental hospital. She was brought in by her boyfriend and soon after placed in the care of Dr. Channard(Kenneth Cranham). It’s only been a few days after the events of the first film. She’s committed as the witness of multiple murders, her mother and father, and it seems she is being tied to the countless other bodies discovered in the attic left by Julia(Clare Higgins). A detective is attempting to question her about what the hell happened in that house, given the state they discovered everything. Between rotting corpses, the remains of a bloody mattress Julia had died on while trying to solve the Lament configuration.  You’d think she was living the life of a survivor with her boyfriend. But nope! She’s deeply troubled and rightfully so, it’s pretty damn traumatic seeing your family taken to task by hells priest and all for your step mothers lust of her husbands brother.

Dr. Channard convinces the detective to leave Kirsty to him and he’ll try to see if he can get through to her, given the strange story the boyfriend claims happened and she also stood by. He relents and decides to let the girl go for now, letting the doctor have her. It’s no secret, and a  dark one to discover if you were never aware, but mental health in the 80’s was not what you’d call. The best of times. It was a living nightmare, for a lot of people. Which is sad in retrospect given how far we feel we’ve come along but it wasn’t really that long ago that things were so hellishly bad. No they didn’t have cenobites roaming the halls, but close.

One of my favorite characters from this film, and one who appropriately is left an unexplained mystery for the most part is Tiffany(Imogen Boorman) she plays a quiet child, brought to them one night and has not said a word since. She has no family, relatives, no one. All she seems intent to do, is solve puzzles. Putting together complicated puzzles, taking them apart. Her real name is unknown, a nurse just decided to name her Tiffany. Why she solves puzzles, no one knows. It’s just all she does, and all that makes her happy.

She’s introduced to us as Kirsty finds herself unable to sleep and roams the halls of her ward in the hospital. Stumbling onto the girls room and discovering her piecing together a wooden puzzle. Section by section. An assistant of Dr. Channards, Kyle MacRae(William Hope) finds Kirsty wondering around on her own and see’s her stop outside Tiffany’s door. So he decides to approach and introduce himself while telling her about Tiffany. The two seem to hit it of just fine and Kirsty, though very wise to her situation, befriends him, but also keeps very much aware he’s not really a friend so much as a doctor who thinks she’s crazy. So she keeps things short and quiet.

It's best until you know who you can really trust and feel is on your side.

How ever as she’s soon escorted back to her room and the comfiest looking bed for any mental patient. She slips off happily into dream land, only to find it full of freakin monsters! Well one at least. And not really a monster. She sees a skinless figure in the corner of her room reaching out to her, written on the wall behind them, in their blood are the words “Help me! I’m in hell!”, As the figure shakes and reaches for her she soon awakens. The corpse gone, but those words. For the moment. Remain on the wall, and very real, as she moves to examine them and touch them to make sure they actually are there and not something in her mind.

So of course Kirsty is doing splendidly with seeing skinless suffering men writing cries for help in blood. She begins to wonder having seen this, and begins to piece together in her mind, this could only be from her father. That since Frank and Julia killed him in the first film, it’s possible the cenobites claimed him and took his soul to hell, as they did Frank and Julia. In fact it’s the only answer for her. She believes her father is alive in hell and suffering. Made to suffer because of his brother and betraying wife, so as if losing your family, fighting off demons, and watching a homeless man turn into a flying demon wasn’t enough. This has to add ontop of it. Monday’s am I right?

With this, and her believing he really did visit her, you can imagine how it makes her look to the good doctor and Kyle. So Kyle believes its time the doctor had a chat with his new patient and get the full story from her.

As we were given a flashback at the start as to the demise of the cenobites, we are now getting Kirsty’s side of the events from the first film.

“The part I know about, the part that destroyed my family. That must’ve started with my Uncle Frank. It was him, and my fathers wife, it was Frank and Julia. I don’t know when but, they. They must’ve been with each other. But there’s more. There was the box. It was a puzzle box. And Frank must’ve solved it. It was a gateway. Hell was what he wanted, and hell was what he got. Somehow, I don’t know. Frank came back to life. It was Julia, that bitch. She brought him men, to make him stronger. So she could have him again. I made a deal. I’d lead them to Frank, if they leaved me alone. I went back to the house, to warn my father. To get him out of the house. But they’d murdered him. Frank and Julia, they’d taken his skin and given it to Frank. Frank betrayed her and left her to the cenobites. She died on that mattress! And the cenobites came…Do you believe me? Am I crazy?”

Clearly, there is much they need to investigate.

Dr. Channard takes in her story, never doubting her once, taking in every detail, and recalling what he’d heard from the detective earlier paired with the statements of both Kirsty and her boyfriend. But there’s something more. The doctor has his own secrets. He’d contacted the police department and had them send him the mattress Julia’s had died on. It was sent to his home and left in his study.

With Kyle happening to hear him ordering this to be done. Which, not gonna lie, and Kyle agrees. Is pretty damn odd.

Thankfully because the film believes in moving at a fairly brisk pace, we will have these questions answered AND more. Hurray!

As we move away from the hospital to the home of Dr. Channard, we soon discover the man has a rather obsessive hobby. Studying the occult and of all things in the world, the enigma of the lament configuration. His walls and blackboard are full of various symbols and formulas. Decryptions and paperwork. All in relation to his fascination with the history of and myth surrounding the famed puzzle box.

In short. The Lament Configuraion  was a box made by a toy maker. A multiple configuration puzzle box. It was commissioned and used by a French man long ago. They performed a ritual and the box became a doorway to hell, and your desires. That’s going by the films explanation through the timeline. However in the novel, it’s not so far off. But the box was a design given to the Frenchman by a demon. Supposedly Lucifer or the supreme figure in hell, Leviathan. How is there a figure above Satan? That gets even crazier, hell in the Hellraiser world has a system of politics and priest so. We’ll dive into that when I cover the whole series eventually.

For now, the box was made and replicated thousands of times. The purpose was that servants of hell would carry these boxes and deliver them to souls they sensed darkness and desire within. It’s always been very simple and straight forward but the movies don’t really touch entirely on, at least correctly.

