HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II

The film begins exactly where the first one ends, with the sole difference that the cubic device, instead of being stolen by the demon itself, remains in the hands of the traumatized protagonist, who is then admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The hospital director pretends not to believe her, but in reality he is aware of the existence of the Cenobites, having been a collector for years of all material evidence that could lead to them. His clinic itself is a cover for a concentration camp-laboratory where he vivisects patients without relatives in the hope of discovering the secret of the cubic key. Thanks to information from the protagonist, he first resurrects Chris's cruel stepmother and then, exploiting the ability of a small patient who is an expert at puzzles, he has her lead him into the dimension of the Cenobites. Having reached the center of the infernal dimension, the psychiatrist discovers that the entire dimension is a psychic projection of Satan, whose purpose is to capture damned souls using the Cenobites as material executors. The same doctor discovers at his own expense that he possesses the most diabolical soul ever to enter hell, and is transformed into a super Cenobite bound by a monstrous intracranial umbilical cord to the spiritual center of hell itself. At this point the barriers between the infernal dimension and the material one collapse, thus transforming the entire psychiatric hospital into a hell where all patients are hideously mutilated by the new monster... By inserting new elements and giving Pinhead a personality, the film clarifies some aspects left unresolved in the first one. The slow-motion special effects are quite convincing (let us not forget that we are in the 1980s) and some ideas are truly brilliant, such as the professor's fingers transformed into a Cenobite, which first transform into a flower courting beautiful Chris and then each petal into a different and grotesque razor. Another point in favor is the distorted and surreal atmosphere with which hell is represented, whose parallel in the physical world transforms into the horrendous underground prison destined for the psychiatric horrors contained within it. The film also presents some weak points: in some scenes it seems roughly edited, but in reality the immense quantity of events and the frenzy with which they succeed one another should have been developed in a film of at least three hours. In that case it would have been a masterpiece. A film absolutely worth reassessing.