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Hellbound: Hellraiser II 4K UHD Review

Updated: Oct 25, 2024


Arrow Video

4K UHD Release: October 22, 2024

Video: 1.85:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH

Run Time: 99:02

Director: Tony Randel


Note: This disc is currently only available as part of Arrow’s 4K UHD Quartet Of Torment collection, which also includes Hellraiser (1987), Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), and Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996).


Following her traumatizing experience with the Cenobites and father’s death, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) is admitted to a psychiatric hospital under the supervision of Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham), a man of sinister tastes intent on resurrecting Kirsty’s wicked step-mother, Julia (Clare Higgins).


Pinhead and the other Cenobites get the spotlight, but Julia is the real breakout villain of the Hellraiser franchise, highlighted here by the fact that the sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, suffers a dip in quality whenever focus is drawn to other villains, like Dr. Channard and a returning Uncle Frank. The first half of Hellbound, in which Julia’s experience mirrors Frank’s and Kirsty is confined to a sinister insane asylum, might actually rival the original film in terms of imagery and scares (minus two awkward, time-wasting recaps). To their credit, Barker and the filmmakers originally intended to build future sequels around Julia and only changed course after Pinhead was a hit with American audiences and actress Clare Higgins decided she didn’t want to do a third one.



Unfortunately, as the sequel broadens its scope, leaves the asylum, and enters literal Hell, it loses momentum and stumbles through interesting concepts and imaginative visuals that it can’t quite pull off. Project steward Barker, screenwriter Peter Atkins, and new director Tony Randel, deserve credit for trying new things, but they might have served the film better by trying fewer new things. Even at its messiest, it’s hard to fault Hellbound’s ambition and the world would certainly be a better place if more movies tried as hard with as little as this one did. Ultimately, the first two movies are borderline inseparable and watching one without the other can leave even a casual fan feeling incomplete. The same can’t be said for the next nine films in the franchise.


Randel (not to be confused with actor Tony Randall) was an uncredited co-director of Paul Donovan’s Def-Con 4 (1985) and an uncredited writer on New World Pictures’ Godzilla 1985 (1985) – a re-edited version of Koji Hashimoto’s Return of Godzilla (1984). He has a writing credit on Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (see below), and directed the sixth Amityville Horror film, Amityville: It’s About Time (1992), and the early American manga adaptation Fist of the North Star (1995, based on the comic by Buronson & Tetsuo Hara). More recently, he produced a collection of telepathic dog movies known as the Doggone series, directed by Chopping Mall’s (1986) Jim Wynorski.



Video

Hellbound: Hellraiser II was one of the earliest examples of a film being made available on R-rated and unrated VHS tape, along with the likes of Re-Animator (1985), Angel Heart (1987), Scarecrows (1988), and Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989). The unrated version has since been the only version anyone cares about (see a comparison between the cuts here), despite the R-rated cut ending up on streaming services over the years. It has been re-released on home video nearly as many times as Hellraiser and on nearly as many formats, including a lot of double and triple-feature collections (no Betamax, though). Arrow’s new 4K remaster is another sizable upgrade over their previous 2K Blu-ray master. Note, however, that the screencaps on this page are taken from that older disc.


Returning cinematographer Robin Vidgeon gives us more of the same, but on a bigger budget, leading to a more opulent and visually dynamic experience (so many split diopter shots). That said, it’s also a smokier film than Hellraiser and has a lot more composite effects shots, which leads to more grit and a murkier overall appearance. I could understand some viewers mistaking the occasional uptick in film grain and loss of definition a fault, but I believe this is how the filmmakers intended it to look. The HDR upgrade helps mitigate the issue during particularly dark sequences by boosting highlights and primary colors.



Audio

Hellbound: Hellraiser II is presented with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and 5.1 options and, again,

I’d opt for the original 2.0 stereo track over the 5.1 remix, though I don’t have any specific complaints about the remix itself. Both tracks are crisp with only minor vocal muffling and almost zero distortion. Christopher Young’s stellar score – an arguable improvement on the already outstanding original – is the most aurally stunning element.



Extras

  • Commentary with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman – The second of the Quartet of Torment collection’s fact-filled, newly-recorded tracks, featuring Jones, the editor of Shadows Over Innsmouth (Del Rey, 2001), and general horror expert and author of Nightmare Movies: Horror on the Screen Since the 1960s (Bloomsbury, 2011) Kim Newman. This debuted with the 2023 UK version of this collection and is new to North American viewers. Once again, Jones has the insider knowledge, having worked as a unit publicist on this and other Barker films, while Newman acts as a sort of moderator and supplies all the wider critical context. The commentators explore the differences between Hellraiser and Hellbound, the developing franchise, Barker’s inspirations, and the many, many changes the sequel went through from conception to final release, as ideas revolved and the budget shrunk.

  • Commentary with director Tony Randel and writer Peter Atkins – This track is recycled from the original 1996 Laserdisc track.

  • Commentary with Tony Randel, Peter Atkins, and actress Ashley Laurence – Another archival track taken from the 2000 DVD.

  • He Was What They Wanted! (85:17, HD) – In a companion piece to the two author roundtables on the Quartet of Torment’s first disc, GodBomb! (Sinister Horror Company, 2015) author Kit Power and Unburied: A Collection of Queer Dark Fiction (Dark Ink, 2021) contributor George Daniel Lea discuss Hellraiser and Barker’s other work with special focus on Hellbound.

  • That Rat Slice Sound: Christopher Young and the Music of Hellraiser (11:54, HD) – Novelist, producer, and actor Guy Adams praises Young’s work and breaks down the composer’s career, his inspirations, and, briefly, the abandoned experimental avant-pop music Coil wrote for the original film.



  • 1988 EPK footage:

    • Clive Barker interview (3:18, SD)

    • Cast & crew interview (4:45, SD)

    • Behind-the-scenes footage (1:51, SD)

  • Archival etras:

    • Being Frank: Sean Chapman on Hellbound (11:35, HD) – An interview with the actor (and companion piece to his Hellraiser interview) ported from Arrow’s previous Blu-ray.

    • Under the Skin: Doug Bradley on Hellbound: Hellraiser II (10:52, SD) – A continuation of the Hellraiser disc’s featurette of the same name, this interview with Pinhead himself is a holdover from Anchor Bay’s 2004 UK DVD.

    • Lost in the Labyrinth (17:03, SD) – A general retrospective featurette taken from the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD.

    • Deleted surgeon scene (4:51, raw video footage, SD)

  • Three theatrical trailers and Red Band trailer

  • Three TV spots

  • Storyboard gallery

  • Alternate ending storyboards

  • Stills and promo material gallery

  • Draft screenplay


The images on this page are taken from the 2K mastered BD – not the 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.

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