Like in the case of Frank Cotton, he loved sex. Every kind of pleasure you could get from it, the man tried and did everything and everyone under the sun. Experienced every Taboo he could. He’d begun hearing about a special key that if you held and solved their riddle. You’d be rewarded with whatever it was you sought most. Frank wanted the ultimate pleasure and experience. So he was given the box and solved it. Driven by his lustful passion. The cenobites answered. He was rewarded with pleasure as he knew it, and soon discovered it was too much for him, but he got it. And once he was given his pleasure. That is when the cenobites arrived. He experienced his pleasure, now it was time for him to experience there’s. The pain of the body.

It's how the cenobites work, they feed on junkies and lost souls looking for more, and they’d give it to them, but always trick them in the end with payment expected from the cenobites. Only rarely, like in the case of the cenobites themselves, would they be granted the gift of Leviathans mercy and given new life. But it was only reserved for the darkest most corrupt souls who sought out more than simple human needs.

It's really a deep and complex world when you get into it and I strongly urge fans to do so. But yes. That’s the puzzle box, and Dr. Channard is obsessed with it. His is a mind set on understanding the human condition and exploring the mind. He wants to see everything, and know how and why it works how it works. He believes the box can grant him this.

I mean the guy believes it enough he’s ordered the damn murder mattress Julia died on to be sent to his house along with a big mac and fries so. You know, he’s pretty serious.

Also serious to find out just what the hell the Dr. is up too, Kyle embarks on a personal mission. He could simply ask about the mattress, and end up murdered, politely enquire about his fascination with Kirsty’s story and the box, and end up murdered. Or go with option C, break into the doctors home while he’s out.

He goes with C. No one wants to die.

As the good doctor is out, doing…something we will soon get too. Kyle is discovering all of the good doctors secret hobbies, and one of the best shots in the film I wish got more credit than it was given. The fact Channard has, displayed on his desk. Three puzzle boxes. I admit I am such a fan and in love with this mythos and world that I too own one of these boxes, and also keep it in a glass dome. Ever since having seen this movie I always wanted one displayed similarly. It sits on my bluray shelf. Next to a picture of Elliot Spencer.

Kyle discovers an entire binder full of articles, artifacts and etchings devoted to the box. It also contains articles explaining why he has taken such care and personal interest in the patient Tiffany. Believing her gift with puzzles to be a psychic link that, if applied to the lament configuration, could mean solving the box in a fashion to simply open hells doorway without summoning its minions and paying the price for having done so. Good luck with that bud.

It's fascinating and I would’ve loved seeing more of those. But we have something more to get into, as the film is about to kick itself off properly now. Kyle suddenly hears the return of the good Doctor and decides its time he should hide. As he does though, we are unfortunately greeted to what the doctor has brought home with him, and the most uncomfortable thing I’ve seen in all the hellraiser films.

Dr. Channard was paying very close attention to Kirsty’s story. Especially her mention of how frank had come back from hell. And of Julia on the mattress. So he’s decided, in the name of science, to put this theory to the test. He’d made a trip to the hospital and found a worthy candidate. A disturbed patient who is kept in a straight jacket to prevent himself from harming, himself. He has delusions of maggots, bugs and rotting skin on his body. So the man was brought in as he was using silverwear and sciccors to dig into his own flesh. If ever there was a subject that would make bleeding easy. This guy would fit the bill. So he’s brought him out of the hospital, and home. He has freed he man of his straight jacket, and now, being gifts both a comfortable place to sit. Julias blood stained mattress complete with chains and hooks that bound her to the bed from the puzzle box she’d held, and the gift of relief in the form of a straight razor.

Yep. The man is as happy as can be. Finally having a tool to give himself relieve of these parasites and rotting flesh. So he begins right away to cut at himself. It’s only horrific for some of us to watch now. Thanks to the directors cut of the film. Which is now in 2k. Hopefully eventually in 4k. I say this while cringing knowing what’s coming. It was already a bit difficult to watch as a man gleefully, and painfully cuts away at himself with a straight razor, digging his own flesh while taking long strokes of the blade across his torso. It’s even more ‘why dear god why’ with the directors cut as he see the man lay back on the blood soaked mattress, and run the straight razor over his groin.

The chest and arms I can get. But slicing your dick and balls off…..goddamn man. Why?

Well ours is not to ask why. But to instead watch madness unfold. And oh does it. Soon after the mattress becomes the ultimate maxi pad, two bloody arms shoot out of the mattress. Temporarily frightening the disturbed patient. Then two legs appear and wrap around his. Lastly from the mattress a face of bloody muscle and bone appears, gasping its first breath of air. Julia is back.

Also thanks to the power of 2k, because what would the world be like without every little detail taken in. We get to see the full extent of how detailed Julias fleshless body suit was. By that, I mean we get to see a skinless vagina. And tailbone. One of these is more pleasant than the other. I will leave it to you to decide which one.

It’s the tailbone…

It’s funny how a crazy lunatic can go from delighting in painfully cutting up their body to remove maggots from it, can suddenly sober up and be cured of their insanity the moment a skinless body returns from hell to our world and latches onto you.

Seriously the man has gone from screaming about maggots and infections to now doing nothing but trying to escape the monstrosity clawing at his blood soaked body and trying his hardest to escape her. But Julia has a stronger will to live, and she’s only mad, not insane. Kyle thankfully stays hidden, although the crazy bleeding man pleading for his life nearly reaches his hiding spot. Julia is able to mount his body and with a skilled hand after having watched Frank do so countless times. She slides her hand into the back of the mans neck and siphon out of him his life and blood. Leaving behind a drained corpse. And with that, Julia is back, and thankful for Dr. Channard.

Who is mildly shocked by what he’s seen. The man is a constant professional.

As he helps Julia to her mattress and eventually regaining her senses about her and the house. The two begin formulating a plan. Julia wants out of hell, she wants her skin back, and she has other plans as well. She’s a woman with a list, and you do not want to be on that list. Dr. Channard also has a list, and she can tell he didn’t just bring her back by accident. He wants to work out a bargain with her. He brings her back, and she shows him what he wants to see.

What could possible go wrong. Right?

Well, I mean yeah. A hell of  a lot.

You have a doctor obsessed with a box leading to hell, teamed up with a vengeful woman brought back from hell, an endless supply of bodies for her to feast off of from the sanitarium. Kirsty in the crazy hospital with a doctor’s assistant traumatized by a guy slicing his dick off and seeing a woman reborn through a mattress, being recruited to help Kirsty who wants to save her father from hell.

