philosoraptor42

Hellraiser II: Hellbound (1988)
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One-line synopsis: Kirsty Cotton wakes in a psychiatric hospital, owned by Dr Channard. Kirsty begs the homicide detective investigating her family tragedy to burn the recovered bloody mattress, thinking her evil stepmother, Julia, might use it to return from Hell.
Genre: Horror

The intro is pretty similar to the first movie with a figure opening the Lament Configuration puzzle box. However, there's a slight twist on that which makes all the difference (and which I shall not reveal here). That is then followed by a complete recap of the events in the first movie. It would actually be possible to watch this film and completely miss out the previous film and not really miss anything at all. Still, I think the emotional connection due to familiarity with Kirsty's father, her stepmother Julia and her creepy uncle Frank will make you appreciate this movie rather more.

One thing shoehorned in is that Julia finally dies on a mattress and not on the staircase as happened in the first film. Kirsty appears to have worked out how Frank escaped from hell and is very concerned that Julia should not be able to escape from hell the same way. While all this is discussed Kirsty is sitting in bed in a dark room in a psychiatric hospital. It seems we are supposed to believe that her boyfriend was sensible enough to lie about everything so he could go home... and that no one knows how to use a light switch. I mean seriously, never mind why the boyfriend got to go home. I'm much more concerned as to why they are always sitting in the dark with only the glow of the moon and the ominous lightening flashes to illuminate them.

Meanwhile a new character has been introduced: Dr. Channard. He's played by Kenneth Cranham who many will recognise for his role as the drug kingpin in "Layer Cake", but you may also know him as the easily bought union boss in "Made In Dagenham", the farmer James Reaper in "Hot Fuzz" and Pompey Magnus in the TV series "Rome". It was great to see him in this role bringing some serious acting chops to a central character.

Dr. Channard owns the psychiatric hospital where Kirsty is undergoing treatment. He is also very keen on opening up people's heads and messing around with their brains. In the basement of his psychiatric hospital there are a whole set of rooms with patients who are tormented by hell-like delusions. It's like hell on earth is found in the basement of his hospital. Dr. Channard, we discover, has long taken interest in the occult, possesses a number of familiar puzzle boxes and I wonder whether he hasn't had some success with the occult in the past since one patient says "105 years and he still doesn't know my name".

There's some interesting references to the idea that Hellraiser is a kind of twisted fairytale. Naturally Julia is coming back, otherwise we wouldn't have been shown the mattress and her relationship with Kirsty as a wicked stepmother is used to far better effect than before. There just seems to be a far better focus on characters in this film than there was in the original Hellraiser. Fuelling Kirsty's hatred for he stepmother is her fear that her father has become trapped in hell. This fear is brought to its apex when she sees a vision of him begging for her help in the corner of her room at the psychiatric hospital.

Eventually, of course, we are going to meet up with the cenobites again. So expect visions of the inside of hell and perhaps it shouldn't surprise us that this hell is less of a fiery vortex and more a creepy maze. What's more, it seems that there is a higher authority than the cenobites in this hell realm, so this film adds a whole new level to the Hellraiser mythology.

I will admit that overall the plot is pretty simplistic, that the film overall is silly and that the final act is resolved rather too easily. Still, I have to insist that this is a far better movie than the original. I have since looked back at the original film and, while I guess I panned it when I last reviewed it, giving it the equivalent of a D+ score, I later found myself keen to rewatch it. I now recognise that it is a silly film but with a great deal of missed potential and a strange sort of twisted charm to it. (I'd now give it a C+ as a fairly average film, but with clear potential.) It was that same twisted charm that made me extract Hellraiser 2: Hellbound from the bargain bin and casually place it in the DVD player.

Hellraiser 2 is a strong contender because the horror is palpable and the, now more fleshed-out (so to speak), characters further that feeling. While in the first film the horror was hard to connect with, in this new film the characters have a very strong presence. This means that we in the audience become concerned, not just with what is happening, but also who it is happening to. I was genuinely gripped from beginning to end and felt that this was much more successful than its predecessor in making me care. Where the first movie made me laugh, the second movie often had me seriously concerned. I cared about the safety of the characters rather than mocking them as movie cliches. I fully recognise that part of my enjoyment of this movie was linked to lowered expectations and I will admit that there is a lot of daftness and not a particularly clear narrative structure. Still there's no doubting that I really enjoyed this film and would highly recommend it.

B+ (Very good)

Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (2010)
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One-line synopsis: Tucker & Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are attacked by a group of preppy college kids.
Genre: Horror-comedy

Enough reviews have been released for this already that I'm sure it'll come as no surprise to anyone that this is good. What's more confusing is why a film of such quality was a straight-to-DVD release here in the UK. I'd compare this to Shaun Of The Dead in the sense that it's a horror comedy where the horror is in the subject of the film rather than in the content. Nevertheless, I think I laughed at this a lot more than I did at Shaun of the Dead.

While "horror" might be the wrong term for this film, there's no lack of gore. The premise of "scary hillbillies" inevitably involves one of the "college kids" telling a scary story in the woods with accompanying flashback images. Also, the deaths of various college kids are often quite bloody.

What is most interesting about the premise of turning around the good guys and the bad guys is that in this sort of film there is always someone who becomes the leader. A determined take-charge figure who recognises the threat and has the willpower and common sense under pressure to tackle it properly. In Tucker and Dale, this figure isn't really so different from what you'd normally expect, except he comes off like some kind of psychopath.

Naturally the main parts are played brilliantly by Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Dollhouse) and Tyler Labine (Reaper). Also the "leader" college kid is played really well by Jesse Moss who many will recognise from the horror-comedy werewolf movie "Ginger Snaps". The whole film is really well put together, brilliantly entertaining and just generally had me in stitches.

A+

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