Greetings Fiends! It's your partner in deviant behavior: Herr Doktor! And I am here to discuss a bad ass piece of film called Hell Raiser 2: Hellbound.
This film has it all folks, Gore, tormented souls, Cenobites, crazy people cutting themselves, and so much more! How much would you pay for this? Well put that Visa card away, because I'm bringing it to you free! (sort of)
The story takes place after poor Frank meets his demise at the end of Hellraiser, and the introduction of Dr. Channard who is handy in reviving Julia, and helping her escape the Cenobites like her lover Frank.
It also introduces Kristy to a young girl who has an affinity to solving puzzles much to the interest of Dr. Channard. Channard is so well read and steeped in knowledge of the arcane, he is able to acquire the mattress of Julia, and let a nutjob patient of his carve away imaginary bugs off his dumb ass with a straight razor giving Julia the blood she needs and all Hell breaks loose pardon the pun.
The rest involves hell itself, the introduction of the god of geometrical order itself: Leviathan, Kristy's reunion with Uncle Frank in hell's labyrinth, oh and Pinhead and the Cenobites! This movie is Huuuuge. By the way Pinhead briefly sees his past life, before the battle begins with Pinhead and gang fighting Dr. Channard turned Uber Cenobite. Holy Smokes! Whew I'm out of breath! I love this film, but The blu-ray treatment...
Video:
2 out of 5
Soft, soft, soft! What the hell happened? Anchor bay treated the first Hellraiser like a work of art. Image presents the second one with a weak showing indeed. The 20th anniversary DVD has a sharper image in my opinion, while this one seems to be trying to make a cheap buck off of Blu-Ray fans. If Image is going to fuck around with Horror classics, they need to do their due diligence and find out what the hell a Blu-Ray is! This does not look like 1080p clarity at all. Piss off Image, you disgust me.
Audio:
3 out of 5
Not bad audio, but is it a 5.1 dts lossless soundtrack as it advertises? I wonder about that. No REAL improvement from the DVD. The sounds are jolting, and clean but not spectacular.
Bottom Line:
If you don't own this already, buy the Blu-Ray if only to keep the industry strong, but if you own the DVD already don't bother. This movie deserved an HD transfer, and if Anchor Bay had done this it would have been so. Unfortunately Image put out a crappy product with no extras. Period.