Why does everyone want to go to hell? Doesn’t anyone go to Cleveland anymore?

And I was not joking.

Apparently Channard didn’t just dig out the crazy guy who wanted to cut himself up. He’s taken home over a dozen patients and has them chained up in his home. Now this is important for a few reasons. None of which are central to the point. But damnit I have to point them out!

Like there is no time between when Kyle saw the birth of Julia and returning to the hospital where he warns Kirsty of what he saw.

So this matters because all we know from what was shown earlier. Is that Channard brought over the screaming maggot guy to resurrect her. But after that. When Kyle is headed to the hospital to warn Kirsty. Julia is wrapped up in bandages and told they need bodies. He tells her that wont be an issue and sure enough. Upstairs in his room there are at least a dozen patients all there for her to feed off of.

If this happened in one day, did the dude just bring a van of crazies to the house? Like “hey im gonna conduct group therapy at my home, be back never.” Or had he just been stockpiling people in his home for funsies? If it happened over a few days sure, that’d make sense. But then why would Kyle wait a few days before telling Kirsty “Yeah, so I saw your evil step mom milk a guy of his blood and resurrect herself from a mattress. What? Oh yeah no don’t worry it happened a week ago. I just wasn’t sure how to tell you.”

It doesn’t make sense! So we are left to assume Channard either brought over a bus of crazies, or. Or the distinct possibility. That he had these victims stowed away as private play things. Which is very likely honestly. The man is very disturbed and I could see it. It also adds some creepiness to the film overall.

Especially with his having planned out so much already.

If these seem unimportant to you, then I apologize. We can talk about something else, sure. Why not. Like oh hey. How about while Julia is wrapped up like the mummy she decides to make out with Channard, and he goes to brush her thighs up to her backside. Giving us a crystal clear view of a very detailed skinless muscle tissued vagina. Like in your face up close view.

Oh, so maybe now talking about HOW HE GOT BODIES IN HIS HOUSE IS SUDDENLY MORE INTERESTING?!

Anyway…..

Yes, with Channards help. Julia is able to feed and gorge herself on one victim after the other. Hurrying the process she’d taken her time with doing for Frank to resurrect him. Only this time, there are enough bodies to begin forming her original skin. And soon enough as Channard unveils her face. She is the Julia of old. Waving beautiful hair, those striking eyes, woof.

Yes I happen to think she’s a lovely actress.

Well as she feast and Channard plots. Kyle is warning Kirsty of what has transpired. What he saw and the fact Channard has several puzzle boxes just like she described. Immediately Kirsty is ready for action. She wants to go to this house and kill Julia. She actually says it isn’t fair, that she comes back but not her dad. Honestly she should really consider this. Escaping hell. More so the cenobites, is no easy task, and they don’t take that too kindly when someone does. Pluss would Kirsty really bring victims for her father to feed off of?

Well Kyle is getting Kirsty some clothes and the pair are headed for destiny.

Unfortunately for Kyle, he is not a big actor, and Kirsty still…technically. Has a boyfriend? I think? They kind of just forget about him and write the guy off, which hey that’s coolbeans with me. But Kyle decides they should split up. Yes the age old tried and true best tactic you should constantly practice, especially in Dungeons and Dragons because it always works out well.

While Kyle goes off wondering upstairs, discovers the feeding room Julia has just emptied and slipped herself into a lovely gray gown. He gets a smooch from Julia and she also fingers him. His neck rather, sucking out his essence and in the process of doing so, regenerates the last of her missing skin. She is now a complete woman thanks to sucking a man dry. Read into that as you will, for I shall not.

Meanwhile Kirsty is thumbing through Channards notes and files. She’s very interested in particular, with his war time photo of Elliot, paired conveniently next to a photo diagram of a skull with its skin sectioned off into perfectly measured squares. A connection is being made and she believes she has just found the human version of the demon that nearly took her life, and she believes took her father to hell. Hearing movement upstairs she remembers they have a task to complete. So she takes the photo, hides it on herself and rushes upstairs to check on poor dead sucked dry Kyle.

Finding him dead and sucked dry on the floor, As she mourns his loss, Julia can’t help but enter behind Kirsty and make a fun remark, “Kirsty, you have surprisingly good taste in men.”

Oh you scamp.

Kirsty is not happy with this. Least of all Julia looking stunning in her new skin and body. Walking confidently over the body of a guy she kind of sort of liked, maybe. She’s edging for a fight and Julia knows it, “They didn't tell you, did they? They've changed the rules of the fairy tale. I'm no longer just the wicked stepmother. Now I'm the evil queen. So come on! Take your best shot, Snow White!”

Kirsty draws her fist back and shouts out at her with all the fury she can muster as the pain train that is her fist gains traction and chugs a lot headed for Julia’s smug face.

But Julia has been through hell, and she’s not about to let this girl stop her. So she backhands poor Kirsty and just like that her quest for peace and bringing her dad back from hell is over. Kirsty is knocked out. As Julia debates killing her, Dr. Channard returns to her and tells Julia, “Now you can do something for me.”, with that. Young Tiffany enters the room. Now his plan is coming full circle.

Julia has agreed to help him, and the film officially sets up some more helpful in the series lore. The doctor is a bit of a sicko, so it makes sense he has an invisible wall behind a mirror in his study. He stands there, beside Julia as the two watch Tiffany. Who sits on the floor in the middle of the room, sat with the Lament configuration. She picks up the odd shaped puzzle box and begins to solve it.

But the way her mind works as she does. She has no desires to be fulfilled. No passion unsated or experience she requires. She’s just going through the motions, feeling out and solving the riddle of the box. And as she manages to do so. The room turns dark. Tares in the room begin to form and shine a ghastly blue light. Bells chime and soon the brick walls part into columns and from them appear our dream team of Cenobites.

Which bares mentioning. Up until their defeat at the hands of Kirsty. They were the prime group of cenobites ordained by Leviathan. Pinhead was the high priest of hell, and Deep Throat, the nameless woman was the high Priestess of hell. The chatterer was The Angel of Suffering, the last of the group, the obese man Butterball, is a devoted follower of the priest. They are known as The High Order of the Gash. No that’s not a joke. Just giving some insight into the hierarchy of hells order.

