This Day in Horror History: HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH Opened in 1992
Mike Sprague
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On this day in horror history, the third entry in the Hellraiser series, Waxwork and Waxwork II director Anthony Hickox’s Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth opened in 1992.
Starring Doug Bradley, Terry Farrell, Paula Marshall, and Kevin Bernhardt, the film’s reception was better than Hellbound: Hellraiser II, snagging $12.5M in the US.
Though he was mostly uninvolved until post-production, Clive Barker served as executive producer on the film which was the first Hellraiser film shot outside the United Kingdom and the first released under Miramax’s Dimension Films banner.
According to Hickox, Miramax loved the rough cut and offered to add several gory scenes and a new ending, resulting in the first CGI in a horror film. Barker disputes this and says he was unimpressed with a cut and declined a producer credit, criticizing the ending and effects. After Miramax asked for his honest evaluation, Barker came in to fix the film, adding Farrell’s bondage scene, extended gore scenes in the nightclub massacre, and the CGI when Leigh’s character is skinned.
It begins following the events of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, in which Pinhead (Bradley) is imprisoned in a statue, he resurrects himself by absorbing the life force of unlucky humans. After converting several power-hungry youths (Marshall and Bernhardt) into new Cenobites, Pinhead goes on a rampage, opposed by a reporter (Farrell) and the spiritual manifestation of his good half (also Bradley).
Ashley Laurence, who played the female lead Kirsty Cotton in the previous two films, has a cameo appearance via videotape while heavy metal band Armored Saint also cameo, performing their song “Hanging Judge” at The Boiler Room.
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