A
year on from the first film and Kirsty remains in the psychiatric hospital
after her torturous encounter in
Hellraiser,
still plagued by devilish nightmares. In Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, she
is presided over in hospital by Dr. Channard - a well-respected brain surgeon -
and his assistant Kyle. Unable to leave the hospital herself, Kyle pays a visit
to the house to see what's on view. The unpleasantness remains and he finds that
the new man in Julia's life is... Dr. Channard.
But how can she be dead if she's courting again? Well, you'll soon work it out
when you see one of the sub-plot titles is called "Skinless Julia" - she's just
not the woman she used to be! However, if there's one thing that might make her
feel better it'll be the supply of fresh bodies brought home by her new
boyfriend and if she doesn't feed she may die...again. I don't know what she's
complaining about. After all, no skin, no cellulite!
What follows is that the new couple in town unlock the secret of the Lament
Configuration puzzle box to release the unlimited horrors and the ultimate
pleasures of Hell. So Kirsty has to make a return trip to Hell to put paid to
the Cenobites activities once and for all, close the doors to the Outer
Darkness and free her father's soul. All in a day's work of course, but she
can't do it by herself - she'll need the help of a mysterious beautiful, young
girl called Tiffany who is another resident at the hospital.
I'm pleased to report that the picture quality of this disc is a marked
improvement over that from the first film which was full of artifacts and looked
terrible. With Part 2, although it's not perfect, since light-coloured
backgrounds look a little grainy - something that's happening right across the
board for current VCI releases, you can still see clearly the scenes of full
gore and amaze in wonder how the glistening, blood-soaked "Skinless Julia"
doesn't get a spot of the red stuff on her pearl-white teeth. What's her
secret?!
The film is presented in a widescreen 16:9 transfer and is anamorphic, thus
providing better resolution for widescreen televisions. The bitrate is an
above average 5.43Mb/s, peaking at close to 10Mb/s. The box is confusing though
as it says "Extra features - 4:3", but no fullscreen version is available.
As in the first film, the Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround) soundtrack is
well used here too to set the ambience, such as eerie music just before
something nasty happens, plus many far more gruesome sounds.
Extras :
Chapters & Trailers :
There are 20 chapters spread throughout the 90-minute film and it could have
used more. Unlike other recent VCI releases, the scene index lists all the
chapters accessible, since some missed off the first track and the first
Hellraiser film missed off the last two altogether.
The disc contains three theatrical trailers, but for some bizarre reason, while
background sound is fine, the dialogue only comes from the rear and front-right
speakers!
Other extras :
There are a number of further extras to this disc :
a 2-minute behind-the-scenes featurette
a 5-minute piece featuring interviews with Clive Barker, Tony Randel
(Director), Clare Higgins (Julia), Ashley Laurence (Kirsty), Imogen Boorman
(Tiffany) and Kenneth Cranham (Chanard).
a DVD-ROM printable photo library containing stacks of gory pictures.
The box makes it seem that these can be viewed on your TV too, but they weren't
accessible on my copy.
Languages/Subtitles :
There's just the one language on this disc - English - and again we find no
subtitles, nor a commentary track which is a great shame as one was used for
the Special Edition NTSC Laserdisc and would have added the finishing touch
to this great package.
Sub-Plots :
Also, there's another intriguing extra to this disc called "Sub-Plots".
Click on this brings up a menu with five headings :
1. Skinless Julia
2. Channard Cenobite
3. Tiffany
4. Frank In Hell
5. The Cenobites
To those who know the film, you'll have an idea of what to expect, but to those
who don't I won't spoil what's in store. However, to summarise, each heading
contains three or four small clips strung together which show how that aspect
of the film develops. It's worth noting that you should only view these after
seeing the whole film so as not to spoil any surprises.
Menu :
Fantastic! That's the word used to describe the animated menu. Upon loading
the DVD and getting past the grey and lifeless VCI logo, the "box" appears in
its resplendent vibrant colours, spinning like fury and opening up to reveal a
beating heart, upon which the main menu contents are displayed. Each sub-menu
brings other ambient delights, my favourite being the clattering chains on the
Sub-Plots menu.
Like all other VCI discs you cannot skip past their logos and copyright fluff.
This release almost reaches perfection. The film is better than the first, with
all the principal actors turning in a good performance and the trip into the
Hell coupled with the labyrinth model looks splendorous on a big widescreen TV.
It's a shame, not only that the director did little else other than straight-to-video
fare, but also that this disc suffers brief cuts by the BBFC. Overall the film
has lost 67 seconds according to their Website.
There are a number of extras on this disc, but the lack of a commentary track
and lengthy featurettes is a bit disappointing. Overall though, this disc
certainly has more hits than misses so a purchase is most definitely in order.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