As the cenobites approach, ready to harvest another soul, they are called off, surprising the group as well. But Pinhead is in charge and he tells them to chill the F out, the girl didn’t call them, she opened the door, but asked for nothing. So they part ways. Leaving her to explore at her own wish to do so. Which Dr. Channard and Julia do as well. It’s what he wanted after all.

Left on her own, poor Tiffany decides to explore this new pathway.

I mean honestly what do you expect? If your gonna open a doorway to hell in your home. Someone is going to get curious. I mean it’s not really often you get the chance so. While in hell.

Tiffany ends up discovering a madmans circus. A carnival row of entertainment tents, trick mirrors and games. Which wouldn’t be half bad. Except that its in hell. So the clowns juggle their eyeballs, the music is insanity, the mirrors show you repressed memories. Like seeing her mother, bringing her to Dr. Channard and asking him if he can help her daughter. It’s not explicitly talked about in the movie, but it is somewhat implied in the script, that her gift in solving puzzles was linked to her having some form of telekinetic abilities that struck her as puberty hit, much like in the case of mutants in comic books. She would busy herself constantly solving multiple puzzles at a time, though she could and did talk. When she was brought to Channard though, he immediately saw what potential she had in helping him to unlock the lament configuration. So he killed her mother. It was a traumatic event and caused her to lose her voice as a result. Leave it to hell of course to show you your past fears and pain. It begins bringing back everything for her now and soon becomes too much. She runs far as she can from the evil circus and further down the labyrinth of hell.

As for Kirsty? Well. She’s waking up and as soon as she does. She recognizes the signs already. The box had been open and she is once more in hells domain. Only this time alone. Well we can’t have that! She takes off into the labyrinth and begins the search for her father. As providence would have it, Hell is ready to accommodate her. She eventually stumbles upon, well of all things. The front door to their old home. As she opens the door she’s immediately greeted to the familiar sight of her old bedroom, her dresser and more importantly photos of her and her father, her original family. Shes excited for once in a long time and begins looking around expecting to find her father. But no. No daddy this time. Soon the pictures begin to bleed out. Blood pooling onto the dresser, over the bed. The walls. The entire room begins to shatter. The pictures soon replaced with images of Julia. She screams out and the room pulls away into darkness. Leaving Kirsty standing in an empty room with several corridors. And there to greet her, are the four cenobites she tricked into taking Frank instead of her, and banished back to hell.

To say they are happy to see her, is rather accurate. They are incredibly happy to see Tiffany. She pleads with them that she didn’t do this, she didn’t open the puzzle box. The female cenobite, known through hell as being the most vicious and ruthless of the lower factions plays with her, “Didn’t open the box. And what was it last time. Didn’t know what the box was? And yet, we do keep finding each other don’t we. Perhaps your teasing us, are you teasing us?”

Even Pinhead can’t help but be amused by this. Even as Kirsty falls back on tried and true methods of the past, attempting to solve the configuration and attack the cenobites. “How can it send us back, child? We’re already here…and so are you!”, with that Pinhead transforms the lament configuration into a new form. A seemingly impossible configuration taking its place. A diamond shape The lozenge shape. The box drops to the ground and Kirsty is left defenseless. She tells the cenobites she is there for her father.

Hearing this, they all begin laughing at her. Something I am sure is a true rarity in hell to hear. “But he is in his own Hell, child. And quite unreachable.”, it’s a line I really love from Pinhead, it’s his fun way of telling her that her father actually went to a far better place when he died, of course demons would think of Heaven as a quite unreachable hell.  But she refuses to believe them. Even as Pinhead tells her it’s true, assuring her that he is in his own hell, just as she is in hers. They let Kirsty go, wanting her to discover the truth for herself, and they have no where else to be, as he tells her, “But please, feel free, explore. We have eternity to know your flesh.”

Kirsty takes off and begins again her journey to find her father. A time later she manages to find another familiar door. This time, it’s the door to the house her father bought for them to move into shortly after having married Julia. It’s hard to imagine that would be a place he’d wish to be but. There it is and so she enters.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Hell. Which is all sides really.

Julia is leading Dr. Channard through the labyrinth of Hell. She’s all too excited seeing the curiosity on his face as they pass through corridors that turn from stone, to gnarled roots and carved pathways. Eventually coming out to a large opening The center of the labyrinth, and throne of their king of Hell, Leviathan. And yes. Leviathan’s official title is king of Hell.

As Channard stares up at the large unassuming Rhombus levitating over the labyrinth. Mirroring the new configuration pinhead turned Kirsty’s puzzlebox into, he makes contact with a dark lighthouse beam coming from the beings core. As the eye of Leviathan passes over Channard, he is faced with his dark past. His twisted youth spent dissecting the neighbors pets, killing and torturing his patience. The murders. All of it. He can’t face it and moves to turn away. Only he can’t escape it. It’s who he is and Leviathan knows, bring it right back to him again. He begins to break down having been made to face his true self, confronted with what really is under the surface and what he pretends to be. Julia moves over to comfort him and he tearfully tells her no more, he can’t take this. It isn’t what he wanted. He wanted power, knowledge. Something more and something owed. Instead he was shown his true face. But Julia has other plans. She begins to lead him back, smiling sweetly, “But t is what you wanted. This is what you wanted to see. This is what you wanted to know. And here it is: Leviathan. Why do you think I was allowed to come back? It wanted souls, and I brought it you. And you wanted to know. Now you know. And I wanted everything. Now everybody's happy. Goodbye, Doctor.”, with that she smiles brightly, as unbeknownst to Dr. Channard, behind him a large pillar baring the marks of Leviathan is extending upward behind him, and opening its doors. He is immediately pulled inside and held in place. Hoses puncture his body and begin siphoning his blood, embalming him as he still lives. He screams out and a large appendage slithers down into his mouth. His screams turn to gurgles of pain and blood as the cabinet descends with its latest yet to be formed creation.

Some time later, after Julia has departed. Leviathan is finished with its latest creation. Emerging once more and opening its cabinet doors. Out steps a much less lively, leather strapped and deformed Dr. Channard. He has been granted power, and knowledge. As a cenobite. However. Leviathan has some stipulations about that. “And to think…I hesitated.” He states triumphantly, but something has his attention. A gift from Laviathan. He’s going to be accompanying the good doctor, and lending him some gifts. A floating large appendage hovers over Dr. Channard and from it a small drill whirs before attaching itself and drilling into the back of his skull.

