HELLRAISER II
1988
Directed by Tony Randel
A.K.A. Hellbound
PlotBoy, does Kirsty Cotten get in a lot of trouble. After the traumatic events of the first film, she gets taken to a psychiatric hospital, the Channard Institute, where she tells everyone her crazy story, including the fact that Julia apparently died on a specific mattress. Funny, I clearly remember her getting stabbed against a wall. Then again, she was later shown holding the box on the bed while dead, so in theory it took her a while. Oh well. Also in the asylum is Tiffany, a mute girl who does nothing but solve puzzles all day long. Dr. Channard tends to enjoy puzzles himself apparently, as seen by his public exploration of "the labrynth of the Mind" during open-head surgery. Channard is also deeply interested in Kirsty's story, and has the mattress shipped to his home. Meanwhile, Kirsty has befriended a hospital worker, who shows her around the place. One night she has a vision of a man with no skin that writes "Help me I'm in Hell" on the wall in blood. She figures that the only dude she knows with no skin that would ask for her help is her father, so she needs to get the box and go in afer him. oops, turns out Channard has it. At home. She sends the worker off to look for it (didn't take long to convince him to break and enter, either.) Channard has a plan or two himself, however. He gets a crazy guy from the hospital's basement--a boiler room housing the violent nutjobs. This guy happens to believe that he's covered in crawling bugs. Channard takes him home, sits him on the mattress, and gives him a straight razor to "cut off" the bugs. I think we can guess how messy that gets.
Naturally, Julia sans skin pops out and eats the loony, sucking him dry. And not in the fun way. Channard welcomes her back to the living, and eventually wraps her up like a mummy. Then they start making out. Ew. Oh, by the way, thw worker dude saw all this from behind a curtain, because he had already snuck in. He rushes back to tell Kirsty, and they hurry back to Chez Channard. They then split up (GREAT IDEA!) and go exploring. Kirsty checks out Channard's den, which is full of info and research into the box and the cenobytes and whathaveyou, including a photo that Kirsty steals of the dude we saw in a vignette before the opening credits that opened the box and became Pinhead. Meanwhile, the orderly dude finds his way up to the room where Channard's been keeping Julia's food-source femmes. Julia, pretty much 99% back to full condition, sneaks up behind him and pretends to be one of the victims. The guy falls for it and gets a soul sucking for his troubles. Oh and Channard catches Kirsty and ties her up in there with the corpses. Later, the twosome set Tiffany up to open the box while they hide and watch. Of course, the Cenobytes come out of the woodwork literally. They're about to do that voodoo they do do so well, when Pinhead realizes that she was no more than a tool to open the box for Channard, who Julia takes on an all expenses paid trip to hell. Kirsty and Tiffany both manage to wander in too. Ah, beautiful scenic Hell, aka the Labrynth. (Funny, David Bowie didn't look like a Cenobyte to me!) Most of it basically looks like a high budget haunted house ride. Kirsty finds herself running around dark lit corridors in a maze where monsters intermittingly jump out at her to startle her. Kirsty can't use the box to get rid of them...where would they go? And the Cenobytes let her wander...where would SHE go? Tiffany, meanwhile, ends up in what looks like a funhouse mirror, evil clown sort of hell area. Only the mirrors show her what she really probably didn't want to know: Her mother brought her to the asylum to kick her puzzle habit. Channard saw his opportunity, and killed off mommy dearest, so he could have his own lil puzzlemaster. And speaking of Channard, Julia takes him to see the Lord of the Labrynth, Leviathan. Say that five times fast! Leviathan is basically a giant version of the box. Once its all-seeing eye views Channard through a cheesy reverse color tint, Julia leaves him to be sucked into a Cenobyte-o-matic. By this time, Kirsty has found an interesting room. Slabs pull out of the walls, revealing nekkid chicks writhing under sheets. LIft a sheet, and the lady vanishes. Turns out she's in Uncle Frank's personal hell. Also turns out he was the one asking for help, not Daddy Dearest. D'oh! Luckily, Julia shows up with Tiffany in tow. Seems she holds a little bit of a grudge against Frank, what with him killing her and all. So she rips out his heart quite happily. Guess you could say that Frank had a heart-on for her. Kirsty and Tiffany use the distraction to run out the door, and eventually back into the hospital. (wait, I thought Pinhead said she couldn't leave?!) Whew, I guess it's all finally over...WRONG! Now the institute is being run by Channard, the Cenobyte! He's got the leather, the face mutilations and blue skin, a funky tenticle on his head, and even that groovy Cenobyte voice effect. In essence, the girls are screwed.
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RatingI give Hellraiser II 
Four and a Half Rotting Shambling Corpses out of Five. I'm also not going to claim that the film is perfect. It has its plot holes, and moments of poor special effects. Yet, it still retains Clive Barker's inherent knack for sensuality, which made the first film so satisfying. It's a shame that that's the one true element that the film series has lost over the years, since Mr. Barker became simply a paycheck casher in the series.
Some parting Trivia...there are some "lost" scenes which will never see the light of day to the film, including one where the Chatterer jumps out of an elevator. Apparently, he hit his head and broke the mask during the shot, which explains why the mask at the end looks so very different. (he's practically a dog man at the end!) Also, there's a surgery scene that I couldn't begin to describe, as I and almost everyone else in the world have never seen it. However, here's the one bit of teaser info I can show you:
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