Director: Tony Randel
Writers: Peter Atkins, Clive Barker
Stars: Doug Bradley, Ashley Laurence, Clare Higgins
Run Time: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes
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Synopsis
We begin with a quick flashback to the end of the first film, which ends with Pinhead getting zapped back to wherever he came from before the credits roll.
The scene shifts to a man, Captain Spencer, in a bunker, working on the cube from the first film. He opens it, and all the lights go out. He peers into the cube from above, and is rewarded by fishhooks that drag him to hell and turn him into Pinhead. That’s gotta hurt!
Kirstie from the first film wakes up in the Channard Institute, a psychiatric hospital. It’s the same night, and Detective Ronson has questions for her. He has officers at the house, and they’ve found several bodies. They find a blood-soaked mattress that they take into evidence. Kirstie insists that they destroy that mattress, since Julia died on it, she may be able to come back like Frank did. Kyle, Dr. Channard’s assistant, gives her some sleeping pills.
Dr. Channard, an experimental brain surgeon, is giving a surgical demonstration with someone’s head cut open. He gets called away to check on Kirstie. That night, once everything calms down, Kirstie meets Tiffany, a girl who is really good at putting puzzles together.
Next morning, we follow Channard into the hospital’s basement, where the real crazies are kept. Kyle overheard Channard talking to Ronson; he wants that mattress delivered to his home. Kirstie tells Channard everything that happened, in excruciatingly detailed flashbacks.
Kyle sneaks into Channard’s house and sees the mattress. He finds that Channard is into the occult, and he even has pictures of the puzzle box. He has three of the puzzle boxes on his desk as well as photos of Captain Spencer. He hides as Channard comes in, leading one of the highly unstable patients onto the mattress. He gives the insane man a razor, and the lunatic kills himself in the bloodiest way possible, leaking all over the mattress.
The mattress comes alive, and Julia crawls out, skinless and bloody. He covers her with bandages, and she looks much better, but still like a bloody burn victim. He starts bringing her bodies to drain, just like she used to do for Frank. He’s a little more efficient than she was, and Julia starts looking completely human very quickly.
Kyle goes to see Kirstie because now he believes everything. They go back to Channard’s house, and Kyle meets Julia. She sucks all the life out of him. Julia knocks out Kirstie just as Channard comes in with Tiffany. He wants Tiffany to open the puzzle box. It takes her like five minutes to open the box. Channard wants to see; he wants to know what’s on the other side.
He soon finds out. The walls open up, and the Cenobites appear. They don’t want Tiffany; they want Channard, who Julia has led away through a different portal that the box opened. Julia and Channard wander around in the labyrinth. Kirstie grabs the box and goes through the portal to find her father Larry. Tiffany goes in as well, so soon everyone is on the other side, lost in the labyrinth of Hell. There’s lots of weird visuals, dreams, and visions.
Julia and Channard encounter Leviathan, the power source for Hell. It shines its dark light on him and then changes him into a Cenobite, which looks really uncomfortable.
Kirstie runs into Frank. He’s creepy, but Kirstie sets him on fire, which quickly burns off all his skin. Julia and Tiffany come in, and Julia’s not exactly happy to see the man who killed her. She pulls out his heart, and the rest of him burns.
Channard’s conversion is complete, and he goes on a rampage. He likes what he’s become. Julia gets stuck in a wind tunnel and splits open, leaving only her skin behind. Kirstie and Tiffany leave the labyrinth back to the hospital and find things are strange. All the mental patients have puzzle boxes. They’re still inside!
Kirstie meets Pinhead again, and she shows him the photo of his human self. He had forgotten that he was ever human. She explains that all of them were once human. Then Channard crawls in. Pinhead has a flash of humanity and fights with Channard. Channard kills three of the Cenobites and states that he’s taking over. Pinhead reverts back to the form of Spencer, and Channard then kills Spencer.
Tiffany finds the puzzle box and heads for Leviathan. Channard intercepts them. He’s about to kill Tiffany when Julia shows up to rescue her; it’s really Kirstie wearing Julia’s skin, but she distracts Channard long enough for Tiffany to finish the puzzle.
They run back to the hospital room just as Leviathan starts to attack. Later, we see the two of them on the hospital grounds. Back at Channard’s house, the movers are carrying out his stuff, and they find the mattress…
Commentary
There’s a lot of flashback and scenes from the first film. It’s almost like they didn’t think anyone had seen the original film. The film keeps the dirty, grainy look of the original, but this is clearly a much larger-budget movie.
In the first film, Frank would do anything to get out and escape Hell, but Julia doesn’t seem to have any hesitation about going back inside. She’s fully embraced Leviathan. One of Kevin’s favorite lines ever is when she says the rules of the fairy tale have changed – she’s no longer just the wicked stepmother, now she’s the evil queen.
There’s really not too much story here. Julia comes back just like Frank did, and Dr. Channard wants to be involved. What’s really good here are the visions of Hell and the grotesque thing that Channard becomes.