Meanwhile, Kirsty is exploring the room with the door matching her former home, the place she lost her family. Within is a much less welcoming sight. It is of course not her fathers place of rest. As she ventures down the large rooms hall. Slender stone beds pull out from the wall. Each one baring a sheet and a beautiful, naked women directly under it, writhing in pleasure, right on the verge of release. As she makes her way to an oddly placed  vanity. On it are lipstick, makeup, perfumes and. A picture of Frank Cotton. Reality hits her hard and soon the writhing naked bodies under white sheets become coated in bloody sheets. Writhing still under them, and with that, out comes Frank, now played by a new actor, Sean Chapman.

It's really a great scene that I appreciate dearly, because the multiple nude writhing ladies.

NO! NOT BECAUSE OF THE NUDE WRITHING LADIES!

It’s because this scene is right out of The Hellbound Heart book. When Frank wants the ultimate pleasure. Its one girl after another, after another. They’re all women begging him for release, waiting for him to take them, and the moment he goes to touch them. They all vanish. They’re forever tormenting him and no matter what, as close as he gets, even picking up their scent or them reaching for him instead of him persuing them. They always would vanish. It’s a nice call back to the book and what hell Frank was left too before being torn apart by the Cenobites. But here he is now. In his own hell again. But this time, with Kirsty. The girl who tricked him into revealing himself to the cenobites leading to his death and return back here.

Frank informs her he was the one leaving her visions and messages begging her to come save him. And here she was. Now getting out of hell would be a grand thing. But Frank is a bit more realistic after having gotten caught by the cenobites and learning a painful lesson. So he isn’t planning a grand escape. Instead. He plans on Kirsty spending eternity with him in hell. As his personal toy. Yeah. The guy has a bed reserved for her and he’s going to spend eternity….literally banging every way know to man, his brothers daughter. Because of course he would.

Kirsty, naturally is against this and politely declines. He pulls a knife on her, and Kirsty is now somewhat more agreeable. At least it would seem so. She tells Frank not to hurt her. She’ll do what he wants, even moving over to the not comfortable looking at all stone bed. He believes he’s won and she sees that. Informing him “I’d rather burn in hell.” And tosses a candle onto the bed. The moment the flame touches the cloth, ALL of the beds explode into fire. Soon flames consume the entire room and Franks finds himself, not the most handsome of men once more, as the skin has melted off his body.

Frank is a bit miffed at this, and he wants to have a word with Kirsty at knife point about her decision to trick him in hell. However, a new contender has arrived. All the flames around them go out, and Kirsty feels on her shoulders the hands of her step mother. Julia has returned, all smiles. It’s a family reunion. Frank is all to happy to see Julia, remembering all she did for him before. He calls her over to his side, which amuses her but she does so as he ask, and when he commands a kiss from her. She is all to happy to reward him with one. Only this time she is reaching a hand into his chest and ripping out his heart. Showing it to the man who stabbed her and kissed her leaving her for dead. Now she shows him his heart and smiles repeating the last words he spoke to her when she died. “Nothing personal, babe.”

Kirsty backs away watching the sight unfold and of all things, bumps into Tiffany, who is pulling Kirsty from the room and out back into the hallway.

As the two make their escape down the hall and catch a moment to rest. The wall suddenly explodes behind the women and a wind tunnel has opened up. The two women are separated by the tunnel and Kirsty reaches out to Tiffany trying to grab hold of her and save the young woman. Only to be greeted once more by Julia beside her, “You never could hold onto anything for very long. Could you Kirsty.” She taunts her, but Kirsty is done with her shit. The woman taunted her taste in men by literally sucking dry a guy who was into her. No daughter enjoys being cucked by their mother. And to top it off her uncle got her into hell so he could bust a nut for all eternity. This woman is done. Done. DONE. She grabs onto Julia’s arm and uses the woman to sling shot herself across the wind tunnel. Ending us sending Julia down the tunnel herself. But Julia is a fighter and she is not giving up. She holds onto those walls and begins slowly climbing forward. Tiffany watches Julia and suddenly realizes something she’s holding. The newly reshaped puzzlebox. Instantly that part of her mind kicks into overdrive and she is dead focused on it. She reaches out to Julia, who smiles wickedly at the girl and reaches to take her hand. Even as Kirsty shouts out again and again for Tiffany not to trust her. But the girl takes the woman’s hand and holds on. Kirsty reaches over grabbing Tiffany’s other hand, pulling it from the wall and over toward herself. Immediately Julia loses her balance and grip on the wall. Her body is being pulled back full force, and as Tiffany’s grip tightens on her wrist. Julia is struck with a terrifying new sensation. The skin on her body is beginning to pull and separate.

She screams out and horrifically we watch as her body is pulled out of the sleeve that was her skin, and her skinless body is sucked out into the void. Leaving behind her skin, dress and the box. But before Tiffany can grab the box Kirsty grabs hold of her and they race off toward an exit. They’ve found a way out! Leaping out of the hallway and into the hospital room.

For once, things have a sense of normalcy. SOMEHOW.

Normalcy however is how you define it. So what might be insane for us, might be normal for an insane man. And what could be horrific and scary, can be just a day in the life of a woman on a bus. In this case, normalcy is a mental hospital filled with patients in their beds, each one with hooks and chains attached to their faces and bodies as they try desperately to solve their own puzzle boxes. The sight is too much for Kirsty and Tiffany. Hell has an open doorway that was never properly closed. So Leviathan is taking full advantage of that fact and letting Hell reign down on earth. Starting with the hospital.

Suddenly two very large windows burst open, and in comes hovering Dr. Channard in all his blue skinned cenobite glory. Hovering over all the patients beds below. “The doctor…is in.” he teases and we get a legitimately good laugh and great scene, as the terror of that sight is topped only by Tiffany uttering her first words since she was a little girl. “Holy shit!”, even Kirsty is shocked by this. “I recommend…amputation.”, with that the Channard cenobite laughs. Tentacles explode from the palms of his hands. Each other shooting out blades, a finger and even an eye, with soon is destroyed as a spinning blade pushes through it. It’s a floating nightmare and a testament of Leviathans power. The girls run for their lives out the room and down he hall.

It's a sad and fun scene they did not include here, but some shots still remain of. Just not any film. But if you ever rented this movie in the video store, and looked at the boxed art. You would notice that there is a still photo, depicting both Pinhead and the female cenobite in surgical scrubs.

