Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

Hellbound is the second entry in the Hellraiser series and continues the story of Kirsty Cotton and her dealings with the aftermath of the cenobite attack on her home which had been provoked by her uncle Frank's insatiable need to escape hell.

Directed by Tony Randel and stars Clare Higgens, Ashley Laurence, Kenneth Cranham and Doug Bradley reprising his role as Pinhead.

After waking up in the hospital, Kirsty is quickly questions by detective about the events that had taken place in her father's home. Although the detectives have a hard time believing her, Dr. Channard decides to take the information and uses it to his advantage thus prompting a series of events leading back to the return of the cenobites.

The gore factor is once again all over this movie just like it was in the first one. The biggest difference in my opinion is the story line. I find that it was much more thought out and kept me more interested and entertained than the story it's predecessor had to offer. There was much more substance to it as they several story's happening at the same time in which they all intertwined to come to the film's conclusion.

As you already know, we here at Horror Shoot are real suckers for great practical effects and Hellbound was not lacking in that department. They were able to once again make the cenobite costumes look great, the "revival" make-up looked even more realistic than they made it seem in the first film and the C.G.I. they did use was not the greatest due to the time period they were in but were still able to make due and use it as best as they could.

The biggest downside to this movie for me is that when you're going to make the scenes brighter, the practical effects can easily be ruined and made to look completely fake. An example of this is the final scene in the film in which you can see how everything looks like pure rubber.

I did enjoy this entry more so than the original. But still found as a stand alone movie it's not overly great. But if you like a lot of gore then you can't go wrong with having a double feature night consisting of part 1 and 2. I will have to give Hellbound a 5 out of 10 and yes I know. I bitched about the first one much more than I have about this one but this is a sequel and does not have that originality to it that the first has which kills it a bit more for me.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street part 4: The Dream Master (1988)

The dream warriors have been released from Westin Heights and are living a normal teenage life.

Everything is moving up in their lives until Kristen starts feeling signs of an unsettling presence in her dreams and must take immediate action to save herself and her friends.

Directed by Renny Harlin, produced by Robert Shay and Rachel Talalay. Written by Brian Helgeland and Scott Pierce. Starring Tuesday Knight, Andras Jones, Brooke Theiss, Danny Hassell, Lisa Wilcox and Robert Englund as the sometimes not-so-lovable, Freddy Krueger.

I wasn't a huge fan of this movie, but it does displayed all the assets a Nightmare movie requires.

But it couldn't be all that bad! This was the top grossing film in the series prior to the release of Freddy Vs. Jason, which has to tell you something!

The thing that made me dislike the movie to a certain degree was having the dream warriors used like they were in a freaking Highlander film. Each different ability was transferred over to Alice every time one of her friend's died at the hands of Freddy.

And don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Highlander series just fine as it is. But I also enjoy my Freddy without a cross over style of story line.

The acting was pretty good, but nothing was able to really catch my attention like in the previous entries. It seemed almost plain to me although the film had a lot to offer visually. So with that being said I'm giving this piece of the series a 5.5 out of 10.

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