The scene was meant to play out as Kirsty and Tiffany while running bump into two doctors, as they run past them they try to warn them not to enter that room. The girls would begin hearing the familiar music box theme playing and they’d turn around to see the doctors replaced with two cenobites. It was a great idea for a scene. But they were short on time, incredibly over budget and what they did film looked apparently laughably bad. So they never finished it. This would’ve lead to the girls confronted by the cenobites.

Instead, we have the girls running into an empty room. Full of hanging chains with hooks. Spinning wooden pillars, and the cenobites. It is time to play.

Pinhead watches triumphantly at the fear taking over Kirsty and can’t help but tease her. “Ah, no more boxes Kirsty?”

Instinctively she even checks her pockets, reminded she never did pick up the box, and Tiffany as well had not gotten her chance to do so. But Kirsty does have something on her she’d forgotten. She begs them to wait, already sensing her trying to weasel out of her third encounter. “No more deals, child. It is your flesh we want to experience, not your skill at bargaining.” She shakes her head, swearing its no trick. She just has information to give them. Pinhead gives an amused look and indulges her with one of my favorite lines in the franchise. “Go on…but trick us again child, and your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!”

With that she hands pinhead the photo of Captain Elliot Spencer. He examines the photo, seeing nothing of importance, “What’s this? Someone else you think escaped us, like Frank?”

Kirsty shakes her head and finally delivers her own truth to the Hell Priest, and his followers. “He didn’t escape, he’s you!” Pinhead pauses, staring daggers at Kirsty and begins to tell her this is nonsense that he’s always been this way. But Kirsty quickly assures him, all of them. They weren’t always this way, that they were human once. They all had fears in them, confusion.

The female cenobite is growing angry with this, she grips her blades, “Enough!” she starts toward Kirsty but Pinhead calls her off, “Wait!...I…remember…”

Seeing she managed to get through to of all beings, the high priest of hell himself. She begins speaking out to the group of powerful beings. Reminding them all what they once were. How they found the box, and Leviathan has corrupted them all. Transforming them into Hells sevants, working their way to the grand high order of Gash. One by one they all begin to touch on their forgotten humanity.

Only just in time for Dr. Channard to appear, trying to coax Tiffany over to him. Pinhead noting the fear in Kirsty looks over as they move away. Then over to the newest creation from their king. He drops the photo and rage fills him, confronted with the being that did this to him. Channard now made aware of this sudden change in loyalty is all to thrilled with this.

The cenobites failed him before when Kirsty banished them back to Hell and bested his mightiest cenobites, the ultimate sign of Hells power. Now they were being turned by the same humans. It’s time for Leviathan to clean house, and start over.

The Cenobites stand beside their commander and await as Pinhead commands his chained hooks to attack Channard. One after the other hooks fly into the man and he is being pulled tightly by each chain just as Kirsty saw happen to Frank in the first film. Only Channard is not Frank. He has the power of Hells King. He easily slices through the chains freeing himself. Turning his attention one by one to each of the cenobites.

The first victim to fall is the once most feared female cenobite, a spear thrown directly through her killing her instantly and transforming her back to her human self. A beautiful young woman. She was a nun in a convent long ago, who gave in to lust and soon found herself seeking more and more of the forbidden, which ultimately lead her to Leviathan. The Butterball Cenobite shows fear for once and is immediately struck down. Turning into the balding obese gluttonous man he was, A perverted deviant who sought out all the rewards he could find and women that would come with it, and finally the Chatterer, the angel of suffering.  He was a young orphan, who fell in love with another boy and became a prostitute on the streets to be with him, his deepest desire, and why he sought out the lament configuration, was to be loved.

Seriously the backstory on the cenobites is fascinating and heartbreaking stuff. And now you know.

Now, Pinhead stands alone, and with his defeat by the King of Hell not far behind, Channard growls out “I am taking over, this operation.” And with that, Leviathan uses his powers, not to kill Pinhead. But instead stripping him of all the gifts awarded him by Hell. We watch as the Hell priest is transformed once more into his former human self. A man who spent his time after the first world war, chasing down every experience the world had to offer, wanting to sample it all. Find purpose without the war. He lost faith in humanity after seeing the inhumanities of war, he lost belief in god and looked for any sign of it around the world. Some proof that god existed. Which lead him to his discovering the box.

Now a mortal man once more. Elliot Spencer looks to Kirsty and nods in thanks to her. He knows his time is short. But she saved him by restoring his humanity. With that the girls take off once more. Pinhead picks up a blade from his butchers apron, Channard growls out at the arrogance of the man to think he could take him in combat, and quickly, effortlessly slits his throat. And with that we watch the man once the most feared in Hell, as he chokes on his own blood and dies.

Where might the girls be headed you wonder? Well. Tiffany has an idea. The box was the cause of all this. So it has to be the solution to ending it. If they find the box, solve it. They can close the doorway and seal Hell back within its domain. Being a master of puzzles, Tiffany guides Kirsty through the labyrinth with practiced ease and picks up the new configuration from Julia’s flesh pile. The two then approach the center of the labyrinth, to face off with Leviathan, and to solve the puzzle box. But they aren’t alone. Dr. Chennard is here. Kirsty watches in terror as the floating powerful cenobite king approaches. Taking off down one of the corridors. But Tiffany is unmoved. She stands and watches as the monster that killed her mom, now taunts her, floating above her as his many tentacles from his palms sport various weapons. “What as on the agenda for todays operation? Ah yes…evisceration.” He laughs and threatens to cut her with his weapons, forcing Tiffany back and further back. Behind her Leviathans cabinet rises up, just as it had with Channard, ready to form Tiffany into its first solder of a new order in Cenobites. Only Tiffany is stopped, as. Oh snapple! Julia is back! Bleeding from her eyes and mouth, wearing her skin once more. She pushes Tiffany aside he falls to the ground and picks up the puzzle box once more. “I knew you’d come back to me.” Channard says adoringly to Julia the queen of hell. She smiles and approaches the cenobite, deeply and passionately kissing him.

As the two make out horrifically. Tiffany sets herself to task. Quickly solving the puzzle back. Reverting it back to its original boxed form. Sensing this disturbance through Leviathan. Channard breaks the kiss and moves to attack Tiffany. Slicing out a blade at the girl, managing to cut her hand as she defends herself, “I’m sorry Tiffany, but your case is terminal.” He growls out and fires two bolts from his hands toward her. But the girl leaps back escaping them. Now Channard is concerned as he finds himself unable to move. His tentacled bolts protruding from his hands stay stuck in the ground, and soon he finds himself struggling as Leviathan tries pulling the man free by his head. Only to end up severing the head from the body. And with that. Leviathan has lost his puppet and is left defenseless. Tiffany stumbles and finds herself hanging on for dear life. Julia extends an arm out to her telling Tiffany to trust her. She takes the womans hand, and instantly the skin begins to tare, severing at the elbow. But another hand grips onto Tiffany and pulls her up. As Tiffany pulls back from Julia she watches the woman and slowly Julia pulls the skin of her face off. Revealing Kirsty! It was Kirsty wearing her step moms skin! Clever girl!!

But wait. That means… So WAIT.

Wait, wait, wait. Kirsty made out with Channard.

Kirsty, who turned down her dads evil brother who got her step mom to commit adultery, kill a bunch of men and her father, who brought her to hell so they could bang. She turns that monster down, rightfully. But Channard she decides, yeah. I can play along I’ll tongue him. Why not, yolo teehee.

When a woman. Is willing to let a demon creature, a corpse mutilated and transformed by the king of hell themselves, Controlled by the King of Hell…when a woman is willing to let that thing shove his tongue into her mouth, and she’s happy to play along and suck on it like a lolly pop, but sets your room on fire? You seriously fucked up.

I mean yeah its not fair comparing the two, Frank was fucked up and a psychopath. But she still wore her dead stepmothers skin and made out with a cenobite!

Does that mean pinhead had a chance? Or the female cenobite?

I guess we can’t think about that because our movie is over. The two women walk away from the hospital even more deeply and emotionally scarred than before, and a lot of deaths in the hospital. As for Channards home? His stuff is being packed and shipped off. At least until one of the movers gets pulled into the mattress and we see a wooden pillar emerge with the faces of our cenobites now on there as trapped souls. There’s also a very large severed penis on the pillar if you look. And the face of the homeless man from the first film appears, with locust in his heard. “What’s your pleasure sir?”

NOW we roll credits.

The End.

So what does the ending imply? Well that Hell shall continue on. Leviathan was not defeated. Only his puppet. It was hinted at with the second film, and then later in the series too. That there were hundreds of boxes. All of them were special though. Some were direct lines to hell and its guardians. Some summoned the Cenobites, others would command the generals of hell. Explorers and djinns, demons. They all had different purposes depending on who they’d allow to find it. Throughout the hellraiser series the story changed, but the books always kept it simple and to the point. Pinhead in the books, the original hell priest? Was a female. That’s why I was all behind the new pinhead in the 11th Hellraiser film. It was much MUCH closer in look, design and attitude to the books and comics. The cenobites were indifferent and never took a side. They were always ever about what was fair. Business was business and they never had personal exploits.

The films also changed the backstory on characters like Pinhead as well. Before it was believed that cenobites were never human. They were made in human like form. But they were celestial beings. Neither angels nor demons. But as the films created sequels. And the book expanded into comic territory. It became cannon that the cenobites were all human at some point. All transformed by the box based on how and why they solved it. If they would end up a victim of the box, or be rewarded by leviathan.

By the time Hellraiser 3 came out they changed EVEN THAT backstory to now trying to state that the cenobites were malevolent evil spirits. Demons that would be bound to their host during transformation. So in the third film Elliot Spencer’s ghost is trying to reach out to a woman and protect her, alerting her that his demon, Pinhead was trying to free himself from Hell, to reign on earth.

Eventually the entire story line, the characters. All of it gets royally fucked up the ass with a sandpaper lined concrete dildo and no lube. Seriously there are so many failures and forgettable installments it’s a horror show.

But the first two remain the most pure, and as I mentioned, the most debated.

The stakes were raised ten fold in this. The gore and effects were upped and the story deepened. But some folks were not happy. Not just with the death of Pinhead and not getting to see the man in a bad ass fight. But mainly? They were mad because he was allowed to talk.

After part 2, all he did from that point on was monologue. Everything he said had to be a mirror of his lines from Hellbound. So he’d frequently go on about suffering and cutting flesh, soul ripping etc.

It’s the same change people complained about with Freddy in Dream Warriors and how he was no longer Scary, he was a funny guy. Jason eventually got the same treatment and became a parody of himself too.

People didn’t like Pinhead becoming talky like Freddy and them trying to take his success as a rockstar villain and give him more to do and say. They wanted silent, menacing Pinhead, a man of few words, and lots of chains.

While others like myself enjoyed it. His speeches were short and playful. To me he absolutely had the right to gloat and toy with Kirsty. So absolutely it made sense his behavior and speaking. Honestly that’s more terrifying, to know you are in hell because of a device you chose to solve, and now you have this being taking its time and pleasure in dissecting you, talking to you as if this is a normal every day thing. In the comics it happens too and its creepy. One of my favorites was about a character, the judge. Who would take your flesh, rip it and read your sins from it. He’d go over your life with you, while you were alive on his surgical table, and he’d judge your life and sins. All while you pleaded for mercy and death. It’s messed up!

But I love it. I love the series, I love the books, and the finale Clive Barker wrote was fantastic. He only ever wrote two other things with the cenobites. One was a cross over of Nightbreed Battling the cenobites. Which was fun. But the final one and the end to all …I wont spoil it. But his final story involving the cenobites, The Scarlet letter. Is a beautiful book, and if made right. With Doug Bradley and Scott Bakula , would make an amazing film.

Whether you enjoy a talkative cenobite or not. The movie is a grand sequel that stands shoulder to shoulder if not maybe a toe above the original. I love it and the main reason it is beloved by me. It’s time. Once more. For the last.

The Music.

As George Lucas was made the remark, there would be no Star Wars without John Williams. There would be no Hellraiser without Christopher Young.

Now, originally. The first Hellraiser film? Clive Barker had planned to use an experimental music group called COIL, to do the soundtrack for Hellraiser. The band made a few tracks of music for him and he was all set to use the band. But the studio said why not try this guy. Christopher Young. He grumbled about it but said sure okay let’s give it a try. He just didn’t care for scores in horror films at that point, and the idea of a synth scored Hellraiser was not appealing to him. He listened to some of the music Christopher came up with, but he wasn’t convinced that kind of sound could work for the film. But once it was paired and played for him. He fell in love with it. You had this beautiful enchanted opera of grand music being played through the most horrific scenes. It was melding the film and music into something grotesquely beautiful.

Christopher Young scored both Hellraiser films, he’s also scored a great deal other classic films like Flowers in the Attic, The Fly 2, Jennifer 9, The Grudge. Man has had a lot of work, and his music is always enchanting.

But this score? Especially this score over the original films score?

I love all of the first film, and its music. The moment they announced the soundtrack would be for sale for the first time in ages? I stayed up and bought it before it sold out. I did the same with the second films score too.

As much as I play both, and I do. A lot. The second films score always hits me deeper. It’s a score I found I listened to and was drawn to a lot more. It begins loud and brash, Like an Opera grabbing your attention to the story its about to tell you. It rattles your cage without letting go, and just when you’d had enough, it stops suddenly. And then it hits you with the most stunning, love at first sight track I’ve ever heard. “Second Sight Séance”. It is like finding true love for the first time, the way Indiana Jones looked at the idol before trying to switch it out with the bag of sand. The look he had? This music gives voice to.

It's the most beautiful melody, it’s exactly the kind of music you would expect to hear from something seemingly so innocent and beautiful, that you don’t notice the trickles of blood around its edges.

I own well over 2 thousand movies, I’ve sold and exchanged nearly the same. I’ve gone through dozens of soundtrack cd’s over the years and downloaded god knows how many, and now I have…you don’t even want to know how many vinyl soundtracks. And of all the films, horror, scifi, drama.

This score remains the most beautiful masterclass of music.

I hold his work above John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, countless others. To me, his music creates something. Something more. Its like tapping into a secret sound at the center of the earth.

Fuck me. It’s like NASA, when they released a recording of what space sounds like. To know that there is sound out there, and to hear it. Something human ears would never freely hear, only ever second hand. That’s what this music does and is for me.

I’ve not heard a track to rival what he created with “Looking Through A Woman”, it’s the music that plays during Julias rebirth and her attack on the man with the razor. It has a classical frightening tone that turns suddenly primal as the hunt begins and it is the most literal translation of what is on the screen. Only to go from Julias race to live and to feed. Then to the familiar ringing of the bells, summoning the darkness as Kirsty dreams of the skinless man crying out to her for help.

The transition the song goes through is gripping and unrelenting. I love it. It again sounds like something both attached and detached from the overall sound of the film. While at the same time, AT THE SAME TIME. Nailing notes and segments from the first films score, particularly the end battle through the house as Kirsty is battling and escaping the cenobites.

But then. For the song to finish off with that which was played for our introduction of Elliot Spencer and the transformation into Pinhead. Mother of god its just wonderous.

Even the madness he finds. Which if you thought Danny Elfman had nailed down a demented circus? Ha.

The true sound of hells circus resides in “Hall of Mirrors”, Its also the very song I heard in my head when I saw the original release of, and fell deeply in love with Clive Barkers Tortured Souls figures.  It was a parade of hells master works and exactly what a circus through that land would look AND sound like.

You can’t help but hold a wide eyed amazement listening to it picturing one freakish display after the other takes center stage, all the while wanting to claw your eyes out to keep from going insane.

Hell speaking of going insane. The sound of insanity belongs to the King of Hell themselves “Leviathan”, it sounds exactly how the King appears. A dark Lighthouse of fear and terror. With murmured chanting, a constant deep horn playing out like a fog horn, calling all to its center, mixed in with the tingling little sounds of madness thrown in around its watching gaze casting a shadow over the labyrinth it lords over.

Going from that track right into “Sketch With Fire.” It’s like picturing yourself being lured in by the blasting of the horn through the labyrinth, following the hammered ringing of the bells, only to then find you’ve wondered directly to stand before the King itself, unsure how you got there, where HERE is, and no way back from it.

It’s just that hypnotic and a dark trance that pulls into a grand entrance to what inevitably would be your demise in the labyrinth, or your rebirth.

No score has really affected me like that. As a kid it stuck with me. It always has. Any time I saw a new Hellraiser film was coming, the music from this film pops immediately into my head. Never the original.

It’s because the score really does build on that core value I talked about at the start, where a composer is able to create, recalibrate, and in this case configure their sound from the first, and turn it into something familiar but entirely its own.

The scores for both films, I’d dare say play as a double feature, a natural progression. Again like a grotesque Opera of brilliance and beauty.

It’s the very sound of Hell as seen in the eye of its creator Clive Barker. For me it simply is the sound of Hellraiser, and I could never picture anything but this as its sound.

It’s one of the best scores. Soundtracks to a film for me. Even against all the others on this list. It reigns above them for me. In one way or another. Yes the past 30 films are all amazing. They’re great. I love them. All for their own reasons. But this film. If you forced me to pick a favorite. This would always be it. It’d always come back to this film. And rightfully, deservedly so.

Pick up the soundtrack, give it a listen. Put your headphones on and experience the beauty of the damned and suffering. Watch the film and enjoy what stands as its own very well done ending to a series if you skip the others.

But please. Listen to the mans work, it’s just wonderful. Everything he does is. The Fly 2 especially. If I ever get my hands on that soundtrack….god help us.

But this will always remain at the top for me. Period.

I’ve enjoyed this month a lot. Even when feeling sick and near dying thanks to my sinuses, and rushing to beat the clock because only a madman would think it makes sense to review a movie a day and post it while watching. Purely gonzo. But I love it. I always pray for salvation at the end of each of these month long reviews. But god do I love them. And this one especially. Getting to share my love of music, and talk about it. I want to do more of that, I’d love to go on other podcast to just gush about film scores and movie history. It’s my jam.

So even if we didn’t get a full month of Vinegar Syndrome releases.

Or a month covering every Halloween, Hellraiser, and Nightmare on Elm Street film

I’m glad we did this, and glad for those who have reached out and told me you loved them and enjoyed them. Thank you all and until next year, or I feel froggy and decide to give up on my sanity.

Don’t bring people back from bloody mattresses, it never works out well, and ESPECIALLY don’t if you had a crazy ex who you know would find a way out of hell just to punch you in the balls one more time. In fact, just stay away from puzzle boxes and stick to playing gotcha games. Thank you and goodnight. Happy Halloween.